Major General Henry Knox

Henry Knox (1750–1806) was a Boston bookseller who taught himself artillery and military engineering through reading French engineering manuals, rising to become the Chief of Artillery for the Continental Army and General George Washington's indispensable artillery commander. Knox participated in virtually every major campaign of the American Revolutionary War.

In the winter of 1775–1776, Knox achieved one of the most audacious logistical feats in military history: the 'Noble Train of Artillery'. Leading ox-drawn sledges across 300 miles of frozen rivers and snow-covered Berkshires, Knox transported 60 tons of captured British cannons and mortars from Fort Ticonderoga to Boston. Mounted overnight on Dorchester Heights, the cannons forced the British army to evacuate Boston. Knox directed the artillery during the crossing of the Delaware at Trenton and at Yorktown, later serving as the first United States Secretary of War.