The Guns of Ticonderoga

A reflection on an oft-ignored, yet critical episode of American history

Fort Ticonderoga today

On Tuesday morning, I was offered some most helpful advice: in order to pull my mind away from the stress of a conflict in the Middle East with far-reaching, global consequences and little hint of an exit strategy unfolding anytime soon, I ought to return to my roots that I once studied so eagerly when I was a little boy. Therefore, in honor of the 250^th birthday of the United States, I will endeavor to write more about the great history of our own nation. For this week’s newsletter, I will take you back to 1775 and a daring undercover military operation that not only stunned the enemy but foreshadowed what our people were truly made of— nearly two centuries before the Navy SEALs were even an idea.

In 1775, Boston was under siege. Years of smoldering tension in the city over taxes imposed by London directly on the North American colonists had recently exploded into open conflict. Thousands of British troops under the command of Generals Thomas Gage and then William Howe were trapped in a then-peninsular city under constant Patriot musket fire. However, nothing short of cannon bombardment, which the Patriots lacked, would force the so-called Redcoats out of the city. And as for these cannons? They were far away at Fort Ticonderoga, a British fortification recently captured by the Ethan Allen (no, not the furniture guy) and his Green Mountain Boys Militia. Almost everyone involved in the Patriot cause assumed that transporting them all the way to Boston would be impossible.

Not Henry Knox.

A 25-year-old Boston bookseller with a robust 280-pound frame and a jovial, quick-witted nature, Knox consumed himself with the ins and outs of British military strategy thoroughly chronicled in the collections of ‘London Book Store,’ the shop he purchased shortly after his mother’s death in 1771. A political radical who had joined the Sons of Liberty as a teenager, Knox was devoted to the Patriot cause and believed he possessed the intellect to meaningfully contribute. In the summer of 1775, Knox was introduced to none other than George Washington, and the two became loyal friends almost immediately, culminating in Knox’s appointment as colonel.

On the advice of the Lord Voldemort of the American Revolution, Washington and Knox began to plot a most daring escapade: moving the guns of Ticonderoga to Boston. Such an undertaking could only occur in winter, as it was far more practical to transport the cannons via sled over smooth snow than through mud and rocks. After arriving at the fort in December 1775, Knox and about 40 other men prepared approximately 60 tons of artillery, comprising 58 cannons including the 5,000-pound “Old Sow,” for their journey down the frozen Hudson River and across the frigid New England forests. The trek was anything but easy. There were no highways, no motels with HVAC systems, no safe spaces, just plenty of horses, oxen, and sheer grit. The “Noble Train of Artillery,” as Knox labeled his expedition, began its arduous land journey on December 17.

It would be 40 days of frozen hell. Knox needed about half mile of rope along with 42 sleds and 80 oxen to transport the guns across the snow-covered New England forests. Having nearly escaped death while trudging through blizzards, Knox wrote to Washington a curt “it is not easy to conceive the difficulties we have had.” 18^th century stoicism and fortitude at its finest. On January 26, 1776, Henry Knox reached Washington’s camp outside Boston. Not a single man nor any of Fort Ticonderoga’s guns had been lost during the expedition. The Noble Train of Artillery had fulfilled its mission.

By March 5, a stunned General Howe, now aware that the 58 cannons were assembled and ready to fire upon the city from Dorchester Heights in what is now South Boston, remarked “these fellows have done more work in one night than I could make my army do in three months.” Less than two weeks later, on St. Patrick’s Day 1776, Howe ordered more than 10,000 British soldiers and loyalists to be evacuated from Boston. What a splendid irony that after Knox’s cannons were parked in an area that has become America’s quintessential Irish neighborhood, William Howe and his men departed Boston on America’s quintessential Irish holiday. Not only was Knox’s courageous expedition a tactical victory, but according to the American Battlefield Trust, it “bolstered morale and showed that the Americans had a chance of winning the war.” A monument to Washington and Knox’s fortification now stands on that very spot today.

Unfortunately, the American historical canon (punny, right?) has relegated the Noble Train of Artillery to one of historical footnote among the many heroic acts that defined the American War of Independence. However, without Knox’s ingenuity and incredible courage, the rebellion that began in Boston would likely have fizzled as further reinforcements from London would have made quick work of the Patriots. 250 years later, as the cause Henry Knox fought for has become the world’s most powerful nation in human history, it would be wise to not only show gratitude for the brave men who formed our nation, but also reflect on the often-entitled state of American society today and work toward reviving the resourceful and gutsy spirit of men like Henry Knox.