Joseph Read (March 6, 1732 – September 22, 1801) was a soldier and a colonel in the American Revolutionary War.

Early life

Read was born in Uxbridge, Massachusetts, the son of John and Lucy Read. He married Eunice Taft of Uxbridge on Nov 22, 1753. His father John, served in the French and Indian Wars.

Military service

He was a lieutenant colonel at the

battles of Lexington and Concord The Battles of Lexington and Concord were the first military engagements of the American Revolutionary War. The battles were fought on April 19, 1775, in Middlesex County, Province of Massachusetts Bay, within the towns of Lexington, Concord ...

in April 1775. Thereafter, until the end of 1776, he served as colonel in command of several regiments of the

Massachusetts Line The Massachusetts Line was those units within the Continental Army that were assigned to Massachusetts at various times by the Continental Congress during the American Revolutionary War. These, together with similar contingents from the other twel ...

. In war counsels during the 1776 defense of New York City, Read urged the evacuation of the American fortifications, dissenting from generals such as Nathanael Greene who urged that the forts be defended.

Read/Reed family

His brother was Lt. Colonel Seth Read, who commanded the Massachusetts 26th and 15th regiments and founded Erie, Pennsylvania. The Read brothers owned half of the land in the towns of Uxbridge and Northbridge, Massachusetts, in the mid 18th century. (167 Pages on CD in PDF Format.) The family is known as "Reed" in Pennsylvania, and the Read name and spelling continued in Massachusetts. At some point after the revolution, Joseph Read moved to Brookfield, Massachusetts, where he died in 1801. He and his wife Eunice are buried in Brookfield. His brother Seth Reed, founded Erie, PA, and died there in 1797.

Notes

1732 births 1801 deaths People from Uxbridge, Massachusetts Continental Army officers from Massachusetts People from Brookfield, Massachusetts {{US-military-bio-stub