Henry Knox was a twenty five year old bookseller who dragged 60 tons of cannons or 120,000 pounds or 28 SUVs over frozen lakes, rivers, and mountains in 1775 and changed the course of the American Revolution. How did this happen? The Americans had surrounded Boston where the British were holed up after the battle of Bunker Hill. Classic siege. In comes a new general fresh off his plantation where he had been drinking bourbon hunting foxes and having a great time off his wife's fortune. He then comes to inherit the motley American army with no idea how to dislodge the British from Boston.
George Washington knows one thing and that is that he cannot get the British out of the city unless he has artillery. Enter Henry Knox. A twenty five year old Boston bookseller with fabulous dreams but no real military experience at all. Washington takes him on and makes him a Colonel and puts him in charge of the artillery of which there is none. Knox set his eyes on Fort Ticonderoga 300 miles away were 59 cannons are lying dormant in the snow and with Washington's support decides to bring them back to Boston.
How he does this is the stuff of legend, 90 oxen and 42 sleds are his heavy trucks of the day. But mostly it is brute strength, grit, endurance and a belief in his Noble Train that sustains him over three months in the worst winter of the century. He finally gets the cannons to Washington who shells the British from Dorchester Heights and forcing them from the city. It is the first victory of the American Revolution and all because a Boston Bookseller believed he could do something everyone else thought was impossible. It is an American story.
George Washington knows one thing and that is that he cannot get the British out of the city unless he has artillery. Enter Henry Knox. A twenty five year old Boston bookseller with fabulous dreams but no real military experience at all. Washington takes him on and makes him a Colonel and puts him in charge of the artillery of which there is none. Knox set his eyes on Fort Ticonderoga 300 miles away were 59 cannons are lying dormant in the snow and with Washington's support decides to bring them back to Boston.
How he does this is the stuff of legend, 90 oxen and 42 sleds are his heavy trucks of the day. But mostly it is brute strength, grit, endurance and a belief in his Noble Train that sustains him over three months in the worst winter of the century. He finally gets the cannons to Washington who shells the British from Dorchester Heights and forcing them from the city. It is the first victory of the American Revolution and all because a Boston Bookseller believed he could do something everyone else thought was impossible. It is an American story.
