When Henry Knox (1750 –1806) was a child, his father left for the West Indies in search of financial stability. His career as shipbuilder and family provider would come to an end with his untimely death. His wife and ten children would be left without a father and would have to toil on their own to make ends meet when his father abandoned the family in the West Indies, including nine-year-old Henry.
Knox dropped out of grammar school to become a clerk for a Boston bookbinding company. The bright young boy consumed as much literary knowledge as possible. He quickly fell in love with the works of history and warfare, notably studying “Sharpe’s Military Guide” and Julius Caesar’s “Commentaries.” His love of military knowledge became so great that he taught himself to read and speak French in order to read military works that had yet to be translated.
By the time he was 12 years old, the French and Indian War had come to a close, but one of the war’s most prominent figures, George Washington, would eventually become one of his closest friends. As the English Crown created new taxes for the colonists, the tensions in the colonies increased. Knox was the right man―already a military genius and practitioner―in the right place: Boston.
His love of history and military books led to two careers. After saving his money, he opened up his own bookstore called The London Book Shop, which was frequented by soldiers for its military selections. When the British took over Boston, Knox, already a militiaman, abandoned his store to the whims of looters and eventually joined the Continental Army during the Siege of Boston.
Knox’s lifelong study of military strategy, artillery, and engineering, led to one of the most brilliant moments of the American Revolution. Knox formulated a plan to drive out the British from Boston by putting the Royal Navy within firing range from a mass of cannons. The only issue was the new Continental Army had very little in terms of cannons. Knox decided to take hundreds of men, horses and oxen with him to the recently captured Fort Ticonderoga, and requisition all 59 cannons, artillery, and mortars, totaling nearly 120,000 pounds. The massive expedition covered 300 miles across New York, Vermont, New Hampshire, and back to Boston in the dead of winter. Under Knox’s leadership and steady hand, not one cannon was lost or damaged.
This military feat of engineering earned Knox the title of chief artillery officer. His rank within artillery matters would never be succeeded. By the end of the war, he would earn the ranking of major general; and, upon Washington’s resignation, he would become the army’s senior military officer. After Washington finished his resignation speech, it was Knox who was tearfully the first to embrace the future first president. The military relationship continued as Knox would become President Washington’s Secretary of War from 1789 to 1794.
