Ron Reiff
Have you ever watched “The Patriot” with Mel Gibson? In the final battle scene, a familiar British fife and drum tune is played while the battle rages.
“The British Grenadiers” was a song adopted by their ground forces. The words to the song as sung in the movie were written as a poem by JOSEPH WARREN!
I thought this would be a good time to explain why Conewango was renamed by General Irvine. To the best of my knowledge, Irvine never met Warren but heard a lot about him. Joseph Warren was just 14 years old when he left home for Harvard. He started his medical practice right after graduation. Warren was one of the most respected Physicians in Boston and he was just barely in his 20’s.
By the ripe old age of 26 he was writing articles for the Boston Gazette signing them as the “True Patriot.” His writings were so inflammatory that the Colonial Governor wanted to sue him for libel! Warren was just an entry level mason when he dawned “Wild Indian” garb and joined the members of his lodge in the Boston Tea Party.
On March 5, 1770 Warren was the primary speaker at Boston’s Old South Meeting House. Snow had been falling since the night before and was still falling, when he fought his way through the crowd to get to the podium. Despite the snow, there were over 4,000 Bostonians there. At the time, that amounted to nearly a full third of Boston’s population. All of them were there to hear Warren speak about how wrong it was to have a standing army in a city.
There was no way for so many people to be housed in the building so the crowd basically became a mob in the street. If you know your history you know where this is headed! Eight Red Coats were there and were being pelted with garbage, rocks, anything that could be thrown. By the end of the shooting, which lasted all of about 3 or 4 minutes, 8 were dead. Warren treated several wounded and managed to save 4 or 5 but two died while he treated them.
Joe Warren was recruited to speak in front of the Old Meeting Hall on the first anniversary of the “Boston Massacre.” Every year after the shooting, Bostonians assembled at the location to honor those who fell that night. By 1775 Warren was asked to speak again. He showed up in a Roman Toga to further demonstrate against military occupation.
Just a few weeks later The Battle of Bunker Hill was his last. Warren had always led where he could be seen by both his troops and theirs. The Brits had charged the Americans twice and were forced to retreat. It was during the third attack that Joseph Warren was mortally wounded leading by example. He was 34 years old.
If you get to Boston the Old State House is still standing where our city’s namesake saved wounded, spoke to thousands and led brilliantly.
