What's on your Christmas wish list?
59 pieces of artillery?
I hope not.
But in the early winter of 1775, cannons were exactly what General George Washington was longing for. The British were occupying Boston, and the American colonists wanted them out of there. While our army held the higher ground above the city, they didn't have the firepower to take advantage of their position. What they needed weighted 60 tons and was 300 rugged miles away: heavy weaponry captured by Ethan Allen, Benedict Arnold and Seth Warner from the forts at Ticonderoga and Crown Point earlier in the year.
Fortunately for General Washington (and for America's independence), a 25 year old Boston bookseller had the Christmas spirit. He said, "No problem George. I'll get them for you." His name was Henry Knox and what he accomplished over the next two months has been hailed "one of the most stupendous feats of logistics" of the entire war. Knox's "noble train of artillery" went thru our area (Lake George and the upper Hudson Valley) about this time of year and it's a good time to remember (and honor) the heroism of our ancestors.
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First let me recommend two websites I consulted, then we'll take a closer look at the Washington County segment of Knox's expedition. Here you will find a good overview of the event and here is a guide to the monuments that mark the route. There are 30 (32?) of these monuments in New York and another 27 in Massachusetts. They were originally placed in 1926-27. I've found three in Washington County with several more nearby in Glens Falls and Schuylerville.
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Knox arrived at Fort Ticonderoga on December 6, 1775 and immediately began moving cannons using boats on the La Chute River, then ox carts to Lake George before transferring to boats again for the trip down the lake to where Lake George Village is now. This was a trying ordeal with cold and headwinds, boats running aground and boats sinking, all with the looming specter of the lake freezing over and trapping them. Finally, by mid-December all the cannon made it to the south end of the lake and then the problem became waiting for enough snow to use sleds to move the heavy cargo over nearly non-existent roads.
80 yoke of oxen and 42 rugged sleds were needed so Knox went alone on foot and horseback towards Albany to procure them. He got more snow than he bargained for with a huge storm as he passed thru present day Schuylerville on his way south. Here is the Christmas Day excerpt from his journal: "...only got about 2 miles when our horses tir'd and refus'd to go any farter. I was then obliged to undertake a fatiguing march of about 4 miles in snow three feet deep thro' the woods there being no beaten path...I had almost perished with the cold."
Lack of roads and bridges required several crossings of the Hudson and Mohawk Rivers. This was treacherous because they were iced over but hardly thick enough to support the weight of ox, sled and cannon. After several harrowing incidents all were finally beyond Albany on the east side of the river with 'only' the mountainous Taconics and Berkshires left to surmount. Surmounted they were and by late January Washington had his Christmas cannon. Once the artillery was set up the British got the message that they had wore out their welcome and quickly left the city, an event celebrated as Evacuation Day. The rest, as they say, is history.
It would be quite an adventure to follow the entire trail from Crown Point to Boston but you can easily trace the local section in less than an hour (although that feels like cheating compared to what Knox and his men endured). Here are a few of the local monuments:
If you're in Northumberland to follow the Knox Trail you might want to check out the pocket park by the falls and possibly climb Starks Knob (short but steep). From the top you have a birdseye view of Knox's route from Lake George. I remember when the limestone slab on top of the Knob had a bronze plaque attached detailing the site's significance. Years ago miscreants decided to chisel it off and cart it away. I wonder what pleasure they got out of their strenuous (the thing had to be heavy) act of vandalism? It's not easy to preserve history. All the more reason to value the many monuments to the past found thru out our area.
