About Henry Knox

In July of 1775, three weeks after the battle at Bunker Hill, George Washington took charge of rebel forces in Cambridge, Massachusetts. The resulting fight was a stalemate. While British forces held downtown Boston, rebel troops surrounded the city. Both sides took occasional pot shots but neither side risked an all-out attack. All the while, the powerful British Fleet was moored at the city’s waterfront. General Washington concluded he needed a spring-loaded event to break the deadlock.

So in the fall, young Henry Knox (25 years old at the time) took on a brazen task. These were his orders from General Washington: go to forts in northern New York, organize on-route a soldier/teamster/oxen team, gather about 50 artillery cannons and bring them back to Cambridge Common, and do it as soon as possible.

In November, Knox led his team south from Crown Point, N.Y. on Lake George for the first 150 miles to the Massachusetts line at Great Barrington, and then continued over the next 150 miles east to Cambridge arriving in late January of 1776.

General Washington praised Knox for executing his order quicker than Washington thought possible. In early March, Continental troops led a covert caravan in an attempt to reach Boston Harbor and the British fleet. Achieved without detection by a dangerously large number of British patrols, Continental troops pulled the cannon through Brighton, Brookline, Jamaica Plain, Roxbury, and then finally to Dorchester Heights. They mounted the weapons on a hilltop there and through the camouflage of rocks and trees they pointed them downward directly at His Majesty’s ships, turning the tide in favor of the Continental troops.

In 2023, we three retired men began to walk Knox’s route. In Step with History tells the story of our Knox Walks, activities that require commitment and determination. Each walk has become for us a physically challenging way to honor Henry Knox and his successful execution of a bold military surprise 250 years later.