It Happened Here -- "A Noble Train of Artillery"

The new general wanted to attack. The Continental Congress had given George Washington command of the ad hoc militia army that had assembled around Boston in the spring and summer of 1775, following the battles of Lexington and Concord at the beginning of what would come to be known as the American Revolution. Washington had worked to replace the short term militia companies with longer term units. He had some success getting proper arms and ammunition to his forces. He had worked on their command structure and he had begun their training and had started to address their often lackadaisical approach to discipline. Now, looking across the largely undefended mud flats that separated the peninsular city of Boston from the American army on the mainland, he began to make plans for an attack, once those mud flats froze as winter set in. The general's subordinates were not so sure.

In May the New York forts of Ticonderoga and Crown Point which once had been on the front lines during the last French and Indian War had fallen into the hands of the rebels. Defended by little more than a corporal's guard, these relics of another war had fallen without a fight, and within their walls were more than eighty cannon of all calibre, cannon balls, gunpowder and gun flints. One of the raid's proponents, Benedict Arnold had convinced his backers, the Massachusetts Committee of Safety, to support his plan based on the prospect of capturing these supplies. Now another young man approached Washington with a plan to bring them to Boston, to break the siege and force the British to abandon that city.

Henry Knox was a 25 year old bookseller who had run a shop in Boston. Fascinated with military subjects, he had pored over every military book that came into his book store and had in-depth conversations with the British officers that frequented his shop. He had also joined a Boston milita artillery company known as the Train, and co-founded a grenadier company, that developed from it. Henry had also become radicalized as he identified with the Boston people who suffered under the occupation of British troops, as his own business was driven to the brink of bankruptcy by the forced closing of the port of Boston, and the boycott of British goods that followed. After the fighting at Lexington and Concord he and his new wife Lucy had slipped out of Boston by boat in the dark of night and thrown his lot in with the rebels camped outside of Boston. When General Artemis Ward learned he had someone who had at least theoretical knowledge of artillery, in this thoroughly amateur army, he had placed Knox in charge of constructing gun positions for the few cannon the rebels possessed to protect their encampments outside of Boston. Washington had been impressed by these works. Now the officers who had grave doubts about committing their fledgling army to a serious battle in the narrow streets of Boston, conspired to get him in front of the new commanding general to hear his plan, of going north in the dead of winter to bring cannon back to Boston on sledges.

On November 16^th Knox presented his plan. Washington was impressed, issuing Knox orders to retrieve the guns, saying “No trouble or expense must be spared to obtain them” and giving him £1000 for expenses. The very next day Knox was on his way to NewYork City to draw supplies and a letter was on its way to General Phillip Schuyler ordering him to assist him.

By December 5^th Knox was at Ticonderoga, where probably most of the cannon and supplies from the two forts had been assembled by Schuyler. ¹ While the 20-30 year old wooden gun carriages were mostly rotted or unsound, most of the cannon and supplies were salvageable and Schuyler and Knox selected 43 heavy brass and iron cannon², 6 cohorns, 8 mortars and 2 howitzers³ For the first leg of the journey the cannon and supplies were loaded onto a gundalow,⁴ a large, rectangular, double ended barge-like boat, with a lateen triangular sail, that shuttled back and forth between the fort and the portage road connecting Lake Champlain to Lake George. Knox had contracted with local farmers to use their wagons and “cattle” (oxen) to convey his guns to the northern end of Lake George⁵.

At Lake George the guns were met by a large batteau, an even larger scow and a boat Knox described as a “pettianger”. Batteaux were flat bottomed double-ended boats that were the work-horses of the colonial military throughout the Colonial wars. Propelled mainly by oars or improvised sails, they could be quite large-upwards of 50 feet and more, and have crews of three to five. Scows were flat-bottomed, square ended barge-like boats, propelled by oars, or sweeps and with a following wind, an improvised square sail. They could be even larger, carrying tons of cargo and 80 or more men at a time. “Pettiangers” (pettiaugers) were flat bottomed work boats with one or two schooner rigged masts, often with egg shaped leeboards that could be lowered over the side to compensate for their lack of a keel. It was in this “pettinger” that Knox led the way to the head of the lake on December 6^th,  as the lake was beginning to ice over.

About halfway up the lake⁶ Knox put into shore to wait for the other boats to catch up. The batteau's crew arrived, reporting the scow had run aground on a “sunken rock” near Sabbath Day Point and the crew had broken their ropes trying to get it off. Hurrying ahead to Fort George he obtained fresh ropes, returned, and they were able to pull the scow free by nightfall. But that night, while its exhausted crew slept ashore, wind whipped wave caused the big boat to founder. Fortunately, its gunwales were still above water and the crew was able to save the scow after much bailing, the next morning. After two days the entire little flotilla was at Fort George, at the southern end of the lake.

Now the weather that had been cooperative by staying mild so they could sail up the lake, with a minimum of ice, became their adversary as they waited for snow. Knox, however, used his time well, and could write Washington on December 17^th, he had 42 “exceedingly strong sleds” built and had contracted for 80 yoke of oxen to drag them as far as Springfield Massachusetts. He hoped by New Years Day to “present your Excellency a noble train of artillery.” Then a gliche – the contractor for the oxen wanted more money. Schuyler and the contractor argued, could not come to an agreement and Schuyler dismissed him. Fortunately, Phillip Schuyler was a wealthy landowner, virtually a patroon, with tenants and many contacts, in and around Saratoga . Within a few days he had the local farmers coming to Knox's rescue with 124 teams of horses. On Christmas night Knox received the present he had been hoping for – over two feet of fresh snow! Once again the guns were on their way.

The next obstacle the “noble train” would face was the Hudson River, crossing it not once, but four times – at Glens Falls, at Half Moon, where the road detoured to the eastern side of the Hudson avoiding where the Mohawk meandered into the Hudson, back to the Albany side, then crossing again to follow the Albany/New York Post Road, south.  At all of these crossing the ice was dangerously thin, especially for the sledges loaded with the monstrous eleven foot, 5000 lb. cannons that fired a 24 lb. ball. After making the Glens Falls crossing safely, Knox tried to avoid one crossing by taking one group of guns over the Mohawk, at Crescent. Each sled inched over safely until the last. One big gun plunged through the ice and disappeared as the farmers frantically sought to save their draft animals. Not willing to risk more guns, Knox returned to his original route, crossing the Hudson at Lansingburg, then returning to the western side at Schuyler Flatts, north of Albany. While the crossing at Lansing's Ferry was without incident, the crossing to Schuyler Flatts almost saw another sled lost, but for the large crowd of spectators that fastened ropes on the cannon that had broken through and were able to manhandle it to shore. Knox praised the “good people of Albany”, naming the rescued cannon “the Albany”.

 








    
                 Crossing over again, the gun caravan picked up the Albany-New York Post Road and continued on through  the village of Rensselaer, to Valatie and Kinderhook, perhaps down to Claverack before heading into the Berkshires. (The exact route is sketchy from here because Knox's regular journal entries end at Albany, and except for a scattering of letters, and the memoir of a 12 year old boy who accompanied his father, written over half a century later, there are no original documents covering the rest of the journey. During the Bicentennial, historians looked at the evidence again and had several markers along the route moved.)

The Berkshires presented the next challenge. Few details are available although its known that during this section of the trip Knox climbed one of the mountains and expressed awe at their height and the distances that could be seen from its summit. The final descent caused the greatest concern. When the farmers from Saratoga, recruited at the last minute saw route they would have to take⁷, they rebelled, threatening to leave the their sledges in their tracks, and return to their homes and hearths. Knox talked with them for over three hours, cajoling them, pleading with them and appealing to their patriotism. Eventually they gave in, agreeing to take the cannon as far as Westfield, in the valley beyond the last of the Berkshires.

At Westfield Knox celebrated, loading one of the big “24 pounders” and firing off a salute before a crowd of amazed and delighted townspeople. With new crews hired, the rest of the journey passed without incident.

On January 24 Henry Knox rode into the army's  headquarters in Cambridge, to report the first cannon would soon be arriving.  During the next few weeks the towns around Boston were busy making preparations as calls went out to the other colonies, to bring all available supplies of gunpowder to  the army. Villages and woods echoed with the sounds of wood being cut,  wheelwrights fashioning heavy cannon wheels and carpenters making gun carriages. Also, more mysteriously perhaps, large quantities of brush and saplings were being cut and bundled and coopers were busy making barrels to be filled with rocks and earth.  On March 2nd the Army's batteries north and west of the city began firing into the city and the British returned fire. Two days later, after dark, General John Thomas climbed the previously unoccupied Dorchester Heights, overlooking the city  to construct breastworks and emplacements for the largest cannons brought from Ticonderoga. Two thousand men and three hundred and sixty ox carts worked through the night, as the sounds of their construction were covered by the din of the cannon exchanges going on west and north of the city. On the rock-hard frozen ground they staked down rows of the bundles of brush (fascines), filling the space between them with earth and stone that had been carted up the heights.  Strategic positions in the line were anchored with the barrels filled with rocks.  (In the event of an infantry assault these could be rolled down the steep hills into the lines of attacking infantry.) The next morning British General Howe awoke to find the muzzles of the guns of Ticonderoga looming over him. "My God, these fellows have done more work in one night than I could make my army do in three months."
he was said to exclaim.
 

Thirteen days later, after weighing an assault on the heights, the General Howe and Admiral Graves began the  evacuation of the city. Eight thousand nine hundred soldiers and one thousand one hundred Loyalists sailed for Nova Scotia.⁸

1After the attack on Ticonderoga, the British garrison at Crown Point had attempted to hide some of the cannon by burying  

     them, but these were quickly retrieved. Evidence of some of the pits where they were buried is still visible at   

     Crown Point.

2Today, the location of two of these cannon are known. One was recovered from the Mohawk river in the early 20^th century and returned to Ft. Ticonderoga. Another sits at in back of the Hasbrouck House in New Windsor, N.Y., after being stored for many years at the Watervliet Arsenal.

3Mortars were short cannons mounted on field carriages used for throwing hollow gunpowder filled “bombs” over defenses into enemies trenches, as were the slightly longer and heavier howitzers. Cohorns (or coehorns) were small pot-like mortars typically mounted on a heavy plank that two men could carry, firing explosive bombs up and over nearby defensive structures.

4Gundalows were common work boats found along the coasts and rivers of the northern colonies. Portsmouth, N.H. has a working Gundalow used for school tours and living history projects.

5At this point, with little snow on the ground probably mostly wagons were used, making several trips, although some of the heavier cannon might have been skidded over the mud and frozen ground on sledges.

6“up the lake” is upstream, toward its source, ie. South

7Anyone who has taken the Massachusetts Turnpike from New York to Springfield has experienced the Montgomery – Westfield hill and can appreciate the terrifying prospect the farmers faced of having to take their 5000+ lb. sleds, without brakes down it!

8In a sad note, two of those loyalists leaving for Nova Scotia were Lucy Knox's parents, never to return.

 

(Postscript: I have had some reservations about including this story in my blog; the first reservation being, obviously, that the route of Knox's expedition is marked by only one NYSHM but is extensively marked by some 30 stone and bronze markers in New York and an additional 26 stone and bronze markers in Massachusetts, erected the same year as the first NYSHM'S. The second is that the available details of the story are sketchy but are well known and have been told and re-told. I decided to proceed because anyone who has any interest in NYSHM'S and goes looking for them in upstate New York will likely come upon one or more of these markers; and in itself, the “Knox Artillery History Trail” is important as one of the first historical trails projects of its kind, up there with Boston's “Freedom Trail”. Beyond that, of course, is that it is a great story, and great stories can always bear one more retelling :)

Marker of the Week

"Re-purposed."  A surprising number of old
buildings have gone through some pretty remarkable metamorphoses, though not many as major a transformation as this one. In future Markers of the Week we will look at some others.





        (Albany Ave., Valatie)