Joseph Warren Revere was a Boston boy, but a military career kept him from spending much of his adult life here. He was the grandson of the famous Paul Revere and named after the secular saint Joseph Warren. As a young Navy officer on the USS Constitution, he fought slavers and pirates, discovered buried treasure, met a czar, and almost killed a king. Falling in love with California while serving in the Mexican-American War, he made a small fortune during the Gold Rush, while getting mired in scandal. By the time he served as a union general in the US Civil War, Revere had fought under the flag of three nations. He had seen war on four continents, discovered a fifth, and traveled to all of them. He had dined sumptuously with monarchs and nobles, and broken bread with native peoples around the world. He was a skilled artist and map maker, and an aggressive combat leader. None of those accomplishments, however, could save his career from an ignominious end amongst charges of cowardice after the battle of Chancellorsville.
Continue reading Around the World With a Less Famous Revere (episode 301)
