Henry Knox, American Patriot

Henry Knox (July 25, 1750 – October 25, 1806) was an American bookseller from Boston who became the chief artillery officer of the Continental Army and later the nation’s first Secretary of War.

Knox supported the American rebels, the Sons of Liberty, and was present at the Boston Massacre. He volunteered as a member of the Boston Grenadier Corps in 1772 and served under General Artemas Ward at the Battle of Bunker Hill in 1775. Being a member of the Army of Observation, Knox met and impressed General George Washington when he took command. Knox offered his services to Washington, who had him commissioned a Colonel and gave him command of the Continental Regiment of Artillery. Washington and Knox soon became good friends.

As the Siege of Boston continued, he suggested that the 59 cannons recently captured at Fort Ticonderoga and at Crown Point could have a decisive impact. Washington put him in charge of an expedition to retrieve them. His force brought them by ox-drawn sled south along the west bank of the Hudson River from Fort Ticonderoga to Albany where he crossed the Hudson, continued east through the Berkshires and finally to Boston. Knox and his men averaged approximately 5 ⅜ miles per day, completing the 300-mile trip in 56 days. The Cannon Train was composed of fifty-nine cannon and mortars, 29 from Crown Point and 30 from Fort Ticonderoga, and weighed a total of 60 tons. Upon their arrival in Cambridge, when Washington’s army took the Heights of Dorchester, the cannons were placed in a heavily fortified position overlooking Boston from which they threatened the British fleet in the harbor. As a result, the British were forced to withdraw to Halifax on March 17, 1776.

During the Battle of Trenton, Colonel Knox was in charge of Washington’s crossing of the Delaware River. Though hampered by ice and cold, with John Glover’s Marbleheaders manning the boats, he got the attack force of men, horses and artillery across the river without loss. Following the battle he returned the same force, along with hundreds of prisoners, captured supplies and all the boats back across the river by the afternoon of December 26. Knox was promoted to brigadier general for this accomplishment, and Chief of Artillery.

The Continental Congress made Knox Secretary of War under the Articles of Confederation on March 8, 1785. He held that position without interruption until September 12, 1789, when he assumed the same duties as the Secretary of War in Washington’s first Cabinet. As secretary, Knox urged and presided over the creation of a regular United States Navy and created a series of coastal fortifications.

Knox settled at Montpelier, the estate he built in Thomaston, Maine. He spent the rest of his life engaged in cattle farming, ship building, brick making, and real estate speculation. He had assembled a vast 1,000,000-acre real estate empire in Maine through graft and corruption, triggering an armed insurrection by local settlers who, at one point, threatened to burn Montpelier to the ground. He also was industrious in lumbering, ship building, stock raising, and brick manufacturing, although all of these businesses failed, building up staggering debts that would ultimately bankrupt his heirs.

In 1806, while visiting a friend in Union, Maine, he swallowed a chicken bone which punctured his intestine. He died of an infection (peritonitis) three days later on October 25, 1806 and was buried in Thomaston. Many incidents in Knox’s career attest to his character, both good and bad. As one example, when he and Lucy were forced to leave Boston in 1775, his home was used to house British officers who looted his bookstore. In spite of personal financial hardships, he managed to make the last payment of 1,000 pounds to Longman Printers in London to cover the price of a shipment of books that he never received.

Two separate American forts, Fort Knox (Kentucky), and Fort Knox (Maine) were named after him. Knox Hall at Fort Sill, Oklahoma, home of the Field Artillery Center and Field Artillery School, is also named after him. Knoxville, Tennessee, is named in his honor. There are counties named for Knox in Illinois, Indiana, Kentucky, Maine, Missouri, Nebraska, Ohio, Tennessee, and Texas.

Excerpted from and continued on: Wikipedia

Despite the controversy Knox caused later in private life, I consider Henry Knox to be one of the greatest contributors to our freedom in America. Through his determination in war and as the Secretary of State, Knox defined the meaning of a patriot.