1776 - Surgeon General’s Report Regarding Dr. Joseph Warren Unforgivable Death

With the passing of a year since 17 June 1775 Battle of Breeds Hill, I recall to your memory that untimely and unforgivable manor of death befalling our physician colleague Dr. Warren.  Fighting as a private despite his appointment as a Major General three days prior, he fell mortally wounded along side many fellow Patriots in the Breeds Hill redoubt. Our parties in the redoubt were awakened by British cannons and soon realized their vulnerability if an attack would be squarely directed at them.  The prevalent fear was that they would be sacrificed and consumed in the jaws of the British lion.  When Warren bounded into the redoubt their fears were dispelled, believing that they were safer because he, the president of the Provincial Congress and the Committee of Safety, had arrived to stand among them.  Wm. Prescott, the officer in charge of the redoubt, ordered “Don’t fire until you see the whites of their eyes.”

After three assaults on Breeds Hill and the Patriots’ ammunition exhausted, the redoubt was over-run.  Retreat was blocked so as to be impossible for our beloved Warren.  An anonymous British soldier with a gun snatched from his commanding officer fired point blank into Dr. Warren’s face, killing him instantly.  After he was killed, Warren’s body was mutilated by the severance of his head and he was thrown into a mass grave with the other freedom fighters.

In March of 1776, Joseph’s brothers Ebenezer and John managed to find the grave on Breeds Hill which contained Warren’s body.  Paul Revere accompanied Dr. Warren’s brothers in a search for his body.  Revere has become with this act our first forensic scientist after identifying Warren’s body from recognizing a dental prosthesis of two artificial walrus teeth in the left upper jaw that he had made for Warren.  The facial bone and skull were pierced by the lead passing through.

My friend, Dr. Joseph Warren, was a surgeon, scholar, gentleman, writer, politician, Patriot, freedom fighter, army general and Founding Father of our nation.  I have no doubt that had he lived, he would have equalled or eclipsed the leadership of our newborn country.

Your Obedient Servant, Dr. Charles Driscoll  

Surgeon General for the Armies of the Commonwealth of Virginia

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Forman, S.A.,  Dr. Joseph Warren - The Boston Tea Party, Bunker Hill, and the Birth of

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