History Corner: Honoring the Noble Train of Artillery of Gen. Henry Knox

Have the recent snow and frigid temperatures made driving a few miles to pick up groceries feel like an expedition? Imagine the expedition that faced 25-year-old Boston bookseller Henry Knox in the winter of 1775-76. Gen. Washington needed cannons to drive the British Army out of Boston. Cannons and artillery had been captured from the British at Fort Ticonderoga, but that was 300 miles away on the Hudson River in New York.

Knox volunteered to go get them.

The newly commissioned Col. Knox, a self-taught artillery expert, departed Boston in late November 1775 and arrived at Fort Ticonderoga in early December. There, his rotating crew of soldiers and teamsters built 42 “exceedingly strong” sleds to haul the 59 cannons and ammunition, weighing about 60 tons. A yoke of 80 oxen pulled the sleds. Beginning on Dec. 6, Knox’s “Noble Train of Artillery” struggled through deep snow, icy rivers and rugged mountain passes, inching southward through New York then east for a total of some 300 miles. They arrived in Cambridge 56 days later, on Jan. 25, 1776.

Under cover of darkness, Washington moved the cannons to Dorchester Heights and pointed them at the city. This had the desired effect. On March 17, the British evacuated Boston. Henry Knox went on to a distinguished military career as Washington’s chief of artillery. He was promoted to major general at age 31 and later became the first secretary of war.

Two hundred years later, the Massachusetts Bicentennial Commission reenacted the Knox Expedition from the New York border to Boston, honoring 34 communities along the route, including Weston. Thirty-five hardy volunteers accompanied six oak sleds pulled by teams of huge Belgian horses and one unofficial yoke of oxen. The reenactors started their trek on Jan. 10 and arrived in Weston on Sunday, Jan. 25, 1976, where they were welcomed at the Knox Monument by Weston’s Bicentennial Committee. After an impromptu cocktail party at the home of Selectman Joan Vernon, the trekkers were treated to a chicken casserole dinner prepared by the Weston Historical Society. After dinner, a group of teamsters told tales to the Weston 4-H Club before spreading their sleeping bags on the floor of the Josiah Smith Tavern barn. The horses were stabled for the night by members of the 4-H Club, and the oxen were hosted by Frank Carter at Woodleigh Farm on Boston Post Road. After breakfast at Buttrick’s on Monday morning, the party continued to Cambridge.

Weston’s Knox Monument, located across from the Weston Fire Station, is one of more than 50 granite and bronze monuments installed in 1927 along Knox’s route in New York and Massachusetts to create the 300-mile-long Henry Knox Cannon Trail, one of the earliest heritage trails in the country.