America's First Spymaster

By Robert Parry
July 4, 2010

Having grown up in eastern Massachusetts not far from Lexington and Concord, I always found the Revolutionary War’s heroes familiar and fascinating, including some whose names are little remembered except by historians.

And my later interest in intelligence activities caused me to focus on one extraordinary patriot in particular, Dr. Joseph Warren, a man who could be viewed as America’s first spymaster, although he was much more than that, a leader as influential in the war’s early days – and as selfless – as any figure to follow him in that long historic struggle.

Though involved with the Sons of Liberty and a member of the Boston Committee of Correspondence, a key body in organizing the revolution, Warren also moved within Boston’s respected society as a physician and surgeon. Indeed, that may have put him in place to recruit one of the most important and still mysterious spies in American history.

In the years leading up to the start of hostilities on April 19, 1775, Warren worked with fellow patriot Paul Revere in constructing a remarkable intelligence network for its time, a loosely knit collection of sympathetic citizens who uncovered information about the British garrisoned in Boston. The network also included riders who could spread alarms quickly through the countryside.