Knox Drags Cannons to Boston: Winter's Bold Gamble
Colonel Henry Knox, a 25-year-old bookseller turned artillerist, set out from Fort Ticonderoga on December 5, 1775, with 59 cannons, mortars, and howitzers weighing a total of 60 tons. His mission was to drag them 300 miles over frozen lakes, through forests, and across the Berkshire Mountains to the Continental Army besieging Boston. Knox used ox-drawn sleds and flat-bottomed boats, crossing the Hudson River four times where the ice kept breaking. The journey took two months. Washington placed the guns on Dorchester Heights overlooking Boston Harbor on the night of March 4, 1776. British General Howe woke to find his fleet and army under the muzzles of the captured artillery. He evacuated Boston on March 17 without a fight. Knox's 'noble train of artillery' was one of the most audacious logistics operations of the Revolution.
December 5, 1775
251 years ago
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