MA, USA
Knox Proposes Fort Ticonderoga Artillery Mission
November 16, 1775
Henry Knox, a Boston bookseller turned artillery officer, proposed bringing captured British cannon from Fort Ticonderoga to break the siege stalemate. Washington approved the audacious plan. Knox departed in late November on what would become a legendary winter journey across frozen lakes and mountains, returning with 60 tons of artillery that would finally tip the balance.
People Involved
A 25-year-old Boston bookseller who taught himself military science and dragged cannon 300 miles to end the siege.
Virginia planter and Continental Army commander-in-chief who owned and managed Mount Vernon's enslaved workforce. Absent from his estate for most of the war, he directed Lund Washington's management by correspondence and returned to find the plantation's human community shaped by eight years of wartime disruption.
Washington's wife who managed headquarters social affairs and supported troops.