America 250: The Bookseller Who Helped Save the Revolution

In the winter of 1775, the American Revolution was in a tense standoff. General George Washington and his Continental Army had surrounded British forces in Boston. The British were trapped, but Washington had a serious problem.

His army had almost no artillery powerful enough to force the British out.

That’s when an unlikely hero stepped forward: a 25-year-old Boston bookseller named Henry Knox.

Knox had never fought in a battle. Instead, he spent his days running a bookstore and reading. But those books included military histories and strategy guides, and Knox had studied them closely. When he heard about cannons the Americans had captured from the British at Fort Ticonderoga in upstate New York, he saw an opportunity.

Knox proposed a daring plan to Washington: he would travel nearly 300 miles, collect the heavy cannons, and bring them back to the army outside Boston.

The journey would take him through snow, ice, and the rugged Berkshire Mountains in the middle of winter.

Washington agreed.

In December 1775, Knox arrived at Fort Ticonderoga and found a massive supply of artillery—59 cannons, mortars, and howitzers. Some of the guns weighed more than a ton.

Moving them would not be easy.

Knox first loaded the cannons onto boats to cross Lake Champlain. After that, he had large wooden sleds built to carry the guns over frozen ground. Teams of oxen and horses were gathered to pull the heavy loads.

The trip quickly turned into a struggle against nature.

At times, the sleds slipped down icy hills. On one occasion, a cannon nearly disappeared when it broke through the ice of a frozen lake. Knox and his team constantly had to improvise, repair equipment, and find new ways to move the giant weapons.

Still, they pushed forward.

By late January 1776, Knox and his men finally reached Cambridge, Massachusetts, where Washington’s army was waiting.

Even more remarkable: not a single cannon had been lost during the journey.

The next step would change the course of the war.

On the night of March 4, 1776, Washington ordered the cannons quietly hauled into position on Dorchester Heights, a hill overlooking Boston and its harbor. Working through the darkness, soldiers built fortifications and placed the artillery where it could threaten the British fleet below.

When morning came, British General William Howe looked up at the hill and saw the American guns pointed directly at his forces.

He reportedly said the defenses appeared to have been built by 20,000 men overnight.

The British realized they could not safely remain in Boston. Just days later, on March 17, 1776, they evacuated the city and sailed away, never to return.

The victory was a major early success for the American cause.

As for Henry Knox, the bookseller who helped make it possible, his story was far from over. He became Washington’s chief artillery officer for the rest of the Revolutionary War and later served as the nation’s first Secretary of War under President Washington.

Not bad for someone whose greatest qualification at the start was simply a love of books and a bold idea.