The Death of General Warren at the Battle of Bunker Hill, by John Trumbull (1786) / Museum of Fine Arts, Boston
By Dolly Stolze / 07.04.2017
Paul Revere inadvertently became America’s first forensic dentist when he was given the gruesome task of identifying the body of Dr. Joseph Warren, the man who sent him on his famous “midnight ride.” Warren was struck down by a British bullet during the Battle of Bunker Hill on June 17, 1775 and his corpse was buried in a mass grave. When Warren’s family unearthed the grave nine months later, visual identification of the bodies inside was near impossible because they had decomposed. So Revere, the man who crafted the slain officer’s false teeth, was asked to locate Warren’s remains by finding the ivory dentures he crafted and wired to Warren’s jaw.
Although, Paul Revere (January 1735-May 10, 1818) was a trained silversmith and engraver, he had a brief career as a dentist before the American Revolution.