Henry Knox

Major General Henry Knox

American Revolutionary General and Washington's first secretary of war. Born in Boston, July 25, 1750, and died Oct. 25, 1806. Before the outbreak of war, he was employed by a Boston bookseller at the age of 12, and in 1771 opened his own shop, the London Bookstore, which became a gathering place for British officers. Knox spent much of his spare time studying military science. He had joined a local military company when he was 18, and in 1772 he became second in command of the newly formed Boston Grenadier Corps. He served with distinction as an artillery officer in the American Revolution and later became Secretary of War.

Knox joined the American colonial army in 1775 and participated in nearly every important military engagement throughout the Revolution. In November 1775 he was commissioned Colonel of Artillery. In 1775, Knox helped save Boston from capture by the British when, with the sanction of Gen. George Washington, he went to Fort Ticonderoga near the Canadian frontier to transport to Boston 55 pieces of badly needed artillery captured by Ethan Allen.

Using oxen and horses, he transported the guns 480 km (300 mi) overland to the besieged city under difficult winter conditions. The fortification of Dorchester Heights with these 55 captured guns compelled the British evacuation of Boston on March 17, 1776.

Knox became Washington's trusted adviser and friend. He organized the American artillery and fought in the battles in and around New York in 1776. It was under his supervision that Washington's troops crossed the Delaware River on Christmas night, 1776, to attack the Hessian soldiers in Trenton. For this he was rewarded with a commission as Brigadier General.

Under his direction the artillery was effective in the battles of Princeton (Jan. 3, 1777), Brandywine (Sept. 11, 1777), Germantown (Oct. 4, 1777), and Monmouth (June 28, 1778), and in the siege of Yorktown (October 1781). Knox had been with Washington during the cruel winter of 1777 in Valley Forge, and, while in winter quarters in New Jersey in 1779, he organized a temporary military academy at Pluckemin, N.J.. Knox served on the court-martial that condemned Maj. John André as a spy in 1780.

After the British surrender at Yorktown, Knox was made a Major General. In 1782 he was placed in command of West Point. At his urging a group of Revolutionary officers founded the Society of the Cincinnati in 1783 to perpetuate their mutual friendships and to assist needy officers and their families. He served (1785-94) as Secretary of War under the Articles of Confederation and also, in George Washington's administration, under the U.S. Constitution.

Knox was a firm believer in a strong federal government, and welcomed the new Constitution. A plan for a national militia, advanced by Knox in 1790, failed to win congressional approval. He retired from public life in 1794 and in 1796 settled on his estate, Montpelier, in Thomaston, Me., where he died, on Oct. 25, 1806.

(See Bibliography Below)

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Picture Credit: Museum of Fine Arts, Boston (top).
Bibliography: Callahan, North, Henry Knox: General Washington's General (1958).