How Did a Boston Bookseller Drag 28 SUV's over Frozen Lakes, Rivers, and Mountains in 1775?

The answer is he didn't. He 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.

Henry Knox's Noble Train

Five Things You Didn't Know About the First Victory of the American Revolution

The first victory of the American Revolution was over the British at Boston. George Washington had just taken command of the  American Army in June of 1775 and had just met a young bookseller named Henry Knox. Here are Five Things you Probably Didn't know.

1. George Washington had been running his plantation for fifteen years and had no experience on how to run a siege against Boston or how to run a large army. In fact he lamented taking command an complained about the stupidity of the troops. He wrote that if he had known the condition of the army he would have never taken command.

2. Henry Knox was a twenty five year old bookseller who had no military experience at all. George Washington made him a Colonel of the Artillery and sent him 300 miles in the middle of winter to retrieve 60 tons of cannons because they had no artillery to force the British out of Boston. Nobody thought Knox was capable of getting the 120,000 pounds of cannons that is the equivalent of 28 SUVS back to Boston.

3. Knox used oxen and sleds to transport the cannons.When he crossed Lake George a cannon fell through the ice and had to retrieved. He then crossed the Hudson river where a 5000 pound cannon went through the ice and it took the the whole town of Albany to pull it back to the surface. When he crossed the Berkshire mountains the men refused to go no further. It took Knox three hours of pleading with the men to get them to continue. It took two months to bring the cannon back.

4. Washington put Knox'x cannons up on Dorchester Heights overlooking Boston in one night and when the British woke up they found themselves under bombardment. General Howe tried to attack but a freak snowstorm drove him back and he opted to leave Boston, giving the Americans their first victory.

5. Henry Knox's journey of pulling the cannons to Washington in 1775 is referred to as the Noble Train because Henry Knox wrote Washington a letter from the wilderness stating he was bringing to him "his noble train of artillery."

Henry Knox Noble Train

Henry Knox's Noble Train or How did a Boston Bookseller Save the American Revolution?

Pulling sixty tons of cannons in the dead of winter in 1775. That is what he did. With oxen and sleds and men with ropes and chains. It was the equivalent of 28 SUVS. He pulled the cannon 300 miles over frozen lakes, rivers, and mountains. In snow, ice, hail, freezing temperatures, thawing temperatures with the danger that Indians, the British, or the weather would stop he and his men who had become the hope of the American Revolution. So how did a twenty five year old  Boston Bookseller become the man who would give the Americans their first victory over the British?It is a serendipitous tale.
\

George Washington is laying siege to Boston but he has no artillery.  It is the winter of 1775 and the forty three year old General is just taking over after running a plantation for fifteen years. He has no idea how to get the British out besides a frontal assault and for this he has not the men or the gunpowder. Enter Benedict Arnold and Ethan Allen who have taken Fort Ticonderoga with 60 tons of cannons within its walls. This fort is 300 miles away with frozen lakes, rivers, and mountains separating Boston from the artillery Washington desperately needs to dislodge the British. He meets a fat young man on a road while inspecting fortifications who will change history.

Henry Knox tells the general he will get the cannons. He has just left Boston with his wife and abandoned his bookstore to the British. He has read everything there is to know about artillery and while he has no actual experience he has certainly read about transporting cannons and so Washington gives him his orders. Bring back the cannons from Fort Ticonderoga. Knox sets off in November and will not return until late January. The incredible feat of bringing these cannon back from Fort Ticonderoga over sixty agonizing days in the winter of f 1775 is the story of
Henry Knox's Noble Train