Henry Knox’s Noble Train of Artillery in Context

On the evening of December 5, 1775, Henry Knox arrived at Fort Ticonderoga, beginning one of the Revolution’s most storied events. Knox’s transportation of nearly 60 tons of artillery from the Champlain Valley to the siege lines outside Boston has become the stuff of legend and created an American hero. It was the artillery that prompted Ticonderoga’s capture on May 10, 1775, but why did it take so long for the guns to start making the journey to Boston? And how did a 20-something civilian get chosen for the assignment?

Artillery was a critical deficiency of the American forces besieging Boston in the spring of 1775. Without it they could surround the British inside the isolated city, but couldn’t reach it to dislodge them (Fig 1). With no substantial industry to manufacture cannon, Americans needed to take them. This was the impetus for the two expeditions to seize Ticonderoga that spring.

As expected, the capture of the Fort Ticonderoga, as well as nearby Crown Point, netted the Americans hundreds of cannon, but after that things became more complicated. Congress had not authorized the expeditions, but when they learned of the capture of Ticonderoga they were forced to act. With the forts in American hands they feared British retaliation, so they ordered the artillery moved to the southern end of Lake George. There the guns were to be inventoried and effectively held hostage until Britain and American reconciled, when they could be returned to his majesty. This prompted confusion and outrage from the colonies that had undertaken the effort. (1)

Benedict Arnold’s survey of the spoils following the capture of Ticonderoga revealed almost 200 guns ranging from small swivel guns to a massive 24-pounder at Crown Point. Some were still buried in the ruins of the fort, or swamped on the foreshore of the Lake, while still others were simply old and unserviceable. Virtually all of them were unmounted, lacking the wooden carriages that they needed to be brought into action. (2)

Despite this, and pursuant to his orders from Massachusetts, Arnold oversaw the first movement of artillery to relieve the siege of Boston over May and June of 1775. By the end of May, six mortars and howitzers had been transported from Crown Point to Ticonderoga (Fig 2), en route to Fort George, the first leg of their expected journey to Massachusetts, with more to follow.(3)

But Arnold’s resignation in June effectively ended this effort and the task of moving artillery languished as the newly formed Continental Army under General Philip Schuyler’s command began to look towards a possible invasion of Canada. Schuyler’s army would also need cannon and he desperately ordered workers to build carriages for the artillery at Ticonderoga and Crown Point, ordering guns north as they could be mounted. At least thirteen cannon and mortars were used by General Richard Montgomery’s Continental forces to reduce the forts at St. Jean and Chambly (Fig 3), brought from Ticonderoga and Crown Point. Those victories netted additional artillery, including some excellent bronze guns, many of which were sent back to Crown Point and Ticonderoga. (4)

In late October, as this was happening, General Washington met with a delegation of officials from Massachusetts, Connecticut, and the Continental Congress in Cambridge, Massachusetts. Addressing a number of issues facing the army outside Boston, the committee revisited the need for artillery. It was determined that guns in New York City and the Lake Champlain forts were the most viable options to meet this need. Equally important was thousands of pounds of lead at Ticonderoga that Washington’s army needed for musket balls. (5)

Who would initiate this, whether Washington or Congress, remained unclear. After weeks passed with no clarity, given the need and the looming winter, Washington took the initiative and penned his own orders on November 16 to get Ticonderoga’s guns to the American siege lines.(6)

To accomplish the task Washington made a bold choice. He selected 25-year-old Henry Knox, a civilian who held no rank in the army. A self-educated bookseller from Boston, Knox had proven himself in just a few months to be a valuable asset to the Continental Army. After the war began, he volunteered to assist the Continentals, deploying the knowledge gained through his extensive reading to fortify positions surrounding Boston, particularly in Roxbury. His efforts drew the attention of Washington, as well as John and Samuel Adams, eager to cultivate young talent from New England. (7)

Knox was given a daunting task, to survey the artillery and stores around Boston, determine what was still needed by the army, travel first to New York City, and then Ticonderoga to get the needed materiel. His authority allowed him to secure available guns from “Ticonderoga, Crown point, or St Johns—If it should be necessary, from Quebec, if in our hands.” With his brother William and $1,000 provided by Washington Knox departed Cambridge. (8)

The same day Washington issued orders to Knox he penned another set of instructions to General Phillip Schuyler ordering him to support Knox’s mission. Before returning home to Albany on December 2, Schuyler ordered the Ticonderoga’s commander, Colonel James Holmes, to begin selecting, moving, and preparing guns and unloading artillery recently captured in Canada in advance of Knox’s arrival. (9)

In late November of 1775 Henry Knox departed Cambridge and over the next 2 months supervised the Continental Army’s most important logistical victory. Accomplishing this feat which had languished for months launched a career that took him all the way to the cabinet of President George Washington.

But Knox did not meet this challenge alone. Along the way he was aided by American soldiers and civilians working across the colonial borders that had largely defined their lives. From elite generals like Washington and Schuyler, to the rank and file of the Continental Army, to civilian teamsters from New York and Massachusetts, the individuals that enabled Knox to accomplish his mission demonstrated the growing unity within the American cause… and it began here.

1. Journals of the Continental Congress, 1774-1789, Vol. 2 (Washington D.C.: Government Printing Office, 1905), 55-56; 267, Journals of Each Provincial Congress of Massachusetts in 1774 and 1775, and of the Committee of Safety (Boston: Dutton and Wentworth, 1838), 267-269.
2. “List of Cannon, Mortars, and Stores, Taken at Crown Point and Ticonderoga May 11, 1775” Bulletin of the Fort Ticonderoga Museum, Vol VI, No. 3 (January 1942), 113-115.
3. Benedict Arnold to Massachusetts Committee of Safety, May 26, 1775, Fort Ticonderoga Museum Collections: https://fortticonderoga.catalogaccess.com/archives/30071; Barnabas Deane to Silas Deane, June 1, 1775, in Collections of the Connecticut Historical Society, Vol II (1870), 248.
4. Benjamin Trumbull, A Concise Journal or Minutes of the Principal Movements Towards St. John’s of the Siege and Surrender of the Fort’s There in 1775 (Hartford: Connecticut Historical Society, 1899), 151; Benjamin Trumbull, Minutes or a Journal of the principal Movements of the Continental Army towards, and in the Country of Canada; of the Siege and Surrender of Chambly, and of the Forts at St. John’s &c. 1775, Fort Ticonderoga Museum Collection: https://fortticonderoga.catalogaccess.com/archives/30795; “A Return of Captives, Provisions, Military Stores, Ordnance, &c Surrendered with the Fort at Chambli to the American Troops” October 18, 1775, Fort Ticonderoga Museum Collections: https://fortticonderoga.catalogaccess.com/archives/29456
5. Minutes of the Conference, 18–24 October 1775, Founders Online, National Archives, https://founders.archives.gov/documents/Washington/03-02-02-0175-0003.
6. George Washington to Nathaniel Woodhull, 16 November 1775, Founders Online, National Archives, https://founders.archives.gov/documents/Washington/03-02-02-0357.
7. George Washington to Jonathan Trumbull, Sr., 2 November 1775, Founders Online, National Archives, https://founders.archives.gov/documents/Washington/03-02-02-0266; John Adams to James Warren, 23 July 1775, Founders Online, National Archives, https://founders.archives.gov/documents/Adams/06-03-02-0051
8. George Washington, Instructions, November 16, 1775, Founders Online, National Archives, https://founders.archives.gov/documents/Washington/03-02-02-0351
9. George Washington to Major General Philip Schuyler, 16 November 1775,” Founders Online, National Archives, https://founders.archives.gov/documents/Washington/03-02-02-0355; Philip Schuyler to James Holmes, December 2, 1775, in Orderly book of Philip John Schuyler, mssHM 663, Manuscripts, Huntington Digital Library: https://hdl.huntington.org/digital/collection/p15150coll7/id/24151

Fig. 1. Unlike today, after centuries of fill and land reclamation, Boston in 1775 was almost an island. Easy to cut off from the mainland, but without long range weapons it was hard to reach by the besieging Continental Army. Detail, A Map of the most Inhabited part of New England, c.1768. (Collection of the Fort Ticonderoga Museum: https://fortticonderoga.catalogaccess.com/archives/29442)

Fig. 2. Draft of Arnold’s letter to the Massachusetts Committee of Safety in late May detailed the first movements of artillery out of the captured forts on the way to Boston. (Collection of the Fort Ticonderoga Museum: https://fortticonderoga.catalogaccess.com/archives/30071)

Fig. 3. Among the stores captured with the fall of Fort Chambly on October 18, 1775, were three brass mortars, additional guns were captured at St. Jean on November 3. (Collection of the Fort Ticonderoga Museum: https://fortticonderoga.catalogaccess.com/archives/29456)