Henry Knox was born in Boston in 1750. While a student at the Boston Latin School, his father suddenly abandoned the family. Forced to quit school to help support the family, young Henry found employment at a bookstore where the indulgent owner became a surrogate father to him. He allowed Henry to read any book he wished in between his duties. Henry read widely but his favorites were books of military history and tactics.
Knox grew to be far more than a sedentary reader. Given his impoverished background, he was familiar with life on the streets of Boston. He was physically tough, a natural leader and, at 6-foot-3, a large man. In later life he was said to weigh nearly 300 pounds, but, in 1770, he was an imposing young man. That year he was present at the Boston Massacre and testified about it in court.
The next year he opened his own business, the London Book Store. It became a favorite of Boston aristocrats as well as British Army officers, whom Knox engaged in conversation about military matters. At the same time, he was active in the Sons of Liberty and had joined a local artillery militia. It is not known if he participated in the Boston Tea Party raid, but he had done guard duty on the docks to assure the tea was not secretly unloaded.
In 1774, at the age of 24, Henry married the 18-year-old Lucy Flucker. They had met and fallen in love at the bookstore. Her parents were strong Tories, and they were unalterably opposed to the marriage and disowned Lucy. After the confrontation at Lexington/Concord in April 1775, the couple were forced to abandon their home and the bookstore and flee from Boston. Henry and Lucy stayed together the rest of their lives and had 13 children, only three of whom reached adulthood. Lucy never had a rapprochement with her family.
Knox reported for duty with the rebel army besieging Boston and was put in charge of artillery. John Adams, who had been a client of the bookstore, obtained a commission of colonel for him. When George Washington took over command in July 1775, he was impressed by Knox’s work and kept him on as his artillery chief. The two of them were to work side by side for the next eight years.
Word reached Boston about the Green Mountain Boys capturing the forts at Ticonderoga and Crown Point in northern New York. They had seized 59 cannons in the victories and Knox convinced Washington they were just what was needed to defeat the British in Boston.
In early December 1775, with winter coming on, Knox and his squad set off for the Lake George area to undertake what would become one of the most heroic efforts of the war. Using ox and horse-drawn sleds, they moved the cannons and other captured equipment through snow-covered roads and over frozen lakes and rivers from Lake George to Albany and then through the Berkshires to Boston. It took more than six weeks and covered a distance of 300 miles.
Today, the trek is honored by New York and Massachusetts with markers on the Henry Knox trail. When the guns were emplaced, the British quickly abandoned Boston on what is still celebrated as Evacuation Day in the commonwealth. Lucy’s family were among the evacuees.
Knox remained in charge of artillery throughout the war and was promoted to brigadier general. During a lull in the fighting, he returned to Massachusetts and, with the authority of Congress, sanctioned the building of the Springfield Armory.
When Washington resigned his commission at the conclusion of the war in 1783, Knox became head of the army. The Congress, under the Articles of Confederation, appointed him head of the war department. When Washington was elected the first president under the Constitution, he appointed Knox the first Secretary of War, an office he held from 1789-94.
Knox was a discerning administrator. He lobbied for separate training academies for the army and navy and for the building of navy ships. He realized his legacy would greatly depend on how he handled relations with the Native Americans. It was his decision to treat each tribe as a separate nation. Few others shared his views, and his ideas were not popular. His treaties with various tribes were not honored and his policies were abandoned by his successors.
Knox resigned from the Cabinet in 1794, and he and Lucy moved to Thomaston, Maine, which was then part of Massachusetts. They built a mansion called Montpelier after Knox acquired the land once owned by Lucy’s family. Knox engaged in many business ventures, none of which were particularly successful. He died in 1806 at the age of 56.
Not well known today, he is remembered as the man for whom Fort Knox, Knoxville, Tennessee, and many other towns and counties are named. An early American success story, he rose from humble beginnings to become on of the founding fathers of the nation.
Richard Szlosek lives in Northampton.