WARREN. 



759 



through the battles of Matron Hill and the second 

 Bull Run, and sit Atitietaui half his regiment were 

 killed or wounded. He bore a part at Fredericksburg. 

 and on Feb. 2, 1863. he became thief of topographical 

 engineers on Gen. Hooker's staff, and June 8. chief 

 engineer of the Army of the Potomac. In the midstof 

 the war, June 17. he was married. On July 2 he 

 held and defended Little Round Top, the key of the 

 Union army's position at Gettysburg, where he re- 

 ceived a slight wound. This was fnl lowed Aug. 8 by 

 the commission of major-general of volunteers, dat- 

 ing from the battle of Chanccliorsville. May 3. In 

 August he had temporary command of the Second 

 Corps, and in October repelled an attaok by A. P. 

 Hill at Bristow Station and received the brevet of 

 brigadier general, with special praise from Gen. 

 .Mi-ado. At Mine Run, Nov. 30, a movement was 

 ordered by Mcade which the changing circiinistanrcs 

 of the field made impossible of execution without 

 useless sacrifice of life : Warren in the exercise of a 

 reasonable discretion disobeyed the -order, and was 

 sustained and commended by his superior officer for 

 so doing. On March '24, ISti-t, when the army was U-itv/ 

 reorganized, he was placed in command of the Fifth 

 Cor|)8, which he led gallantly in the buttles of the 

 Wilderness, Cold Harbor. Petersburg, and minor en- 

 gagements. 1 ! is men trusted and loved him. Ge'n. 

 Grant in his I' i-snuul Mriiinirs pronounces him " an 

 officer of superior ability, quick perceptions, and per- 

 sonal coinage to accomplish anything that could be 

 done with a small command," but declares that his 

 constitutional delect was an endeavor to superintend 

 in person the execution of all his orders, and to guard 

 against remote contingencies which his superior nHicer 

 had probably otherwise provided for. At the outlet 

 of the campaign Grant thought of Warren as Meade's 

 possible successor, but early in the next year Grant 

 was so much dissatisfied with Warren's dilatory iuove- 

 inents that he called Sheridan's attention to his se- 

 rious delects ami authorized him if Warren's " removal 

 were necessary to sue -ess not to hesitate." On April 

 1, 1805, at Five Forks, Gen. Warren unfortunately 

 ventured to exercise discretion as he had successfully 

 done sixteen months Iielore. but (Jen. Sheridan, who 

 had Ivcn impatiently waiting for Warren's arrival, at 

 ii'.'ht him out an 1 relieved him of his command. 

 Being sent to Gen. Grant, he was put in command 

 iit Petersburg. This disgrace wounded Warren's spii it 

 deeply and permanently ; he alterwards defended his 

 conduct in a pamphlet, but a court of inquiry sustained 

 Sheridan. Tlfe brevet of major-general, bestowed 

 "for gallant and meritorious services in the field," 

 failed to console Warren, and publi" opinion was not 

 inclined to meddle in a painful controversy between 

 two officers of such eminence. The war wns nearly 

 over. After two weeks' service in th> South-west he 

 1 his volunteer e'unmNsion. 11'' remnined in 

 the. regular army, employed upon forts, harbors, 

 brid L'cs, etc., as a major of engineers. He died at 



Newpolt. It. I.. AllS. S, ' 



WARRKN, JosKfii (1711-1775), a patriot of the 

 American Revolution, the son of a farmer and descend- 

 ant of an early settler at Boston, was ln>rn at Roxbnry, 

 Juno 11, 1741. After graduating at Harvard 17.")., he 

 Ptudied medicine, and began I" practise ] 7(>2, but zeal 

 in the cause of liberty soon rendered him indifferent to 

 bright prospects of professional advancement. The 

 Stamp Act set him thinkin?, and his evenings were 

 given to the study of the great questions then rising 

 into prominence By 170fi his opinions were formed, 

 nnd they thenceforth niled his actions; he gave him- 

 self heart and soul to American freedom, and labored 

 with tongue and pen to bring others to his mind. He 

 had every quality of a leader popular manners, swcet- 

 I' temper, ready and vivid eloquence, intense 

 r;"-rg ardor, and exquisite prudence. The 



plan lor town meetings was drawn up in September, 

 by Warren, Otis, and Samuel Adams. He was 



active in the caucus which at first met secretly in 

 private houses, but after 1773 in a hull, inviting the 

 attendance and co-operation of workinguien. Dr. War- ' 

 ren and Samuel Adams, intimately associated through- 

 out, were the brains and soul of the early movement 

 in Massachusetts; of the two, Warren was the more 

 conservative the slower to abandon hope of a peaee- 

 ful settlement which should secure colonial rights. 

 Acting for the Committee of Correspondence, they 

 drew up in November, 1772. the two statements of 

 these rights and of the violations thereof a year later. 

 Warren was one of the committee to prevent the land- 

 ing of the tea. The " Solemn League and Covenant," 

 to suspend commercial relations with England, sent to 

 every town in the province in June, 1774, was reported 

 by him to the Committee of Correspondence. The 

 progress of events had by this time made him ready 

 tor extreme measures. He told the Suffolk County 

 Convention in September that "a sovereign who 

 breaks his compact with his people forfeits their alle- 

 iriaii'-c." and wrote to Quincy in November that if 

 recent acts were not repealed, the two countries had 

 better separate. lie personally handed to Gen. Gage 

 papers protecting against the fortifications then being 

 built around Huston. Toward the end of 1774 he was 

 at the head both of the Provincial Congress and the 

 Committee of S ifcty. and practically dictator, but for 

 the British treop.i. His disinterestedness and wisdom 

 made him the safest depository oi power and executive 

 of the popular will. He restrained the enthusiasts who 

 would have precipitated a local conflict, and insislcd 

 that the colonies must net together through the Conti- 

 nental Congress. March 5, 1775, he was a second time 

 the orator on the anniversary of the Boston massacre. 

 The church was crowded, and he entered by a window. 

 British officers sat on the pulpit stairs, and one of them, 

 nt sonic rinvin^ sentence, displayed bullets in his open 

 hand, which Warren at once covered with his handker- 

 chief. This wa.s improved into the story of a pistol 



) at the speaker's head. Soon after he, with 

 Hancock and Samuel Adams, was. by order of the 

 ministry, excluded from the pardon offered to oilier 

 malcontents. His tireless vigilance penetrated the 

 secret of the British movement on Lexington, and 

 sent Paul Revere (q. v.) and Dana thither by different 



to warn Adams and Hancock, thus making pos- 

 sible the initial victory of the war. He was present at 

 the fight, and was said to have had a lock of hair cut 

 off by a bullet. He urged the appointment of Wash- 

 ington as commander-m-chief in place of Artemas 

 Ward, whom some favored for local reasons. Declin- 

 ing the post of surgeon-general, he accepted from Mas- 

 sachusetts. June N. (hat of major-general. The occu- 

 pation of Bunker I! ill. ordered by the Council of War, 

 lie thought unwise, but insisted on taking part in the 

 action there. A colleague in the Committee of Safely 

 strove to dissuade him from this step, saying it was 

 death to go. He replied : "DiiJce e.t decorum est pro 

 jintrln ni'irl." Arrived at the hill, he refused to take 

 command, saying he came as a volunteer to learn from 

 older soldiers, and asked to be shown the place of 

 greatest danger. He fell, "the last in the trenches," 

 as the retreat becan. June 17, 1775. His death was 

 a wolul loss to the colonies, but his example stimu- 

 lated and cheered patriotic zer.l everywhere. No 

 American, from the founders to that date, had been 

 more prominent, or more useful than he; no life was 

 ever more freely consecrated to liberty or more cheer- 

 fully laid down. In the presence of such a memory as 

 Warren's, cold analysis gives way to grateful and 

 reverent affection. At all points he was the model of 

 r\ patriot hero. His zealous abilities would have taken 

 high rank in the councils of the young republic ; but 

 the poetic beauty of his character seems fitly crowned 

 by an earl}' and glorious death. His body was not re- 

 covered for a year. Congress voted in September, 

 1777. to erect a monument, but the column raised by 

 the Freemasons in 1704 was the first to mark the spot. 



