Remembering Founding Father Dr. Joseph Warren

'The mistress we court is LIBERTY; and it is better to die than not to obtain her.' ~Joseph Warren to Samuel Adams, June 15, 1775

I recently read Dr. Joseph Warren's biography Founding Martyr: The Life and Death of Dr. Joseph Warren, the American Revolution's Lost Hero written by Christian Di Spigna and was impressed with the facts presented in his book. I learned a great deal and recommend others read it as well. It's balanced and presents a thoroughly researched account of one of our leading founders few have heard about.

I also viewed the Youtube video featured below and the speaker, Vern Frykholm, does an excellent presentation of summing up the character and life of Dr. Warren, who has become one of my favorite heroes living during the events leading up to our separation from Great Britain.

However,  there is more to the story as Dr. Warren's body was mutilated by the British because they hated and feared him due to the influence he had over the colonists. But Satan always overplays his hand and the result was it raised up John and Samuel Adams to take more of a prominent leadership role. Plus, it inspired the colonists to fight even harder against the British. I recommend both the book and this video as it's a wonderful story of a unique, courageous man who was martyred at the battle on Bunker Hill with his Bible in his coat pocket.

Joseph Warren - Lexington Concord Character Study

(youtube.com)

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Dear Father in Heaven,

Thank You for Dr. Joseph Warren's brief, but wonderful life. He truly was a man who displayed great courage and love for others. As a nation, we are blessed to have heroes like him who stood for freedom and had the courage to act on their convictions.

Dear Lord, I know our Founding Fathers had feet of clay and while they were great men, they also weren't perfect. I apologize for the Freemasonry some of them were involved with, and sadly, Dr. Warren was heavily involved in it. However, in Your grace You used him to accomplish Your purposes and I praise You for it. 

Thank You for this man and for preserving his memory.

In Lord Jesus Name, I pray. Amen

Your servant,

Mercy Adams

Joseph Warren (1741-1775)

(Wikipedia)

The death of General Warren at the Battle of Bunker Hill on June 17, 1775 

by John Trumbull

(New World Encyclopedia)

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The Journal of the American Revolution has an article today (April 18, 2024) written by J.L. Bell which gives an interesting account of who Dr. Warren's secret informant might have been. 

Here is an excerpt:

Warren’s crucial informant was first described by the Rev. Jeremy Belknap (1744–1798), minister of Dover, New Hampshire. Already collecting information for his History of New-Hampshire (published 1784–1792), Belknap kept notes on the events unfolding around him. In the fall of 1775 he visited the Continental Army camps surrounding Boston to check on the New Hampshire troops and observe the siege. He wrote a diary during that trip, published in 1860 by the Massachusetts Historical Society.[2]

A few days after returning to Dover, on October 25, Belknap added an entry to his travel diary:

Mr. Waters informed me, that the design of the regular troops, when they marched out of Boston the night of April 18, was discovered to Dr. Warren by a person kept in pay for that purpose. . . .
These circumstances [a long list of clues that the British army was about to march] being communicated to Dr. Warren, he applied to the person who had been retained, and got intelligence of their whole design; which was to seize [Samuel] Adams and [John] Hancock, who were at Lexington, and burn the stores at Concord. Two expresses were immediately despatched thither, who passed by the guards on the Neck just before a sergeant arrived with orders to stop passengers. Another messenger went over Charlestown Ferry; so that the alarm was given several hours before the troops arrived at Lexington.[3]

The express rider who left Boston by the Neck was William Dawes, Jr. The rider who crossed the Charles River to Charlestown was Paul Revere.[4] Gen. Thomas Gage had indeed ordered his troops to destroy “the stores at Concord.” (Those orders said nothing about Adams and Hancock in Lexington, though.)[5]

~Mercy Adams