Joseph Read (1732-1801)

Biography
Joseph Read was a soldier and a colonel in the American Revolutionary War.

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 of a band of minutemen militia at the battles of Lexington and Concord in April 1775. Thereafter, until the end of 1776, he served as colonel in command of several regiments of the Massachusetts Line, including the 6th Massachusetts Regiment which was redesignated the 13th Continental Regiment but was most frequently referred to as Read's Regiment.

His regiment saw action at the Siege of Boston, New York Campaign and the Battle of Trenton before disbanding on 31 Dec 1776.

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. 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.