250 Years of Liberty

Henry Knox, an American hero, from a Book Seller to Chief of Artillery

Henry Knox, born July 25 1750, was an American hero, retrieving cannon from Ticonderoga to bring it across frozen rivers and mountains to Boston, to help free the city. He was at many battles and military events including the Battle of Bunker Hill, Siege of Boston, Knox Expedition, Fortification of Dorchester Heights, Battle of Long Island, Battle of Trenton, Battle of the Assunpink Creek, Battle of Princeton, Battle of Brandywine, Battle of Germantown, Battle of Monmouth, and the Siege of Yorktown. Not bad for a bookseller. He became the Secretary of War.

Henry Knox, born in Boston in 1750, lost his father at an early age. His mother’s income being a slender one, and his devotion to her being very great, he soon felt the need of personal exertion, and before attaining his majority, had established himself as a bookseller. Having a natural fondness for military tactics, he joined a company of grenadiers, and thus when the smouldering fire of dissatisfaction against taxation without representation burst into the flames of the Revolution, Knox had gained practical knowledge of warlike manœuvres. His father-in-law was a pronounced Tory; but his wife, sharing his own sentiments, helped him to escape from Boston that he might join the army. Appreciating our need of artillery, and knowing that no cannon were to be had except those in the old forts along the Canadian frontier, he volunteered to bring this ordnance to Washington’s camp at Cambridge, and accomplished this difficult and hazardous undertaking with such skill and courage that Washington rewarded him with the command of the artillery. This branch of the Continental service being attached to the main body of the army, Knox was in every battle where Washington fought, and never failed to exhibit the judgment, perseverance, and bravery that gained him success in the Canada expedition. On the 27th of December, 1776, Congress appointed him brigadier-general. At the battle of Monmouth, June 28, 1778, he was wounded in his left hand. For his distinguished services at the siege of Yorktown in 1781, Congress appointed him major-general on the 22d of March, 1782. He was one of the three commissioners intrusted with the adjustment of the terms of peace. On the 25th of November, 1783, he received as Washington’s deputy the surrender of the city of New York; and his military career ended with the command of West Point. When the Continental army was about to be disbanded, he conceived the idea of forming a society of his old and dearly loved companions-in-arms. This was the origin of the Society of the Cincinnati, of which Knox was first vice-president.

At the close of 1783, Knox retired to his home in Maine, but in 1784, Congress, under the Articles of Confederation, appointed him Secretary of War, which office he held until, in 1795, Washington reluctantly accepted his resignation. It was during the time he was at the head of the War Department, and by his advice, that the United States Marine Service was organized. Retiring once more to his home in Maine, he dispensed the most princely hospitality, it being no unusual thing for him to entertain a hundred guests daily. When events threatened a war with France, and President Adams thought best to form an army, Knox was again appointed major-general. He died suddenly at his residence in Thomaston, Maine, in 1806.

Biographical Sketches of the Generals of the Continental Army of the Revolution, by M. T. Leiter, 1889.

Image: MG Henry Knox, by Gilbert Stuart, 1806 PD