Henry Knox Delivers the Noble Train of Artillery to George Washington in Cambridge on January 24, 1776
On January 24, 1776, Bostonian Henry Knox (1750-1806) arrived at General George Washington's Colonial Army headquarters in Cambridge, Massachusetts, with news that some 60 tons of weapons, including 58 cannons and assorted artillery, had been successfully transported from Fort Ticonderoga in New York to the outskirts of Boston. The weapons were being used to fortify American defenses against the British occupying forces during the Siege of Boston. Historian J.L. Bell suggests that the bulk of the weaponry may have been held at Framingham, MA, and that Knox was simply reporting to General Washington about the successful mission on January 24. Knox was the mastermind and commander of what became known as the Noble Train of Artillery, a 300 mile trek across a frozen landscape in the dead of winter. Knox and his men dragged the arsenal across hills and mountains, frozen lakes and fields, on boats and sleds, with horse and oxen, through dozens of small villages in eastern New York and...