The 1777 March of the Saratoga Convention Army

How well recognized was Henry Knox for his journey to Ticonderoga and return to Cambridge? On November 16, 1775, General George Washington tasked twenty-five-year-old Henry Knox (seen here in a 1778 painting by Charles Wilson Peale, from the collection of the Metropolitan Museum of Art ), a bookseller from Boston, Massachusetts, to travel to New York and bring back artillery, ammunition and gun flints for the Continental Army which surrounded British occupied Boston.   The story of Knox's return from Fort Ticonderoga with his "Noble Train of Artillery" is fairly well know today.  Two hundred and fifty years ago only a few seemed to have taken note of what he did.  Many still overlook the first two parts of his mission.   Washington's instructions first directed Knox  "... to examine into the state of the artillery of this army, and take an account of the cannon, mortars, shells, lead, and ammunition, that are wanting."   Next, Knox was "... t...

Where was Henry Knox between January 13 and January 18, 1776? On November 16, 1775, General George Washington tasked twenty-five year old Henry Knox, a bookseller from Boston, to travel to New York and bring back artillery, ammunition and gun flints for the Continental Army which surrounded British occupied Boston.  Knox's  "Noble Train of Artillery" , like the Convention Army, passed through dozens of towns and villages on its way south from Fort Ticonderoga in New York, and then east across Massachusetts. [1]  After crossing Lake George, and reaching Saratoga, it followed the route taken by British Lieutenant-General John Burgoyne after his surrender on October 17, 1777 , and the German column , once it reached Greenbush , for much of the way.  On January 5, 1776, Knox wrote to Washington from Albany that despite his having expected to reach Cambridge by January 2 or 3, he now hoped that:  In eight or nine days after the first severe frost [the artillery des...

On November 16, 1775, General George Washington instructed twenty-five year old Henry Knox, a bookseller from Boston, to travel to New York. [1]  He was tasked to bring back artillery, ammunition and gun flints for the Continental Army, which surrounded British occupied Boston.  Knox's mission took him to Fort Ticonderoga.  There he obtained the guns he needed and started his journey back by way of Lake George. On December 17, 1775, Knox wrote to Washington from Fort George, at the south end of the lake:  "... the rout will be from here to  Kinderhook , from thence into  Great Barrington , Massachusetts Bay & down to  Springfield ..." . [2]  In late December Knox traveled from Saratoga to Albany , and then on across Massachusetts in January of 1776.  He and his men followed much of the same route British Lieutenant General John Burgoyne would take after his surrender at Saratoga in 1777, and the  German column  of the Conv...

Major General Horatio Gates victory at the Battle of Bemis Heights, and the British surrender at Saratoga, New York, on October 17, 1777, together resulted in the capture and surrender of thirty-five pieces of artillery .  These guns, cannons and howitzers, were likely sent south to Albany initially, to be used in the fight to secure American independence.  [1 ]    It wasn't the first time captured British artillery moved south through Saratoga, and on to Albany.  In late December of 1775, newly commissioned artillery officer Colonel Henry Knox had passed through, on his way to Cambridge, Massachusetts, followed soon after by teamsters hauling thirty-nine cannon, fourteen mortars, and two howitzers.  These artillery pieces, along with a barrel of gun flints and over a ton of lead, most taken at Fort Ticonderoga and Crown Point in the first few weeks of the war, were bound for the Continental Army under General George Washington, which surrounded British occ...

Britons at home in 1775 were anxious for news regarding the war in North America.  Official accounts, along with letters from friends and loved ones, took weeks to cross the Atlantic.  Once they arrived, they were read and shared, and if deemed newsworthy, published in one or more of England's many newspapers and magazines.  The September 9, 1775, edition of the "London Chronicle" included several such stories.  In one article, portions of two letters were printed describing "a most glorious victory obtained by the King's troops over the rebel army" on August 7, 1775, at Boston.  Another revealed that "It is reported that the troops will not winter at Boston..." , as they were expected to relocate to either Rhode Island or New York. The two letters describing the engagement on August 7, one from "an officer" dated August 11th, and the other from a "gentleman" dated August 10th, were published anonymously.  British General Thoma...

Sixteen year old Ezra Ross of Ipswich, Massachusetts, likely feared he might die on several occasions before July 2, 1778.  On December 19, 1775, he had enlisted in Colonel Loammi Baldwin's 26th Continental Regiment.  In the year that followed, his regiment would take part in the Siege of Boston, Washington's unsuccessful attempt to defend New York City from a British invasion, and the Battle of Trenton before their enlistments expired on December 31, 1776.  In August of 1777, Ross would either volunteer or be drafted to serve again, one of the two-thousand Massachusetts militiamen called for to reinforce the Northern Army under the command of Major-General Horatio Gates. [1]    Eight months later, and just a few weeks before his seventeenth birthday, he faced certain death. [2]   Ross, along with Sergeant James Buchannon and Private William Brooks of the British 9th Regiment of Foot, and Bathsheba Spooner of Brookfield, Massachusetts , had been convi...