Henry Knox

Henry Knox 1750-1806, American Revolutionary officer, b. Boston. He volunteered for service and went, in 1775, to Ticonderoga to retrieve the captured cannon and mortar there for use in the siege of Boston. The fortification of Dorchester Heights with this artillery compelled the evacuation of Boston by the British. From that time he was a trusted companion of George Washington. The artillery, under his charge, took a conspicuous part in the battles of Princeton, Brandywine, Germantown, Monmouth, and Yorktown. He commanded at West Point (1782-84) and was a founder (1783) of the Society of the Cincinnati. Knox was Secretary of War both under the Articles of Confederation and under the Constitution (1785-94). A conservative, he attempted to raise a force to oppose Shays's Rebellion, and he favored a strong federal government.

Bibliography: See biography by N. Callahan (1958).

Knox, Henry (1750–1806) American general, who commanded the Continental Artillery during the War of INDEPENDENCE. In 1775 he hauled the guns from Ticonderoga 124 km (200 miles) through the wilderness to Boston, forcing British evacuation. He was George WASHINGTON's right-hand man throughout the War, and after it organized the Veterans' Society of the Cincinnati (1783). A Federalist, he was Secretary of War to the Confederation and under President Washington (1785–94), but his scheme for a national militia was thwarted.

Knox, Henry (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.
[See also Coast Guard, U.S.; Citizen‐Soldier; Fortifications; Monmouth, Battle of; Yorktown, Battle of.]

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.

J. Mark Thompson