Founding Martyr Read online

  Copyright 2018 by Christian Di Spigna

  All rights reserved.

  Published in the United States by Crown, an imprint of the Crown Publishing Group, a division of Penguin Random House LLC, New York.

  crownpublishing.com

  CROWN and the Crown colophon are registered trademarks of Penguin Random House LLC.

  Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data

  Names: Di Spigna, Christian, author.

  Title: Founding martyr : the life and death of Dr. Joseph Warren, the American Revolutions lost hero / Christian Di Spigna.

  Description: First edition. | New York : Crown Publishers, 2018.

  Identifiers: LCCN 2017057934 (print) | LCCN 2017058311 (ebook) | ISBN 9780553419337 (ebook) | ISBN 9780553419320 (hardcover) | ISBN 9780553419344 (trade pbk.)

  Subjects: LCSH: Warren, Joseph, 1741–1775. | Massachusetts—History—Revolution, 1775–1783—Biography. | United States—History—Revolution, 1775–1783—Biography. | Boston (Mass.)—History—Revolution, 1775–1783. | Soldiers—Massachusetts—Biography. | Physicians—Massachusetts—Boston—Biography.

  Classification: LCC E263.M4 (ebook) | LCC E263.M4 W235 2018 (print) | DDC 973.3092 [B]—dc23

  LC record available at https://lccn.loc.gov/2017057934

  ISBN 9780553419320

  Ebook ISBN 9780553419337

  Title page painting by John Trumbull

  Maps by Jeffrey L. Ward

  Cover design by Elena Giavaldi

  Cover art: Joseph Warren by John Singleton Copley, 1765, oil on canvas 2018 Museum of Fine Arts, Boston

  v5.3.1

  ep

  For my moon and my stars, Ava Elizabeth and Jen

  Contents

  Cover

  Title Page

  Copyright

  Dedication

  Maps

  Epigraph

  Introduction

  1: No Turning Back

  2: Childhood Hamlet

  3: The Harvard Years

  4: Speckled Monster

  5: New Beginnings

  6: Acts of Violence

  7: Unsheath Thy Quill

  8: From Red Fields to Crimson Cobblestones

  9: A Time to Mourn

  10: A Bitter Crew

  11: Resolved

  12: Joseph Warren’s Ride

  13: Hill of Lamentations

  14: Founding Mourners

  Photo Insert

  Epilogue

  Warren’s Legacy

  Notes

  Acknowledgments

  Bibliography

  “The dead, the dead, the dead—our dead…we see, and ages yet may see, on monuments and gravestones, singly or in masses, to thousands or tens of thousands, the significant word Unknown.”

  —WALT WHITMAN

  INTRODUCTION

  For many Americans, 1776 was the seminal year in the nation’s history—the year the founding fathers signed the Declaration of Independence, initiating one of the greatest revolutions in the modern world. The Boston Massacre, the Boston Tea Party, Paul Revere’s epic midnight ride, and the Battle of Bunker Hill loom large as monumental incidents that launched the country’s birth, discussed in countless history books. But most of those books fail to mention the role of Dr. Joseph Warren, the revolutionary pillar of that watershed epoch. The complexities behind the resistance movement that led to the American Revolution run deeper than previously realized given that Warren has been largely forgotten. He was killed fighting in the Battle of Bunker Hill in 1775, his body mutilated by British troops. His martyrdom and multiple reburials in the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries have helped obscure his legacy and his many contributions to the cause of American independence.

  By the second half of the eighteenth century, imperial strife had been brewing in the colonies for decades. Between 1760 and 1775, Massachusetts was a hotbed of political agitation, social unrest, and economic turmoil. Boston and its surrounding areas were a hub of revolutionary activity. There a small cabal of British subjects—deemed traitors to the Crown—with no organized military or popular support, scant finances, and little hope of success, began an insurrection against the mother country—the greatest military power in the world. Samuel Adams, the most recognizable of these original patriots, is often called “The Father of the American Revolution,” but Adams did not foment Boston’s revolutionary storm single-handedly. The initial group of radical insurgents was also spearheaded by Dr. Warren, who helped to shape the ideas, policies, and events that catapulted thirteen colonies toward independence. These patriots were, one might say, the “founding grandfathers,” as their actions preceded those of Washington, Franklin, Jefferson, and others who rallied to the cause later. In this sense, many of the men we now credit with forming the United States were actually latecomers to the independence movement.

  Dr. Joseph Warren entered the political scene at the outset of resistance to British imperial policies in the mid-1760s. He came to form and lead numerous clubs, societies, and organizations that made him a ubiquitous and valuable leader. He was a propagandist, polemicist, author, orator, professor, and ultimately a major general, as well as a doctor, a mentor, and a spymaster. He served as president of the Massachusetts Provincial Congress, chairman of the Massachusetts Committee of Safety, leader of the Boston Committee of Correspondence and the North End Caucus, and grand master of Ancient Scottish Rite Masons in North America. Although younger than most of Boston’s radical leaders, he was a shrewd organizer whose vigor and diverse abilities helped propel the Whig faction in Massachusetts.

  Of late, historians have resurrected the lives of several New England patriots, all close friends and comrades of Warren. Paul Revere’s most recent ride to historical stardom has been, in part, due to David Hackett Fischer’s groundbreaking biography. John Adams has emerged as one of the preeminent iconic founders, as a result of the seminal works by David McCullough and John Ferling. Adams, the sole participant in tumultuous pre-1776 Boston to live fifty years beyond the signing of the Declaration, later commented in hindsight, “But what do we mean by the American Revolution? Do we mean the American war? The Revolution was effected before the war commenced.” The “Revolution” prior to 1776 was one of the most important but overlooked periods in American history, and occurred in the press, the pulpits, the streets, and the port towns and cities throughout the eastern seaboard. Particularly in Boston, the clashing traditions of strict religious doctrine and rule of law collided with collective crowd action and notions of the right to self-government that helped to spark the radical Whig movement.

  In Massachusetts before 1776, Joseph Warren was considered one of the most serious threats to British rule not only by Loyalists and Crown officials but also by the soldiers of the king’s army. With his radical actions and ideology, he commanded a greater respect and instilled more fear than most of his other patriot colleagues. He was the only Bay Colony Whig statesman in charge of the major political, social, and military organizations who also fought on the battlefield. Unlike other radical leaders in Boston, he never sought safety; nor did he abandon the cause when tensions with the British erupted into violence. On the contrary, he thrust himself to the forefront of the action while some of his Whig associates remained behind the scenes until the danger subsided.

  His fellow revolutionaries John Adams, Samuel Adams, Paul Revere, and John Hancock longed to mirror Warren as a patriot statesman. But he was more than just a politician—he was also an ic
on of military heroism. The newly appointed general George Washington admired and longed to emulate his battlefield heroics, and subsequent generations of American military leaders would feel his influence. Initially his military exploits turned into the stuff of folklore, and many legends were spun about his actions both on and off the battlefields. Eventually his contributions faded from American memory, obscured by the historical inaccuracies surrounding him: the record favored the living, clouding the early unfolding of the revolution.

  Although Warren was not without shortcomings, his numerous talents and connections qualified him for many leadership posts. Of all the revolutionaries in Massachusetts, he was the most ubiquitous, and the steadfastness of his commitment to radical ideology was equaled only by that of the political machinist Samuel Adams. Often, and without much supporting evidence, historical accounts describe Warren as a recruit and protégé of Adams, a cog in the vast Whig party machine, just one of several patriot doctors. But Warren was a staunch revolutionary in his own right even before he formed his close relationship with Adams. Both men were Harvard graduates, but Warren was a respected physician, and extremists at both ends of the political spectrum also considered him a gentleman, which helped to further legitimize the Whig movement in Boston.

  For centuries, revolutionary history has relegated Warren to a supporting role, secondary to Samuel Adams, when in fact, both men worked together and often complemented each other’s strengths. For a time, the doctor was more publicly visible than Adams: he delivered two popular Boston Massacre Orations, and he exerted much influence in the highest and lowest social circles; but he also operated an intricate spy ring that helped launch the Revolution. His clandestine maneuverings worked to counter the complex intelligence system the British had implemented in and around Boston that successfully infiltrated the highest patriot ranks. Warren mastered this dangerous chess game of intrigue and deceit before General Washington’s famous spy network, which lost legendary patriot Nathan Hale to the British.

  On the night of April 18, 1775, Warren’s espionage system induced him to send several riders into the countryside to alert Adams, Hancock, and others about the pending British operation—a bold act popularly mislabeled “Paul Revere’s midnight ride.” Warren’s decisive action set off the “shot heard around the world,” resulting in the Battles of Lexington and Concord, where a musket ball grazed his head. One month before Bunker Hill, he warned Samuel Adams, “We must now prepare for every thing as we are certain that nothing but success in our warlike enterprises can possibly save us from destruction.” Warren had become the point man, leading those monumental events in Boston and helping guide the actions of the founding fathers at the First Continental Congress.

  Dr. Joseph Warren died as a perceived traitor to King George III in 1775. By contrast, many patriot leaders went on to achieve illustrious careers in the new government of the United States as “Americans.” Following Warren’s premature death, John and Samuel Adams and John Hancock continued their rise to fame as the Whig leaders of the fledgling nation, while George Washington achieved immortality as the father of his country. Most of these rebel insurgents would die in their beds as old men. Warren was not part of this later triumphalist phase of American history. My purpose in this book is not to undermine the lasting contributions of other leading Whigs but to uncover and underscore Warren’s. It is unlikely that any of the men we now esteem as “founders” could have achieved that hallowed appellation had they, like Warren, died a year before the signing of the Declaration.

  Warren’s accomplishments during his brief life, in the pre-Declaration microcosm of Boston, were nothing short of incredible. His patriot colleagues attended both Continental Congresses, where they gained enduring praise and fame. Dying a young and unlucky martyr before the colonies united, Warren lost his place in the pantheon of founding fathers, even though his actions were instrumental in achieving independence. Just two weeks after his death, George Washington took military command in Boston, demarcating the Warren and Washington epochs.

  Although he possessed an esteemed military reputation in 1775, Washington had never commanded an army. His martial exploits to that point had been questionable at best and were fought under the aegis of His Royal Majesty. By contrast, Warren had fought in several battles against Britain as an unpaid volunteer, helping to disprove the colonists’ belief that the king’s troops were an invincible juggernaut. Warren, a patriot well known throughout the colonies, reached his apotheosis in the spring of 1775, and his martyrdom deepened the fissure between the colonies and Great Britain. The New England towns were strongholds of revolutionary activity until British forces evacuated Boston in the spring of 1776, which marked the end of an era for both Warren and his native town. Washington went on to lead the Continental Army to achieve a miraculous victory culminating at Yorktown.

  Following the Stamp Act crisis in 1765 and up to the Battle of Bunker Hill in 1775, Warren was at the center of almost every major conflict that transpired in the environs of Boston, both prominently and behind the scenes. During those years many of the nation’s future founders, other than Samuel Adams, were relatively inactive within the radical movement and largely unknown throughout the colonies. This book reanalyzes the history of that momentous time span to reveal the influence Warren exerted.

  Warren’s public record is particularly rich in terms of his writings: the seminal Suffolk Resolves (a precursor to the Declaration of Independence), his two important Boston Massacre Orations, and his stream of propaganda that appeared in various newspapers, broadsides, and pamphlets. Many private letters written between Warren and his political comrades, associates, and friends are preserved in public collections. Until now, a good number of them have never made their way into any of the works published on Warren.

  A cache of letters, journals, diaries, and various memoirs from generations of Joseph Warren’s family also exists, as a valuable resource with a host of personal information. And since Warren was a doctor, his surviving ledgers are important primary historical evidence that fills in gaps within the Warren literature. The numerous ledgers of Boston merchant John Greenleaf document the various supplies Warren purchased over a decade. In researching for this book, deconstructing these ledgers was critical to understanding the doctor’s complex practice. Incredibly, within the course of my archival spadework, I was fortunate to locate a small portion of one of Warren’s lost medical daybooks and two letters from the 1850s regarding Warren and the missing books, previously concealed in a private collection. Dr. Warren’s meticulous patient lists, dates, notes, prescriptions, remedies, fees, and even samples of his handwriting help to underscore the life of a career physician whose public and private lives steadily shifted toward rebellion.

  The historiography of the American Revolution has shifted in the previous half century. From the neoprogressives’ study of the ideas and radicalism behind the movement for liberty to bottom-up “social history,” to the “new cultural history,” scholars continue to explore the many spheres surrounding the imperial crisis. The causes of the Revolution cannot be explained by any one particular interpretation—whether it be an intellectual deconstruction of imperial oppression, domestic strife within the colonies, or economic backlash. Rather, the causes span various schools of thought. These evolving trends and debates have helped illuminate the roles of lesser-known individuals and groups including women and slaves—all of whom contributed to our collective past. However, a figure as important as Warren has largely escaped attention.

  While the majority of books on Warren focus on his death and martyrdom, this is the first one to fill in the more obscure parts of Warren’s personal life—from his family and childhood to his years at Harvard and apprenticing with Dr. James Lloyd—a key period in the formation of his character, his social networks, and ultimately his medical and political career. This book also provides information on Warren’s adult years and explores his much-neglecte
d but leading role as a combatant at Bunker Hill, using information drawn from previously unknown or unavailable sources.

  Moreover, the period following Bunker Hill is a vital part of the Warren story that until now has remained largely untold: his gruesome death and certain letters written by his fiancée, Mercy Scollay, and by Warren’s peers in the Continental Congress before they received word of his demise. This book traces Warren’s death, its aftermath, and his remains’ eight-decade postmortem journey, which finally ended when they were reburied for the last time in 1856, after images of his skull were taken. It explores the vicissitudes of his multifaceted legacy and outlines his bloodline to his present descendants, which boasts an impressive military succession.

  I researched and examined a vast array of primary sources, including medical ledgers, private and public letters, newspapers, broadsides, journals, diaries, probate records, Harvard archives, Freemasonry documents, inventory lists, cemetery accounts, church files, photographs, maps, prints, and other materials that long slumbered in the archives of historical societies and libraries. While tunneling into such documentation and searching for new evidence, I branched out to investigate Warren’s political comrades, schoolmates, patients, family, friends, and others. Learning eighteenth-century history, vocabulary, traditions, medicine, culture, and the topography—especially in New England—was a necessary and vital component of doing the research. I used not only documents but also relics, as resources, and slowly Warren’s nebulous world came into focus. These materials from the colonial, antebellum, and postbellum periods helped me uncover the story of his life and death while highlighting his role in the rebellion and his influence on American independence.