Colonel Henry Knox left Boston 250 years ago this month with orders from General Washington to retrieve artillery for the Continental Army from the captured British fortresses of Ticonderoga and Crown Point, New York.
Traveling overland through New York City and up the Hudson River, Knox and his fellow patriots collected the heavy cannons, ammunition and powder from the forts to be moved to Boston.
The heavy pieces were loaded onto 42 sleds. Using 80 teams of oxen, dragged the loads across snowy roads to the north end of Lake George. There they loaded the artillery onto barges for a six-day sail to the south end of the lake. Once there he wrote General Washington about the “Noble Train” being moved to Boston.
The artillery was loaded back onto sleds for the trip to Albany, arriving in time for Christmas 1775. That was the first 120 miles of the 300-mile trip.
To complete the winter trek across the Berkshires, through Westfield and Springfield to Cambridge, took another month. The cannons were installed at Dorchester Heights, overlooking Boston, causing the British army and Tory citizens to evacuate the city to Halifax. The final departure of the British from occupied Boston gives Patriots a reason to celebrate Evacuation Day on March 17 each year.
Submitted by Mark Neumann