Joseph Warren Dr . Joseph Warren ( June 11 , 1741 – June 17 , 1775 ) was an American doctor who played a leading role in American Patriot organizations in Boston in early days of the American Revolution , eventually serving as president of the revolutionary Massachusetts Provincial Congress . Warren enlisted Paul Revere and William Dawes on April 18 , 1775 , to leave Boston and spread the alarm that the British garrison in Boston was setting out to raid the town of Concord and arrest rebel leaders John Hancock and Samuel Adams . Warren participated in the next day ' s Battles of Lexington and Concord , which are commonly considered to be the opening engagements of the American Revolutionary War . Warren had been commissioned a Major General in the colony ' s militia shortly before the June 17 , 1775 Battle of Bunker Hill . Rather than exercising his rank , Warren served in the battle as a private soldier , and was killed in combat when British troops stormed the redoubt atop Breed ' s Hill . His death , immortalized in John Trumbull ' s painting , " The Death of General Warren at the Battle of Bunker ' s Hill , June 17 , 1775 " , galvanized the rebel forces , and he has been memorialized in many place names in the United States . Biography . Joseph Warren was born in Roxbury , Massachusetts , to Joseph Warren and Mary ( Stevens ) Warren . His father was a respected farmer who died in October 1755 when he fell off a ladder while gathering fruit in his orchard . After attending the Roxbury Latin School , Joseph enrolled in Harvard College , graduating in 1759 , and then taught for about a year at Roxbury Latin . He studied medicine and married 18 - year - old heiress Elizabeth Hooten on September 6 , 1764 . She died in 1772 , leaving him with four children : Elizabeth , Joseph , Mary , and Richard . While practicing medicine and surgery in Boston , he joined the Masonic Lodge of St . Andrew and eventually was appointed as a Grand Master . He also became involved in politics , associating with John Hancock , Samuel Adams , and other radical leaders of the broad movement labeled Sons of Liberty . Warren conducted an autopsy on the body of young Christopher Seider in February 1770 , and was a member of the Boston committee that assembled a report on the following month ' s Boston Massacre . Earlier , in 1768 , Royal officials tried to place his publishers Edes and Gill on trial for an incendiary newspaper essay Warren wrote under the pseudonym " A True Patriot " , but no local jury would indict them . In 1774 , he authored a song , " Free America , " which was published in colonial newspapers . The poem was set to a traditional British tune , " The British Grenadiers . " Lexington and Concord . As Boston ' s conflict with the royal government came to a head in 1773 - 75 , Warren was appointed to the Boston Committee of Correspondence . He twice delivered orations in commemoration of the Massacre , the second time in March 1775 while the town was occupied by army troops . Warren drafted the Suffolk Resolves , which were endorsed by the Continental Congress , to advocate resistance to Parliament ' s Coercive Acts , which were otherwise known as the Intolerable Acts . He was appointed President of the Massachusetts Provincial Congress , the highest position in the revolutionary government . In mid - April 1775 , Warren and Dr . Benjamin Church were the two top members of the Committee of Correspondence left in Boston . On the afternoon of April 18 , the British troops in the town mobilized for a long - planned raid on the nearby town of Concord , and already before nightfall word of mouth had spread knowledge of the mobilization widely within Boston . It had been known for weeks that General Gage in Boston had plans to destroy munitions stored in Concord by the colonials , and it was also known that they would be taking a route through Lexington . Warren received the additional information from a highly placed informant that the troops also had orders to arrest Samuel Adams and John Hancock . Warren sent William Dawes and Paul Revere on their famous " midnight rides " to warn Hancock and Adams in Lexington about the approaching troops . The historian of colonial America , David Hackett Fischer , finds strong , but inconclusive , evidence that Warren ' s highly placed informant was none other than Margaret Gage , the wife of General Thomas Gage . Warren slipped out of Boston early on April 19 , and during that day ' s Battle of Lexington and Concord , he coordinated and led militia into the fight alongside William Heath as the British Army returned to Boston . When the enemy were returning from Concord , he was among the foremost in hanging upon their rear and assailing their flanks . During this fighting Warren was nearly killed , a musket ball striking part of his wig . When his mother saw him after the battle and heard of his escape , she entreated him with tears again not to risk life so precious . " Where danger is , dear mother , " he answered , " there must your son be . Now is no time for any of American ’ s children to shrink from any hazard . I will set her free or die . " He then turned to recruiting and organizing soldiers for the Siege of Boston , promulgating the Patriots ' version of events , and negotiating with Gen . Gage in his role as head of the Provincial Congress . Death . Warren was appointed a Major General by the Provincial Congress on June 14 , 1775 . He arrived where the militia was forming and asked where the heaviest fighting would be ; General Israel Putnam pointed to Breeds Hill . He volunteered as a private against the wishes of General Putnam and Colonel William Prescott , who requested that he serve as their commander . Since Putnam and Prescott were more experienced with war he declined command . He was among those inspiring the men to hold rank against superior numbers . Warren was known to have repeatedly declared of the British : " These fellows say we won ' t fight ! By Heaven , I hope I shall die up to my knees in blood ! " He fought in the redoubt until out of ammunition , and remained until the British made their third and final assault on the hill to give time for the militia to escape . He was killed instantly by a musket ball in the head by a British officer ( possibly Lieutenant Lord Rawdon ) who recognized him . This account is supported by a 2011 forensic analysis . His body was stripped of clothing and he was bayoneted until unrecognizable , and then shoved into a shallow ditch . British Captain Walter Laurie , who had been defeated at Old North Bridge , later said he " stuffed the scoundrel with another rebel into one hole , and there he and his seditious principles may remain . " His body was exhumed ten months after his death by his brothers and Paul Revere , who identified the remains by the artificial tooth he had placed in the jaw . This may be the first recorded instance of post - mortem identification by forensic odontology . His body was placed in the Granary Burying Ground and later ( in 1825 ) in St . Paul ' s Church before finally being moved in 1855 to his family ' s vault in Forest Hills Cemetery . Legacy . There are at least three statues of Joseph Warren on public display . Two are in Boston — one in the exhibit lodge adjacent to the Bunker Hill Monument , the other on the grounds of the Roxbury Latin School . The third is in a small park on the corner of Third and Pennsylvania avenues in Warren , Pennsylvania , a city , borough , and county all named after the general . At the time of Warren ' s death , his children were staying with his fiancee , Mercy Scollay , in Worcester as refugees from the Siege of Boston . She continued to look after them , gathering support for their education from John Hancock , Samuel Adams , Mercy Otis Warren , Benedict Arnold , and even the Continental Congress . Joseph ' s youngest brother and apprentice in medicine , John Warren , served as a surgeon during the Battle of Bunker Hill and the rest of the war , and afterwards founded Harvard Medical School and co - founded the Massachusetts Medical Society . General Gage reportedly said Warren ' s death was equal to the death of 500 men . It encouraged the revolutionary cause because it was viewed by many Americans as an act of martyrdom . Fourteen states have a Warren County named after him . Additionally , Warren , Pennsylvania , Warren , Michigan , Warren , New Jersey , Warren County , New Jersey , Warrensburg , New York , Warrenton , Virginia , Warren , Maine , Warren , Massachusetts and 30 Warren Township s are also named in his honor . Boston ' s Fort Warren , started in 1833 , was named in his honor . Five ships in the Continental Navy and United States Navy were named " Warren " in his honor . In popular culture . American actor Walter Coy played Dr . Warren in the 1957 film " Johnny Tremain " . Dr . Warren was also depicted in episode 10 of Liberty ' s Kids .