John Warren (surgeon)

John Warren
Portrait of John Warren by Rembrandt Peale
Born	July 27, 1753 Roxbury, Massachusetts
Died	April 4, 1815(1815-04-04) (aged 61) Boston, Massachusetts
Cause of death	Pneumonitis
Resting place	St. Paul's Church, Boston
Nationality	American
Education	Roxbury Latin School Harvard University
Occupation	Physician

John Warren (July 27, 1753 – April 4, 1815) was a Continental Army surgeon during the American Revolutionary War, founder of the Harvard Medical School and the younger brother of Joseph Warren.

Warren was born in Roxbury, Massachusetts and studied at The Roxbury Latin School after which he proceeded to Harvard College where he graduated in 1771. He studied medicine under his elder brother Joseph, later becoming a renowned doctor in Boston.

Warren joined Colonel Pickering's Regiment in 1773 as an army surgeon. On June 17, 1775, he was in Cambridge tending to the wounded coming in from the Battle of Bunker Hill on Breed's Hill over four miles away. Worried about his brother, who had joined the fighting and died, Warren went to search for him after the battle was over. A British sentry told John he could not pass and then bayoneted him as a warning, forcing the depressed Warren to go back to Cambridge.

After his brother's death, Warren volunteered for service and was made a senior surgeon at the hospital in Cambridge. He became surgeon of the general hospital on Long Island in 1776 during General Washington's defense there. He also served at the Battle of Trenton and the Battle of Princeton.

Warren returned to Boston in 1777 to continue his medical practice while still serving as a military surgeon in the army hospital there.

Warren became very successful in the years after the war, performing one of the first abdominal operations in America. In 1780 he began teaching a course on dissections and founded Harvard Medical School in 1782. He was known as an excellent teacher, giving "eloquent" lectures. He was elected a Fellow of the American Academy of Arts and Sciences in 1781.