Page:Appletons' Cyclopædia of American Biography (1889, volume 6).djvu/395

Rh once ; they directed the collectors of taxes to refuse to pay over money to Gen. Gage's treasurer ; they advised the towns to choose their own militia offi- cers; and they threatened Gage that, should he venture to arrest anybody for political reasons, they would retaliate by seizing upon the crown officers as hostages. A copy of these resolutions, which virtually placed Massachusetts in an attitude of re- bellion, "was forwarded to the Continental congress, which forthwith approved them and pledged the faith of all the other colonies that they would aid Massachusetts in case armed resistance should be- come inevitable. After the meeting of the Pro- vincial congress at Concord in October, Dr. War- ren acted as chairman of the committee of safety, charged with the duty of organizing the militia and collecting military stores. As the 5th of March, 1775, drew near, several British officers were heard to declare that any one who should dare to address the people in the Old South church on this occasion would surely lose his life. As soon as he heard of these threats, Dr. Warren solicited for himself the dangerous honor, and at the usual hour delivered a stirring oration upon " the baleful in- fluence of standing armies in time of peace." The concourse in the church was so great I that, when "the orator ar- rived, every approach to the pulpit was blocked up ; and rather than elbow his way through the crowd, which might lead to some disturbance, he procured a ladder and climbed in through a large window at the back of the pulpit. About forty British officers were present, some of whom sat on the pulpit-steps, and sought to annoy the speaker with groans and hisses, but everything passed off quietly.

On Tuesday evening, 18 April, observing the movements of the British troops, Dr. Warren de- spatched William Dawes, by way of Roxbury, and Paul Revere, by way of Charlestown, to give the alarm to the people dwelling on the roads toward Concord. Next morning, on hearing the news of the firing at Lexington, he left his patients in charge of his pupil and assistant, William Eustis, and rode off to the scene of action. He seems to have attended a meeting of the committee of safety that morning at the Black Horse tavern in Menot- oniy (now Arlington), and there to have consulted with Gen. William Heath. By the time Lord Percy reached Menotomy on his retreat. Gen. Heath had assumed command of the militia, and the fighting there was perhaps the severest of the day. Dr. Warren kept his place near Heath, and a pin was struck from his head by a musket-ball. During the next six weeks he was indefatigable in urging on the military preparations of the New England colonies. At the meeting of the Pro- vincial congress at Watertown, 31 May, he was unanimously chosen its president, and thus became chief executive officer of Massachusetts under this provisional government. On 14 June he was chosen second major-general of the Massachusetts forces, Artemas Ward being first. On the 16th he pre- sided over the Provincial congress, and passed the night in the transaction of public business. The next morning he met the committee of safety at Gen. Ward's headquarters on Cambridge common, and about noon, hearing that the British troops had landed at Charlestown, he rode over to Bunker Hill. It is said that both Putnam and Prescott successively signified their readiness to take orders from him, but he refused, saying that he had come as a volunteer aide to take a lesson in warfare under such well-tried officers. At the final struggle near Prescott's redoubt, as he was endeavoring to rally the militia, Gen. Warren was struck in the head by a musket-ball and instantly killed. His remains were deposited in the tomb of George R. Minot in the Granary burying-ground, whence they were re- moved in 1825 to the Warren tomb in St. Paul's church, Boston. In 1855 they were again removed to Forest Hills cemetery, where they now repose. Dr. Warren's wife died, 28 April, 1773, leaving four children. After the death of their father they were left in straitened circumstances until in April, 1778, Gen. Benedict Arnold, who had con- ceived a warm friendship for Dr. Warren while at Cambridge, came to their relief. Arnold contrib- uted $500 for their education, and succeeded in obtaining from congress the amount of a major- general's half-pay, to be applied to their support from the date of the father's death until the young- est child should be of age. The best biography of Dr. Warren is by Richard Frothingham, " Life and Times of Joseph Warren" (Boston, 1865).— His - brother, John, physician, b. in Roxbury, Mass., 27 July, 1753 ; d. in Boston, Mass., 4 April, 1815, was graduated at Harvard in 1771, studied medicine for two years with his brother Joseph, and then began practice in Salem, where he attained rapid success. He attended the wounded at the battle of Bunker Hill, where he received a bayonet-wound in endeavoring to pass a sentry in order to see his brother. Soon afterward he was appointed hospital surgeon, and in 1776 he accompanied the army to New York and New Jersey. He was at Trenton and Princeton, and from 1777 till the close of the war was superintending surgeon of the military hospitals in Boston. For nearly forty years he occupied the foremost place among the surgeons of New England. In 1780 he demonstrated anatomy in a series of dissections before his colleagues, and in 1783 he was appointed professor of anatomy and surgery in the newly established medical school at Harvard. He was first president of the Massachusetts medical society, retaining the office from 1804 till his death. He was also president of the Agricultural society and of the Humane society. He frequently made public addresses, and in 1783 was the first Fourth-of-July orator in Boston. Besides "Memoirs" addressed to the American academy, " Communications " published by the Massachusetts medical society, an " Address " to the Freemasons, in whose lodge he was a grand-master, and articles in the " Journal of Medicine and Surge rv," he was the author of "Mercurial Practice in Febrile Diseases." See his life by James Jackson (Boston, 1815), and by his son Edward (1873). — John's son, John Collins, surgeon, b. in Boston, Mass., 1 Aug., 1778; d. there, 4 May, 1856, was graduated at Harvard in 1797, studied medicine in London, and formed there a portion of the collection of anatomical preparations which he subsequently gave to the Massachusetts medical college. In 1800 he went to Edinburgh, where he studied chemistry, and in 1801 attended the lectures of Vauquelin, Cuvier, and Desfontaines in Paris. He then settled in Boston. In 1803 he became joint editor of the " Monthly Anthology," gave public demonstrations