Joseph W. Revere

Joseph Warren Revere (May 17, 1812 – April 20, 1880) was a career United States Navy and Army officer. He was the grandson of American Revolutionary War figure Paul Revere.

He was an amateur artist and autobiographer, publishing two novels: A Tour of Duty in California (1849) and Keel and Saddle (1872). Both novels include memoirs of his experience traveling in the military. He was involved in the African Slave Trade Patrol, the Second Seminole War, the Mexican-American War, and the Civil War.

He was heavily involved in the 1846-1847 Conquest of California, wherein American troops invaded Alta California. Afterwards, he created a plantation in Rancho San Geronimo (near San Francisco, California), which used forced labor of Coast Miwok workers. on May 17, 1812 to Lydia LeBaron Goodwin and Dr. John Revere; He was named after General Joseph Warren, the famous doctor and general in the American Revolution, who was a close friend of his grandfather.

In 1826, the fourteen-year-old Revere joined the United States Naval School in New York. He travelled to Singapore and met Czar Nicholas I of Russia. He was a polyglot, which aided him in his expeditions. on a mosquito fleet near Florida's coast. He afterwards commanded an anti-piracy fleet in the West Indies. married Joseph Warren Revere in Boston. Augustus Lefebvre Revere (1861-1910), who both lived through adulthood. On the morning of July 9, 1846, 70 U.S. naval troops arrived at Yerba Buena (San Francisco), lowered the Bear Flag in Portsmouth Square, and raised the American flag in its place. Later that day, Revere repeated the flag replacement at Sonoma. This ended the brief 25-day existence of the California Republic, which had controlled a localized area in and around San Francisco.

In 1846, Revere patented Rancho San Geronimo, 8,701 acres of land seized during the Mexican-American War. introducing potatoes to the area However, two months later, the Army transferred Revere to San Diego, and Revere "is said to have left the property in the care of a Native-American [presumably Coast Miwok] foreman." The book includes illustrations and lithographs by Revere as well as his original submission for the Great Seal of California. then the husband of Octavia "Rosa" Sawkins, a British teacher raised in the West Indies.

The next morning, Rosa did not allow James to force her into her room, leading to a physical altercation in which both fell to the ground. Rosa left the home. James and Revere set out via horseback to find her, but did not succeed. They searched again at dawn.

First retirement Joseph W. Revere House, Fosterfields Living Historical Farm, Morris Township, New Jersey In 1852, Revere retired to Morristown, New Jersey; he purchased the Ogden farmhouse and the 88 acres of farmland surrounding it. Once the land was his, he contracted local master carpenter Ashbel Bruen of Chatham to construct a unique mansion on the hill, which Revere helped design. His customized mansion, titled The Willows, was designed in the Gothic Revival style (specifically, Carpenter Gothic). Revere and Bruen likely based their design on the 1849 Olmstead House, designed by British architect Gervase Wheeler, the pattern of which appeared in the book Rural Homes of 1851.

Construction was complete in 1854, when Revere moved in. Above his family crest, he painted Thomas Ken's 1674 doxology, "Praise God from whom all blessings flow," often sung to the tune of the Old 100th. It is now part of the Fosterfields Living Historical Farm, where guests can attend tours of the home.

The years 1857 and 1858 found Revere touring Europe where he claimed to have served as "a military consultant for numerous governments." with his friend, Union army general Phil Kearny. Revere also went to India, where the United Kingdom awarded him the Indian Mutiny Medal for helping suppress the Indian Rebellion of 1857–58.

On September 25, 1859, Frances Jane Revere died at the age of 10 of pneumonia. The family was "grief stricken" and travelled to Europe in November, coming back the following year. Possibly during this time, Revere was present at the Battle of Sulferino during the Second Italian War of Independence.

Civil War service In 1852, while on a steamboat in Mississippi, Revere discussed astrology with Stonewall Jackson, who was a deep believer of the subject. Though Revere was skeptical, he provided Jackson "the necessary data for calculating a horoscope; and in the course of a few months, [he] received from him a letter, which [he] preserved, enclosing a scheme of [Revere's] nativity." The Union Army commended him for his bravery, This three-mile march, described by Revere as a "regrouping effort" and not a retreat, led to his being court-martialed as ordered by General Joseph Hooker.

Revere claims he was censured for "cowardice on the field," a claim which makes him smile due to its "flagrant vindictiveness." From Revere's perspective, he writes,I heard...of the death of General Berry, my division commander, who was killed at about half-past seven o'clock; and immediately afterwards I met Brigadier-General Mott, the next in seniority in the division, going to the rear, severely wounded. I at once concluded that I was the commanding officer of the Second Division, Third Corps...

The need of some action was urgent. I believed myself to be the division commander...My men were worn with the marches and battles of four days, with want of rest and food for the last twenty-four hours, and with sharp fighting for the last four, and were nearly out of ammunition...I [was] sensible of the responsibility involved, but confident that it was the only course for bringing my troops speedily into efficient service...

To sum up all in a few words,—after the fight was ended, left without orders, and crowded off the field, I led away a handful of worn and disorganized men towards a point where, in my belief, an action might even then be going on, and brought them back within six hours, after retiring less than three miles, two thousand strong, refreshed and resupplied. Was this a breach of duty?

It included "a Map, a copy of the record of the Trial, and an appendix."

In "A Statement," Revere insinuates that the court-martial does not consider his decades of prior experience:I have been for thirty years a sailor and a soldier. Had I been a politician in epaulettes, plying in the camp the arts of the caucus...there might be retributive, though indirect, justice in this sentence. But I have been more versed in war than in intrigue. On all that Court, eminent as most of its members were, there was not one who was not my junior in length of employment in the United States service...At least, with such a record, I had a right to expect from the Court, even with my unheard, greater lenity than is shown in this cruel sentence... The pamphlet is written in third-person and does not specify its author, Why should charges be preferred against Revere for "neglect of duty, &c.," in leaving on the field the arms of the killed and wounded, and wasting ammunition fired at the enemy by his command, and why should Hooker get off unscathed, after having, the very next day, ingloriously abandoned the same field, in presence of an inferior force of rebels, in opposition to all his generals in , except the of these proceedings, leaving not only arms, equipments, and ammunition, but immense stores of all kinds for Lee's especial delectation, and his wounded to the care of the rebel surgeons? Is the typical sword of military justice two edged and cutting both ways, or does say truly - "That in the officer's but a word, / Which in the soldier is rank heresy." ?In 1864, Revere's supporters submitted letters and petitions to Lincoln, urging him to undo the dishonorable court-martial. In 1872, Revere's second book was published; the autobiographical Keel and Saddle: A Retrospect of 40 years of Military and Naval Service. The book is dedicated "to the memories" of Colonel Paul Joseph Revere and assistant surgeon Edward H. R. Revere, both of whom died in battle.

In 1872's Keel and Saddle, after detailing his experience freeing a ship of enslaved people, Revere wrote, "None of us could understand a word the slaves uttered: indeed, they appeared hardly to possess the organ of speech, so deeply guttural and barbarous was their uncouth dialect, - more like the chattering of baboons than any human jargon...In my opinion, extensive colonization is the only practical mode of benefiting 'benighted Africa.'" In 1875, while touring near Vienne in southeast France, by chance he visited the ruined chateau of his De Rivoire ancestors. He made a drawing of the coat of arms, Argent three fesses Gules, overall on a bend Azure three fleur-de-lis Or, from which he derived his differenced arms, displayed on his grave marker as Argent 'two' fesses Gules, overall on a bend Azure three flour-de-lis 'palewise' Or.

Health decline and death Circa the 1870s, a posthumous biography claims Revere's health was "completely shattered by wounds and diseases incurred in service and his existence became one of unbroken suffering."

On April 15, 1880, Revere experienced "neuralgia of the heart" while on a ferry to New York (possibly a heart attack or cardiac arrest) in Hoboken. His funeral was private but "largely attended by his many friends." Revere and his immediate family are buried at Holy Rood Cemetery in Morristown, several miles away from The Willows. In the decades that followed, the farm was named Fosterfields, and Foster converted it into a dairy farm breeding Jersey cattle. The Fosters kept the Revere mansion largely intact. Meanwhile, the Revere family likely continued to live in Morristown's Sansay House.

In 1888, Joseph Sabin included Revere's novels and pamphlets in Volume 17 of Bibliotheca Americana, a record of books relating to America.

The 1914 Bear Flag Monument in Sonoma, California commemorates Revere's raising of the American flag in Sonoma on July 9, 1846. The statue depicts the American immigrants who revolted against the Mexican government in what was then Alta California.

In 1979, farm owner Caroline Rose Foster bequeathed the estate to the Morris County Parks Commission upon her death to be preserved as a "Living Historical Farm."

In 2003, William R. Chemerka, a historical interpreter and actor, portrayed Revere at a Civil War program at Fosterfields. In 2013, Chemerka published biography General Joseph Warren Revere: The Gothic Saga of Paul Revere's Grandson.

The Revere mansion, also known as "The Willows" and (in a presidential letter) "The Rancho," In 2019, the Revere mansion was the subject of evening ghost hunts for the public, led by Island Paranormal Society the goal being to "contact, confront, and communicate with paranormal entities." On May 7, 2022, the Willows held a grand reopening,