The Henry Knox Trail, also known as the Knox Cannon Trail, is a network of roads and paths that traces the route of Colonel Henry Knox's "noble train of artillery" from Crown Point to the Continental Army camp outside Boston, Massachusetts early in the American Revolutionary War.
Knox was commissioned by Continental Army commander George Washington in 1775 to transport 59 cannons from captured forts on Lake Champlain, 30 from Fort Ticonderoga and 29 from Crown Point, to the army camp outside Boston to aid the war effort there against British forces. [1] They included forty-three heavy brass and iron cannons, six cohorns, eight mortars, and two howitzers. [2] Knox, using sledges pulled by teams of oxen to haul these cannons, many weighing over a ton, crossed an icy Lake George in mid-winter. [2] He proceeded to travel through rural New York and the snow-covered Berkshire Mountains of Massachusetts, finally arriving to the aid of the beleaguered Continental Army in January 1776. [2]
In 1926, the 150th anniversary of Knox's march, the states of New York and Massachusetts both began installing commemorative plaques at 56 locations in the two states that trace the route the expedition passed through. [3] The exact nature of the collaboration between the two states is unclear, however the work was completed in 1927. [3] The New York markers' bronze reliefs were designed by Henry James Albright, and the Massachusetts reliefs by Henry L. Norton.
In 1975, the marker locations between Kinderhook, New York, and Alford, Massachusetts, were updated after new research, confirming theories originally advanced by North Egremont, Massachusetts, postmaster Joseph Elliott, found Knox did not pass through Claverack, New York. [4] A new marker was added to the trail at Roxbury Heritage State Park in Boston in 2009, adjacent to a house owned by General John Thomas, who guided the weapons received from Knox to their final placement on Dorchester Heights overlooking Boston. [5]
| Marker # | Year installed | Title | Address | Picture |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| NY-0 | Crown Point | 21 Grandview Dr, Crown Point, NY 12928 | https://www.hmdb.org/PhotoFullSize.asp?PhotoID=555508 | |
| NY-1 | Fort Ticonderoga | 102 Fort Ti Rd, Ticonderoga, NY 12883 | ||
| NY-2 | Fort Ticonderoga | 102 Fort Ti Rd, Ticonderoga, NY 12883 | ||
| NY-3 | Fort Ticonderoga Portage Road | 137 Montcalm St, Ticonderoga, NY 12883 | ||
| Lake George | 651 Black Point Rd, Ticonderoga, NY 12883 | |||
| Sabbath Day Point | 44 Sabbath Day Point Rd, Silver Bay, NY 12874 | |||
| NY-6 | Bolton Landing | 19 Rogers Memorial Park Rd, Bolton Landing, NY 12814 | ||
| NY-7 | Lake George Battlefield | 75 Fort George Rd, Lake George, NY 12845 (43°25'04.4"N, 73°42'25.9"W) | ||
| NY-8 | Bloody Brook | 1716 State Route 9, Lake George, NY 12845 | ||
| NY-9 | Glens Falls | 626 Glen St, Queensbury, NY 12804 |  | |
| NY-10 | Hudson Falls | 220 Main St, Hudson Falls, NY 12839 |  | |
| NY-11 | Fort Edward | 219 Broadway, Fort Edward, NY 12828 |  | |
| NY-12 | Fort Miller | 1061 State Route 4, Greenwich, NY 12834 |  | |
| NY-13 | Northumberland | 107 Starks Knob Rd, Schuylerville, NY 12871 |  | |
| NY-14 | Schuylerville | 2 Broad St, Schuylerville, NY 12871 |  | |
| Ensign House | 513 Saratoga County Veterans Memorial Highway, Stillwater, NY 12170 | |||
| NY-15 | Bemis Heights | 1173 Old Route 32, Stillwater, NY 12170 |  | |
| NY-16 | Stillwater | 75 Hudson Ave, Stillwater, NY 12170 |  | |
| NY-17 | Mechanicville | 6 S Main St, Mechanicville, NY 12118 |  | |
| NY-18 | Waterford | 55 1st St, Waterford, NY 12188 |  | |
| NY-19 | Klaus' Ferry | 1258 New Loudon Rd, Cohoes, NY 12047 |  | |
| NY-20 | Latham | 206 Old Loudon Rd, Latham, NY 12110 |  | |
| NY-21 | Albany | 350 Northern Blvd, Albany, NY 12204 | ||
| NY-22 | Albany Riverside Park | 191 Broadway, Albany, NY 12202 | ||
| NY-23 | Rensselaer | 30 Aiken Ave, Rensselaer, NY 12144 |  | |
| NY-24 | East Greenbush | 688 Columbia Tpke, East Greenbush, NY 12061 |  | |
| NY-25 | Schodack | 1972 Route 9, Castleton on Hudson, NY 12033 |  | |
| NY-26 | Kinderhook | 1 Hudson St, Kinderhook, NY 12106 | | |
| NY-27 | West Ghent | 6 Snyder Rd, Ghent, NY 12075 |  | |
| NY-28 | Claverack | 1202 Harlemville Rd, Ghent, NY 12075 |  | |
| NY-29 | Old Nobletown | 40 Nobletown Rd, Hillsdale, NY 12529 |  | |
| NY-30 / MA-1 | Alford, MA | MA-71 179 Green River Valley Rd. [6] |  | |
| MA-2 | North Egremont, MA | 223 Egremont Plain Rd. |  | |
| MA-3 | Great Barrington, MA | Intersection of Route 23 and Route 7 |  | |
| MA-4 | Monterey, MA | Route 23 |  | |
| Otis, MA | Route 23 |  | ||
| MA-5 | Blandford, MA | Route 23 & North Blandford Rd., Blandford, MA 01008 |  | |
| MA-6 | Russell, MA | Intersection of General Knox Road and South Quarter Road |  | |
| MA-7 | Westfield, MA | Main Street at N 42° 07.252; W 072° 44.892 |  | |
| MA-8 | West Springfield, MA | Route 20 [7] |  | |
| MA-9 | Springfield, MA | Boston Post Rd. (State Street) |  | |
| MA-10 | Wilbraham, MA | Route 20 & Main Street |  | |
| MA-11 | Palmer, MA | 1 Wilbraham Street |  | |
| MA-12 | Warren, MA | Route 67 (Main St.) at the intersection with Washington St. |  | |
| MA-13 | Brookfield, MA | State Route 9 at the intersection with State Route 148 |  | |
| MA-14 | Spencer, MA | next to 117 Main St. [8] |  | |
| MA-15 | Leicester, MA | 1136 Main St., in front of the Leicester Public Library and Museum | | |
| MA-16 | Worcester, MA | Main Street at Lincoln Square | | |
| MA-17 | Shrewsbury, MA | Main St. at Shrewsbury Common |  | |
| MA-18 | Northborough, MA | 63 Main Street (in front of Town Hall) | | |
| MA-19 | Marlborough, MA | | ||
| MA-20 | Southborough | |||
| MA-21 | Framingham, MA |  | ||
| MA-23 | Wayland, MA | Old Connecticut Path and Cochituate Rd. |  | |
| MA-24 | Weston, MA | Boston Post Rd. and Town House Rd. |  | |
| MA-25 | Waltham, MA | Route 20 (Weston St.) & Main Street |  | |
| MA-26 | Watertown | 481 Mt Auburn St, Watertown, MA 02472 |  | |
| MA-27 | Cambridge | 42° 22.593′ N, 71° 7.313′ W, Corner of Garden St and Mason St in the Cambridge Commons, Cambridge, MA [9] |  | |
| MA-27.5 | Roxbury, MA |  | ||
| MA-28 | South Boston |
Alford is a town in Berkshire County, Massachusetts, United States. It is part of the Pittsfield, Massachusetts Metropolitan Statistical Area. The population was 486 at the 2020 census.
Egremont is a town in Berkshire County, Massachusetts, United States. It is part of the Pittsfield, Massachusetts Metropolitan Statistical Area. The population was 1,372 at the 2020 census. Egremont consists of two villages, North Egremont and South Egremont, and their outlying areas, which are mostly lightly settled forests and farmland.
Henry Knox was a Boston bookseller, military officer and politician. A Founding Father of the United States, he was a bookseller who became a senior general of the Continental Army during the Revolutionary War, serving as chief of artillery in most of Washington's campaigns. Following the American Revolution, he oversaw the War Department under the Articles of Confederation from 1785 to 1789. Washington, at the start of his first administration, appointed Knox the nation's first Secretary of War, a position he held from 1789 to 1794. He is well known today as the namesake of Fort Knox in Kentucky, the repository of a large portion of the nation's gold reserves.
The Siege of Boston was the opening phase of the American Revolutionary War. In the siege, American patriot militia led by newly-installed Continental Army commander George Washington prevented the British Army, which was garrisoned in Boston, from moving by land. Both sides faced resource, supply, and personnel challenges during the siege. British resupply and reinforcement was limited to sea access, which was impeded by American vessels. The British ultimately abandoned Boston after eleven months, moving their troops and equipment north, to Nova Scotia.
Framingham is a city in the Commonwealth of Massachusetts, United States. Incorporated in 1700, it is located in Middlesex County and the MetroWest subregion of the Greater Boston metropolitan area. The city proper covers 25 square miles (65 km2) with a population of 72,362 in 2020, making it the 14th most populous municipality in Massachusetts. Residents voted in favor of adopting a charter to transition from a representative town meeting system to a mayor–council government in April 2017, and the municipality transitioned to city status on January 1, 2018. Before it transitioned, it had been the largest town by population in Massachusetts.
Framingham State University(Framingham State or FSU) is a public university in Framingham, Massachusetts. The university, then known as the Normal School in Lexington was founded in 1839 as the first state-supported normal school in the United States before becoming a full-fledged university. It offers undergraduate programs as well as graduate programs, including MBA, MEd, and MS.
Peter Salem was an African-American from Massachusetts who served as a U.S. soldier in the American Revolutionary War. Born into slavery in Framingham, he was freed by a later master, Major Lawson Buckminster, to serve in the local militia. He then enlisted in the Continental Army, serving for nearly five years during the war. Afterwards, he married and worked as a cane weaver. A monument was erected to him in the late 19th century at his grave in Framingham.
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The 26th Continental Regiment was an infantry unit of the Massachusetts Line during the American Revolutionary War. Gerrish's Regiment was raised in the early days of the war, and the regiment underwent name changes as the Continental Army was reorganized in 1776 and 1777. From 1777 onward, the unit was known as the 9th Massachusetts Regiment.
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