Henry Knox

Britannica Concise Encyclopedia: Henry Knox

(born July 25, 1750, Boston, Mass. — died Oct. 25, 1806, Thomaston, Maine, U.S.) American Revolutionary officer. Active in the colonial militia, he joined the Continental Army and was sent by George Washington to transport British artillery captured in the Battle of Ticonderoga. In mid-winter, he oversaw the transport of 120,000 lbs (55,000 kg) of artillery by oxen and horses over snow and ice 300 mi (480 km) to Boston. Promoted to general, he commanded the artillery in the battles of Monmouth and Yorktown, and in 1783 he succeeded Washington as commander of the army. He was secretary of war under the Articles of Confederation from 1785 to 1789 and served as the first U.S. secretary of war from 1789 to 1795.

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US Military History Companion: Henry Knox

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(1750–1806), Revolutionary War general, secretary of war

As a twenty‐five‐year‐old Boston bookseller, Knox became a colonel and head of the Continental army's artillery regiment in November 1775. In the prewar period he had served in a local militia unit, observed British regulars, and read extensively in military works. Thirteen months later, Congress made him a brigadier general and the chief of a growing artillery corps.

Knox's corps distinguished itself in sieges, most notably at Boston and Yorktown, and also in open field engagements, like those at Trenton and Monmouth, where he made mobile and effective use of his cannon.

In the postwar period, Knox headed the War Department (1874–94). During his tenure as secretary of war, he oversaw an extensive coast artillery construction program. He also faced the difficult task of reconciling the country's security needs with an anti–standing army bias, financial limitations, and embryonic political structure. A strong nationalist, Knox proposed a small regular army, an academy to train officers, and a nationalized militia of adult male citizens. Though not fully accepted before his retirement in 1794, Knox's ideas helped lay the foundations of American military policy for the next century.

Bibliography

North Callahan, Henry Knox: General Washington's General, 1958.
Richard H. Kohn, Eagle and Sword: The Federalists and the Creation of the Military Establishment in America, 1783–1802, 1975

US Military Dictionary: Henry Knox

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Knox, Henry (1750-1806) Revolutionary War general and chief of artillery for the Continental army, born in Boston, Massachusetts. In 1775 Knox brought the captured arsenal at Fort Ticonderoga to George Washington's camp at Cambridge, Massachusetts. The resultant heavy firepower on Dorchester Heights, overlooking Boston Harbor, led the British to evacuate Boston. Knox's artillery continued to be important to Washington's army throughout the war, right up to the battle of Yorktown (1781). In 1783 he was designated by Washington to succeed him as commander in chief, and in 1785 the Confederation Congress named him secretary at war. During his tenure as secretary of war (1789-94) under the new government, most of the War Department's work focused on Indian affairs.

In 1782 Knox became the youngest major general in the Continental army.

See the Introduction, Abbreviations and Pronunciation for further details.

Biography: Henry Knox

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Henry Knox (1750-1806) was a Revolutionary War general, famed as the father of American army artillery.

Henry Knox was born in Boston, Mass., on July 25, 1750. He had to leave school at an early age to support his mother, who had been deserted by his father. In 1772 Knox joined the Boston Grenadier Corps, a crack regiment, as second in command. Two years later he married Lucy Flucker, whose loyalist father opposed the marriage.

When the Revolution broke out in 1775, Knox volunteered his services to Gen. George Washington. Knox knew something about artillery, so he was appointed colonel in command of the Continental Regiment of Artillery. There was, however, no artillery in the army assembled at Cambridge, Mass.; it was in enemy hands 300 miles away at Ticonderoga, N.Y. In late December 1775 Knox went to fetch the 59 big guns and in a daring operation hauled them to Boston through snow and ice. He arrived just in time to help Washington fortify Dorchester Heights, overlooking Boston. This caused the British general to evacuate the city. Thereafter, Knox and his artillery figured prominently in almost every major engagement of the war.

Knox took part in the Battle of Long Island in August 1776. He joined Washington in the retreat into New Jersey and in the stunning surprise attack and victory against the Hessian garrison at Trenton in December. It was Knox who directed the famous crossing of the Delaware by Washington's army on Christmas night, 1776, and it was his artillery that cut down the Hessians as they emerged sleepily from their quarters. Meanwhile, Congress had promoted him to brigadier general. In the next key encounter with the British (at Princeton, N.J., in January 1777) Knox's part in the victory was equally important.

In the campaigns of 1777 and 1778, Knox was, as always, at Washington's side - in the failures at Brandywine and Germantown, Pa., and in the success at Monmouth, N.J. In the Monmouth battle he performed so skillfully that Washington could say, "No artillery could have been better served than ours." But it was the final battle of the war, at Yorktown, Va., in October 1781, that showed Knox's genius. The murderous accuracy of his guns devastated the British forces penned up on the narrow Yorktown peninsula, and 8 days after Knox opened fire, the British general, Charles Cornwallis, surrendered. Knox's reward was the second star, making him, at 31, the youngest major general in the army.

With the fighting over, Knox was put in command of the military reservation at West Point, N.Y. After Washington retired in December 1783, Knox was appointed to replace him as commander in chief until the army was disbanded 6 months later. In March 1785 he was made secretary of war in the Confederation government, and he retained that post in Washington's first presidential cabinet. In 1794 he retired to a lavish life on the large estate his wife inherited in Maine. He died there on Oct. 6, 1806.

Henry Knox

1st United States Secretary of War
In office March 8, 1785 – December 31, 1794
President	George Washington
Preceded by	None
Succeeded by	Timothy Pickering

Born	July 25, 1750(1750-07-25) Boston, Massachusetts, British America
Died	October 25, 1806 (aged 56) near Thomaston, Maine, U.S.
Nationality	British (at birth) American (at death)
Spouse(s)	Lucy Flucker
Profession	Bookseller, Soldier
Signature
Military service
Allegiance	United States of America
Service/branch	Continental Army United States Army
Years of service	1775-1784
Rank	Colonel 1775-1776 Brigadier General 1776-1781 Major General 1781-1784
Commands	Chief of Artillery
Battles/wars	American Revolutionary War Battle of Bunker Hill Siege of Boston Battle of Long Island Battle of Trenton Battle of the Assunpink Creek Battle of Princeton Battle of Brandywine Battle of Germantown Battle of Monmouth Siege of Yorktown

Early life and marriage

Henry Knox was born in Boston to parents of Scots-Irish origin, William Knox and Mary (nee Campbell). His father was a ship's captain who died in 1759 in part due to mental stress arising from financial trouble. Henry left school at the age of 12 and became a clerk in a bookstore to support his mother. He later opened his own bookshop, the London Book Store, in Boston. Largely self-educated, he began to concentrate on military subjects, particularly artillery. Knox joined a local military company at eighteen, was present at the Boston Massacre, and joined the Boston Grenadier Corps in 1772.^[1]

1771 advertisement for London Bookstore, Boston

Henry married Lucy Flucker (1756–1824), the daughter of Boston Loyalists, on June 16, 1774. In spite of separations due to his military service, they remained a devoted couple for the rest of his life, and carried on an extensive correspondence. Since the couple fled Boston in 1775, she remained essentially homeless throughout the Revolutionary War. Her parents left with the British during their withdrawal from Boston after the Continental Army fortified Dorchester Heights, which ironically hinged upon Knox’s cannons. She never saw them again.

Military career

Knox supported the American rebels, the Sons of Liberty, and was present at the Boston Massacre. He volunteered as a member of the Boston Grenadier Corps in 1772 and served under General Artemas Ward at the Battle of Bunker Hill in 1775. Being a member of the Army of Observation, Knox met and impressed General George Washington when he took command. Knox offered his services to Washington, who had him commissioned a Colonel and gave him command of the Continental Regiment of Artillery.^[1] Washington and Knox soon became good friends.

As the Siege of Boston continued, he suggested that the cannons recently captured at Fort Ticonderoga and at Crown Point could have a decisive impact. Washington put him in charge of an expedition to retrieve them.^[1] His force brought them by ox-drawn sled south along the west bank of the Hudson River from Fort Ticonderoga to Albany where he crossed the Hudson, continued east through the Berkshires and finally to Boston. There are 56 plaques on the trail from Fort Ticonderoga to Cambridge, Massachusetts denoting the approximately 56 day length of the journey. Knox and his men averaged approximately 5 ⅜ miles per day, completing the 300-mile (480 km) trip in 56 days, between December 5, 1775, and January 24, 1776. The Cannon Train was composed of fifty-nine cannon and mortars, 29 from Crown Point and 30 from Fort Ticonderoga, and weighed a total of 60 tons. Upon their arrival in Cambridge, when Washington's army took the Heights of Dorchester, the cannons were placed in a heavily fortified position overlooking Boston from which they threatened the British fleet in the harbor. As a result, the British were forced to withdraw to Halifax on March 17, 1776.^[1] After the siege was lifted, Knox undertook the construction and improvement of defenses in Connecticut and Rhode Island to prepare for the British return. He rejoined the main army later during their withdrawal from New York and across New Jersey.

During the Battle of Trenton, Colonel Knox was in charge of Washington's crossing of the Delaware River.^[1] Though hampered by ice and cold, with John Glover's Marbleheaders (14th Continental Regiment) manning the boats, he got the attack force of men, horses and artillery across the river without loss. Following the battle he returned the same force, along with hundreds of prisoners, captured supplies and all the boats back across the river by the afternoon of December 26. Knox was promoted to brigadier general for this accomplishment, and Chief of Artillery.^[1]

Knox stayed with the Main Army throughout most of the active war, and saw further action at Princeton, Brandywine, Germantown, Monmouth, and Yorktown.^[1] In 1777, while the Army was in winter quarters at Morristown, New Jersey, he returned to Massachusetts to improve the Army's artillery capability. He raised an additional battalion and established the Springfield Armory before his return in the spring. That arsenal remained a valuable source of ammunition and gun carriages for the rest of the war. In early 1780 he was a member of the court-martial of Major John André.^[1] Knox made several other trips to the Northern states as Washington's representative to increase the flow of men and supplies to the army.

In Pluckemin (a hamlet of Bedminster, New Jersey), in the winter of 1778-1779, Knox formed the Continental Army's first facility for artillery and officer training in what has been named the Pluckemin Artillery Cantonment or simply the Pluckemin Artillery Park. The Pluckemin artillery training academy is noted as the precursor to the USMA at West Point, New York. While there, through the summer of 1779, General Knox spent most of his time dealing with over 1,000 soldiers in desperate need of formal military training, in the face of low morale and scarce supplies.

After Yorktown, Knox was promoted to major general. In 1782 he was given command of the post at West Point.^[1] In 1783 he was one of the founders of the Society of the Cincinnati,^[1] and led the American forces into New York City as the British withdrew. He stood next to Washington during his farewell on December 4 at Fraunces Tavern. After Washington retired, Knox served as the senior officer of the Continental Army from December 1783 until he left it in June 1784.^[1]

Secretary of War

Henry Knox in the Washington Administration, by James Harvy Young, 1873. From the earlier Gilbert Stuart painting.

The Continental Congress made Knox Secretary of War under the Articles of Confederation on March 8, 1785. He held that position without interruption until September 12, 1789, when he assumed the same duties as the Secretary of War in Washington's first Cabinet.

As secretary, Knox urged and presided over the creation of a regular United States Navy and created a series of coastal fortifications. In 1792, Congress, acting on a detailed proposal from Knox, created the short-lived Legion of the United States.^[2]

As part of his duties as Secretary of War, Knox attempted the implementation of the Militia Act of 1792. This included his evaluation of the arms and readiness of the militia finding that only 20% of the 450,000 members of the militia were capable of arming themselves at their own expense for militia service as required by the Act. To resolve this arms shortage, Knox recommended to Congress that the federal government increase the purchase of imported weapons, ban the export of domestically produced weapons and establish domestic government run weapons manufacturing (arsenals) and armories, including the Springfield Armory and the Harpers Ferry Armory.^[3]

As Secretary of War, Knox was well and responsible for managing the United States' relations with the Native Americans in the United States Indian tribes within its borders, following a 1789 act of United States Congress. For the previous three years he had had similar responsibilities under the Congress of the Confederation, although the previous position had little actual authority.^[4] Knox used his new position to argue that the United States honor the Native Americans' rights. Usual U.S. government policy involved signing treaties with Native American nations that were not intended to be kept, with the goal of seizing as much Indian land as possible. Knox publicly opposed this policy, the first U.S. government official to do so.^[4] He believed that the practice violated the republican principles embodied in the American Revolution.^[4] Furthermore, Knox feared that a policy of constant provocation would lead to costly frontier wars that would hurt the nation.^[5]

To this end, Knox argued that the United States should treat Native American tribes as sovereign, foreign nations. He envisioned a humane policy of treaties that would not be broken, resulting in a series of Indian enclaves in the West where the United States would forbid its citizens to settle.^[6] He urged President Washington to make a priority of reforming the United States' Indian policy.

Henry Knox. Published 1881 in Young Persons' Cyclopedia of Persons and Places.

In 1789 Washington had Knox send a bill to congress to purchase Native lands for $25,394. This was a far cheaper price to pay than to once again battle the natives. The bill made it possible for only the federal government to control native lands, rather than the states administering territories. The natives were now considered foreigners, and forced to cooperate or leave.^[1]

The first test of the new policy came from the negotiations between Knox, Secretary of State Thomas Jefferson, and Alexander McGillivray, leader of the Creek Nation. The resulting Treaty of New York guaranteed the Creeks a vast stretch of territory, which the U.S. pledged to protect from the encroachments of its citizens. Settlers continued to pour into Creek territory, however, and the federal troops that Knox sent could not secure the border. McGillivray abandoned the alliance with the United States in 1791, turning to Spanish protection in the Treaty of New Orleans. The failure of the Treaty of New York marked the end of Knox's attempt to enact a new Indian policy.^[7]

On January 2, 1795, Knox left the government and returned to his home at Thomaston, Maine to devote himself to caring for his growing family. He was succeeded as Secretary of War by Timothy Pickering.

Later life

Knox settled at Montpelier, the estate he built in Thomaston, Maine. He spent the rest of his life engaged in cattle farming, ship building, brick making, and real estate speculation. He had assembled a vast 1,000,000-acre (4,000 km²) real estate empire in Maine through graft and corruption, triggering an armed insurrection by local settlers who, at one point, threatened to burn Montpelier to the ground.^[8] Although Knox represented his Thomaston in the Massachusetts General Court (Maine then being part of Massachusetts), he eventually became so unpopular that he lost the seat to a local blacksmith. He also was industrious in lumbering, ship building, stock raising, and brick manufacturing, although all of these businesses failed, building up staggering debts that would ultimately bankrupt his heirs.^[1]^[9] In 1806, while visiting a friend in Union, Maine, he swallowed a chicken bone which punctured his intestine. He died of an infection (peritonitis) three days later on October 25, 1806 and was buried in Thomaston. His house was later torn down to make way for the Brunswick-Rockland railroad line. The only surviving structure is an outbuilding that currently houses the Thomaston Historical Society. (The current Montpelier Museum is a mid-20th century cinderblock reconstruction at a different location.)

Many incidents in Knox's career attest to his character, both good and bad. As one example, when he and Lucy were forced to leave Boston in 1775, his home was used to house British officers who looted his bookstore. In spite of personal financial hardships, he managed to make the last payment of 1,000 pounds to Longman Printers in London to cover the price of a shipment of books that he never received. In Maine, however, he would be remembered as a grasping tyrant and was forever immortalized in Nathanial Hawthorne's House of the Seven Gables, for which he served as the model for Col. Pynchon.^[10]

Two separate American forts, Fort Knox (Kentucky), and Fort Knox (Maine) were named after him. Knox Hall [1] at Fort Sill, Oklahoma, home of the Field Artillery Center and Field Artillery School, is also named after him. Knoxville, Tennessee, is named in his honor. There are counties named for Knox in Illinois, Indiana, Kentucky, Maine, Missouri, Nebraska, Ohio, Tennessee, and Texas.

References

North Callahan, Henry Knox: General Washington's General. NewYork: A. S. Barnes and Co., 1958. ISBN 0-15-216435-9.

Notes

^ ^a ^b ^c ^d ^e ^f ^g ^h ⁱ ^j ^k ^l ^m Bell, William Gardner; COMMANDING GENERALS AND CHIEFS OF STAFF: 1775-2005; Portraits & Biographical Sketches of the United States Army's Senior Officer: 1983, CENTER OF MILITARY HISTORY; UNITED STATES ARMY; WASHINGTON, D.C.:p. 54
ISBN 0–16–072376–0
^ Kochan, James (2001). United States Army 1783-1811 (Men-at-Arms Series). Osprey Military. pp. 13-15. ISBN 1-84176-087-0.
^ DeConde, Alexander (2003). Gun Violence in America: The Struggle for Control. Northeastern. pp. 40. ISBN 1-55553-592-5.
^ ^a ^b ^c Ellis, Joseph J. "The Treaty." American Creation: Triumphs and Tragedies at the Founding of the Republic. New York: Knopf, 2007, pp. 136-137.
^ Ellis, p. 138.
^ Ellis, p. 139.
^ Ellis, 159-160.
^ Taylor, Alan, Liberty Men and Great Proprietors: The Revolutionary Settlement on the Maine Frontier Chapel Hill: UNC Press, pp. 37-59
^ Taylor, Allen, Ibid.
^ Griffiths, Thomas, Maine Sources in The House of the Seven Gables (Waterville, Maine, 1945). (Hawthorne visited Thomaston prior to writing the book.)

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Military offices
Preceded by George Washington	Senior Officer of the United States Army 1783-1784	Succeeded by Joseph Doughty
Political offices
Preceded by none	United States Secretary of War 1785-1794	Succeeded by Timothy Pickering

v • d • e United States Secretaries of War and Secretaries of the Army

Cabinet-level	Knox • Pickering • McHenry • Dexter • Dearborn • Eustis • Armstrong • Monroe • W. H. Crawford • Calhoun • Barbour • P. B. Porter • Eaton • Cass • Poinsett • Bell • Spencer • J. M. Porter • Wilkins • Marcy • G. W. Crawford • Conrad • J. Davis • Floyd • Holt • S. Cameron • Stanton • Schofield • Rawlins • Belknap • A. Taft • J. Cameron • McCrary • Ramsey • Lincoln • Endicott • Proctor • Elkins • Lamont • Alger • Root • W. H. Taft • Wright • Dickinson • Stimson • Garrison • Baker • Weeks • D. F. Davis • Good • Hurley • Dern • Woodring • Stimson • Patterson • Royall

Dept. of Defense	Royall • Gray • Pace • Stevens • Brucker • Stahr • Vance • Ailes • Resor • Froehlke • Callaway • Hoffmann • Alexander • Marsh • Stone • West • Walker • Caldera • Dahlberg • Westphal • White • Brownlee • Harvey • Geren • McHugh

v • d • e Cabinet of President George Washington (1789–1797)

Vice President	John Adams (1789–1797)

Secretary of Foreign Affairs	John Jay (1789)

Secretary of State	Thomas Jefferson (1790–1793) · Edmund Randolph (1794–1795) · Timothy Pickering (1795–1797)

Secretary of the Treasury	Alexander Hamilton (1789–1795) · Oliver Wolcott, Jr. (1795–1797)

Secretary of War	Henry Knox (1789–1794) · Timothy Pickering (1795) · James McHenry (1796–1797)

Attorney General	Edmund Randolph (1792–1794) · William Bradford (1794–1795) · Charles Lee (1795–1797)

Postmaster General	Samuel Osgood (1789–1791) · Timothy Pickering (1791–1795) · Joseph Habersham (1795–1797)

v • d • e Leaders of the United States Army

Senior Officer / Commanding General	Washington · Knox · Doughty · Harmar · St. Clair · Wayne · Wilkinson · Washington · Hamilton · Wilkinson · Dearborn · Brown Macomb · Scott · McClellan · Halleck · Grant · Sherman · Sheridan · Schofield · Miles

Chiefs of Staff	Young · Chaffee · Bates · Bell · Wood · Wotherspoon · Scott · Bliss · March · Pershing · Hines · Summerall · MacArthur · Craig · Marshall · Eisenhower · Bradley · Collins · Ridgway · Taylor · Lemnitzer · Decker · Wheeler · Johnson · Westmoreland · Palmer · Abrams · Weyand · Rogers · Meyer · Wickham · Vuono · Sullivan · Reimer · Shinseki · Schoomaker · Casey

Vice Chiefs of Staff	Collins · Haislip · Hull · Bolte · Palmer · Lemnitzer · Decker · Eddleman · Hamlett · Abrams · Haines · Palmer · Haig · Weyand · Kerwin · Kroesen · Vessey · Wickham · Thurman · Brown · RisCassi · Sullivan · Reimer · Peay · Tilelli · Griffith · Crouch · Shinseki · Keane · Casey · Cody · Chiarelli

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