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Henry Knox's Noble Train: The Story of a Boston Bookseller's Heroic Expedition That Saved the American Revolution
The inspiring story of a little-known hero's pivotal role in the American Revolutionary WarDuring the brutal winter of 1775-1776, an untested Boston bookseller named Henry Knox commandeered an oxen train hauling sixty tons of cannons and other artillery from Fort Ticonderoga near the Canadian border. He and his men journeyed some three hundred miles south and east over frozen, often-treacherous terrain to supply George Washington for his attack of British troops occupying Boston. The result was the British surrender of Boston and the first major victory for the Colonial Army. This is one of the great stories of the American Revolution, still little known by comparison with the more famous battles of Concord, Lexington, and Bunker Hill. Told with a novelist's feel for narrative, character, and vivid description, The Noble Train brings to life the events and people at a time when the ragtag American rebels were in a desperate situation. Washington's army was withering away from desertion and expiring enlistments. Typhoid fever, typhus, and dysentery were taking a terrible toll. There was little hope of dislodging British General Howe and his 20,000 British troops in Boston--until Henry Knox arrived with his supply convoy of heavy armaments. Firing down on the city from the surrounding Dorchester Heights, these weapons created a decisive turning point. An act of near desperation fueled by courage, daring, and sheer tenacity led to a tremendous victory for the cause of independence.This exciting tale of daunting odds and undaunted determination highlights a pivotal episode that changed history.
226 pages, Kindle Edition
First published January 1, 2020
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Displaying 1 - 30 of 30 reviews
May 11, 2020
‘No one believed the Americans could beat the British’
Chicago author William Hazelgrove has developed a significant following as the author of ten novels and six works of nonfiction - Ripples, Tobacco Sticks, Mica Highways, Rocket Man, The Pitcher, Real Santa, Jack Pine, Hemingway’s Attic, My Best Year, The Bad Author, Madam President, Forging a President, Al Capone and the 1933 World’s Fair, Wright Brothers Wrong Story, Shots Fired in Terminal 2, and now Henry Knox’s Noble Train. While his books have received starred reviews in Publisher Weekly and Booklist, Book of the Month Selections, ALA Editors Choice Awards Junior Library Guild Selections and optioned for the movies, his major appeal is in his humanitarian approach to stories. William stays close to the heart in each of his stories, making each tale he spins one with which everyone can relate on an immediate or a remembered level. In this particular book he is reporting an incident of special significance in American history – and that is as accurate reportage as possible!
The story is well summarized as follows: ‘The inspiring story of a little-known hero's pivotal role in the American Revolutionary War. During the brutal winter of 1775-1776,an untested Boston bookseller named Henry Knox commandeered an oxen train hauling sixty tons of cannons and other artillery from Fort Ticonderoga near the Canadian border. He and his men journeyed some three hundred miles south and east over frozen, often treacherous terrain to supply George Washington for his attack on the British troops occupying Boston. The result was the British surrender of Boston and the first major victory for the Colonial Army.’
William Hazelgrove continues to grow as a writer of importance whose breadth of interest in topics for novels is truly astonishing. He is one of the big ones!
Chicago author William Hazelgrove has developed a significant following as the author of ten novels and six works of nonfiction - Ripples, Tobacco Sticks, Mica Highways, Rocket Man, The Pitcher, Real Santa, Jack Pine, Hemingway’s Attic, My Best Year, The Bad Author, Madam President, Forging a President, Al Capone and the 1933 World’s Fair, Wright Brothers Wrong Story, Shots Fired in Terminal 2, and now Henry Knox’s Noble Train. While his books have received starred reviews in Publisher Weekly and Booklist, Book of the Month Selections, ALA Editors Choice Awards Junior Library Guild Selections and optioned for the movies, his major appeal is in his humanitarian approach to stories. William stays close to the heart in each of his stories, making each tale he spins one with which everyone can relate on an immediate or a remembered level. In this particular book he is reporting an incident of special significance in American history – and that is as accurate reportage as possible!
The story is well summarized as follows: ‘The inspiring story of a little-known hero's pivotal role in the American Revolutionary War. During the brutal winter of 1775-1776,an untested Boston bookseller named Henry Knox commandeered an oxen train hauling sixty tons of cannons and other artillery from Fort Ticonderoga near the Canadian border. He and his men journeyed some three hundred miles south and east over frozen, often treacherous terrain to supply George Washington for his attack on the British troops occupying Boston. The result was the British surrender of Boston and the first major victory for the Colonial Army.’
William Hazelgrove continues to grow as a writer of importance whose breadth of interest in topics for novels is truly astonishing. He is one of the big ones!
November 12, 2022
A great story ruined by too much repetition, an overly effusive style, and an author who could never figure out if he wanted to write a serious history or just a story.
March 24, 2022
While reading another book on the American Revolution, Henry Knox (not for the first time) peaked my interest. I went in search of a book to fill in the gaps of what I already knew about him.
Hazelgrove only had me thinking I should find another book. The tile leads you to believe this is strictly about Knox and his journey to move 120,000 pounds of artillery from northern New York to Cambridge, Mass, in the dead of winter. In reality, the book flitted back and forth between Knox and his journey, and George Washington and the army in Cambridge. I may be wrong, but I think that anyone picking up this book would already have the knowledge about Washington and the siege of Boston. I know there had to be background and how and why Knox was making this journey. However, for me it was too much.
A decent read but I won't be recommending it to many people
Hazelgrove only had me thinking I should find another book. The tile leads you to believe this is strictly about Knox and his journey to move 120,000 pounds of artillery from northern New York to Cambridge, Mass, in the dead of winter. In reality, the book flitted back and forth between Knox and his journey, and George Washington and the army in Cambridge. I may be wrong, but I think that anyone picking up this book would already have the knowledge about Washington and the siege of Boston. I know there had to be background and how and why Knox was making this journey. However, for me it was too much.
A decent read but I won't be recommending it to many people
October 11, 2024
At the beginning of the American Revolution, the continental troops were untrained, poorly provisioned, and unequipped for war. This is the story of an ordinary man who wanted to change that, with an extraordinary group of men who helped him do it.
The order seemed impossible: In one of the coldest winters known, travel to Fort Ticonderoga, retrieve thousands of pounds of old cannons, and bring them back to Boston so General Washington had a chance to actually succeed in chasing the British out of the city. Henry Knox said, "Watch me."
Excellently written, perfectly paced, with just enough backstory and details to keep my interest. Highly recommended for any fan of American history. The audiobook was brilliantly narrated by Tom Parks.
The order seemed impossible: In one of the coldest winters known, travel to Fort Ticonderoga, retrieve thousands of pounds of old cannons, and bring them back to Boston so General Washington had a chance to actually succeed in chasing the British out of the city. Henry Knox said, "Watch me."
Excellently written, perfectly paced, with just enough backstory and details to keep my interest. Highly recommended for any fan of American history. The audiobook was brilliantly narrated by Tom Parks.
August 22, 2023
William Hazelgrove’s HENRY KNOX’S NOBEL TRAIN (published by Prometheus Books) is a relatively short book chock full of information new to me. I can’t mention all of it. I first learned of Henry Knox’s heroic efforts while reading a book on the British plot to assassinate General George Washington in the early years of the American Revolution (spoiler alert: they failed). Researching, I found this book and put it on my Christmas wish list.
For those of you wondering if Fort Knox was named after Henry Knox, the answer is yes it was. I suspect many of you know nothing else about him and the truly unbelievable feat he performed (with help of many additional men). Henry Knox was the leader of a daring expedition to bring 60 tons (120,000 pounds) of cannons and other artillery from Fort Ticonderoga in northern New York near the Canadian border to the desperate George Washington trying to dislodge the British from Boston in the most brutally cold winter in memory. Guards, sentries, and sailors (for both sides) at times froze to death on watch. Knox and his men had to walk AND SLEEP in temperatures trending around 0 degrees. They faced nature’s obstacles, the extreme cold of November to February being one. The geography of frozen rivers (and not quite frozen enough to hold the weight of 5000-pound cannons, sleds, oxen and men), mountains with steep cliffs and drop-offs, “roads” that at times were little more than trails, rutted, frozen or muddied, was the most treacherous. But they had to worry about hostile Indians, British soldiers, and Tory Loyalists (though, honestly, they didn’t run into any). Frostbite and freezing were more a threat than bullets and arrows.
Spoiler alert: Somehow Henry Knox got the cannons to Washington, who placed most of them on a hill overlooking Boston and its harbor; and within a few days, the British evacuated Boston, giving George Washington his first major battle win of the Revolution. When Knox finally got the cannons to Washington, I raised my arms and said, “They did it.” (even though I knew beforehand they would be successful.)
Henry Knox is an intriguing character. Abandoned by his father at age 9, he became a street kid and later a gang leader. Though not formally educated, he opened a bookstore and read voraciously about military strategy and engineering. He was on the fat side, weighing near 300 pounds, and walked pigeon-toed. He hated the British, but somehow married the young daughter of the ‘royally appointed secretary of Massachusetts.” Shortly after their marriage they snuck out of Boston. I gather he was a brown-noser and within months wormed his way into Washington’s confidences. Even though Knox had no military training, Washinton and the congressional congress appointed him Colonel of the Artillery. At age 25, though he had never ventured outside Boston, he volunteered to retrieve the 120,000 pounds of cannons, a seemingly impossible task. He remained Washington’s right-hand man throughout the war. For example, he oversaw the logistics of Washington, his men and his artillery crossing the Delaware that fateful Christmas Eve. After the war he established a military academy that later became West Point, etcetra, etcetera.
Tidbits I learned: Before the Revolution, Boston was little more than an island (technically a peninsula I guess) connected to the mainland by a strip of land 120 yards wide called “the neck.”
There was a bay on the backside of Boston called Back Bay. Industrious citizens in the19th century filled in the Back Bay and it’s now an important neighborhood in Boston called Back Bay.
Most of Washington’s army around Boston was comprised of men from the Massachusetts area. Men who didn’t recognize “betters” or adhere to social strata. Washington on the other hand was raised in the lingering caste system of upper-class Southern landowners. It took him a while to appreciate his men’s ways.
Washington liked to be called “His Excellency.” He was a major player in the start of the French and Indian War as a young soldier. He wanted to enlist in the British army twenty years previous, but was rejected. (He showed them.)
When I was a child, there was a show and a song about Frances Marion, the Swamp Fox. I don’t remember much of it, but I do remember the British marching down a road in formation while the rebels killed them one by one from behind bushes and rocks. That seemed stupid on the British part. It was but that was how the British did things. Amazingly, the British fought European style, which among other things meant they quit fighting between late October and sometime in the Spring. Translated, even though they knew Washington and his men were across the bay from Boston, they paid them no mind since it was winter.
Remember the saying, “One if by land, two if my sea.” Here’s the reason for it. The colonists expected the British in Boston would make a push to take military supplies stored in Concord. The colonists didn’t know when or by which route. One wat was to come across that narrow strip of land called The Neck; the Other was to cross the Charles River. They crossed the river. Learning this Paul Revere rode through the night with message, “The British are coming.” Hearing that, men grabbed their muskets and prepared to take on the British army.
There’s more, but I’ve gone on too long already.
Ah, the title, Henry Knox’s Noble Train. A train in military jargon is a process of moving material, food etc. to the soldiers. It has nothing to do with choo-choo trains. A supply train moved food, clothing, medicines etc. An artillery train moved artillery. Knox’s train of oxen, horses, sleds was an artillery train. Knox himself in writing called his venture a NOBEL train since they were in a nobel pursuit to found a free and independent country.
Henery Knox’s Nobel Train is well-worth reading.
My rating: 4 stars
For those of you wondering if Fort Knox was named after Henry Knox, the answer is yes it was. I suspect many of you know nothing else about him and the truly unbelievable feat he performed (with help of many additional men). Henry Knox was the leader of a daring expedition to bring 60 tons (120,000 pounds) of cannons and other artillery from Fort Ticonderoga in northern New York near the Canadian border to the desperate George Washington trying to dislodge the British from Boston in the most brutally cold winter in memory. Guards, sentries, and sailors (for both sides) at times froze to death on watch. Knox and his men had to walk AND SLEEP in temperatures trending around 0 degrees. They faced nature’s obstacles, the extreme cold of November to February being one. The geography of frozen rivers (and not quite frozen enough to hold the weight of 5000-pound cannons, sleds, oxen and men), mountains with steep cliffs and drop-offs, “roads” that at times were little more than trails, rutted, frozen or muddied, was the most treacherous. But they had to worry about hostile Indians, British soldiers, and Tory Loyalists (though, honestly, they didn’t run into any). Frostbite and freezing were more a threat than bullets and arrows.
Spoiler alert: Somehow Henry Knox got the cannons to Washington, who placed most of them on a hill overlooking Boston and its harbor; and within a few days, the British evacuated Boston, giving George Washington his first major battle win of the Revolution. When Knox finally got the cannons to Washington, I raised my arms and said, “They did it.” (even though I knew beforehand they would be successful.)
Henry Knox is an intriguing character. Abandoned by his father at age 9, he became a street kid and later a gang leader. Though not formally educated, he opened a bookstore and read voraciously about military strategy and engineering. He was on the fat side, weighing near 300 pounds, and walked pigeon-toed. He hated the British, but somehow married the young daughter of the ‘royally appointed secretary of Massachusetts.” Shortly after their marriage they snuck out of Boston. I gather he was a brown-noser and within months wormed his way into Washington’s confidences. Even though Knox had no military training, Washinton and the congressional congress appointed him Colonel of the Artillery. At age 25, though he had never ventured outside Boston, he volunteered to retrieve the 120,000 pounds of cannons, a seemingly impossible task. He remained Washington’s right-hand man throughout the war. For example, he oversaw the logistics of Washington, his men and his artillery crossing the Delaware that fateful Christmas Eve. After the war he established a military academy that later became West Point, etcetra, etcetera.
Tidbits I learned: Before the Revolution, Boston was little more than an island (technically a peninsula I guess) connected to the mainland by a strip of land 120 yards wide called “the neck.”
There was a bay on the backside of Boston called Back Bay. Industrious citizens in the19th century filled in the Back Bay and it’s now an important neighborhood in Boston called Back Bay.
Most of Washington’s army around Boston was comprised of men from the Massachusetts area. Men who didn’t recognize “betters” or adhere to social strata. Washington on the other hand was raised in the lingering caste system of upper-class Southern landowners. It took him a while to appreciate his men’s ways.
Washington liked to be called “His Excellency.” He was a major player in the start of the French and Indian War as a young soldier. He wanted to enlist in the British army twenty years previous, but was rejected. (He showed them.)
When I was a child, there was a show and a song about Frances Marion, the Swamp Fox. I don’t remember much of it, but I do remember the British marching down a road in formation while the rebels killed them one by one from behind bushes and rocks. That seemed stupid on the British part. It was but that was how the British did things. Amazingly, the British fought European style, which among other things meant they quit fighting between late October and sometime in the Spring. Translated, even though they knew Washington and his men were across the bay from Boston, they paid them no mind since it was winter.
Remember the saying, “One if by land, two if my sea.” Here’s the reason for it. The colonists expected the British in Boston would make a push to take military supplies stored in Concord. The colonists didn’t know when or by which route. One wat was to come across that narrow strip of land called The Neck; the Other was to cross the Charles River. They crossed the river. Learning this Paul Revere rode through the night with message, “The British are coming.” Hearing that, men grabbed their muskets and prepared to take on the British army.
There’s more, but I’ve gone on too long already.
Ah, the title, Henry Knox’s Noble Train. A train in military jargon is a process of moving material, food etc. to the soldiers. It has nothing to do with choo-choo trains. A supply train moved food, clothing, medicines etc. An artillery train moved artillery. Knox’s train of oxen, horses, sleds was an artillery train. Knox himself in writing called his venture a NOBEL train since they were in a nobel pursuit to found a free and independent country.
Henery Knox’s Nobel Train is well-worth reading.
My rating: 4 stars
July 21, 2020
The story of Knox's rescue of cannons from a northern fort and moving them to George Washington in New York in the winter, through ice and snow, and the attendant catastrophes of ice not frozen firm enough and the trails through the woods and mountains being very narrow, ill-defined and treacherous. A story of determination. And Henry Knox had no experience with cannon or artillery except such as he gained through studying books of warfare that he bought to sell in his bookstore. He became Washington's general in charge of artillery.
January 27, 2025
A wonderfully told history of and event that happened right here in upstate NY. I really enjoyed listening to him describe pulling the canon over the Hudson River in Albany while I walked along the Hudson River in Albany.
November 4, 2024
I've long been fascinated by the history of the Knox Expedition of the winter of 1775-1776, Henry Knox, a Boston bookseller organized transporting artillery captured at Fort Ticonderoga in New York to Cambridge, Massachusetts to be used by the Continental Army in the siege of Boston, then held by the British army. I've long wanted to read a book-length history of the expedition, and this is the first one I've found. As the author notes, part of the problem is that there are actually few primary resources for the Knox Expedition and many inconsistencies within the ones that exist.
From this book I learned that Henry Knox was born and raised in Boston in a family of modest means. He attended Boston Latin School, but also was a member of the neighborhood street gangs that fought on Pope's Night. Knox witnessed the Boston Massacre in 1770 and testified in the trials of the British soldiers. In 1771, he opened the London Book Store where he sold imported books and studied military texts that supplemented his limited practical experience as a member of a local artillery militia.
In the years leading to the Revolution, Knox was active in the Patriot cause but also wooing and marrying Lucy Flucker, who came from a high-status Boston Loyalist family. Lucy would be shunned by her family and in the early years of their marriage also frequently separated from Henry as he served in the Continental Army. The isolation was a strain on Lucy and their relationship but they remained very affectionate in their correspondence.
Despite his knowledge of engineering and artillery coming primarily from book learning, Knox impressed George Washington enough to be appointed leader of the artillery. In this position, he was responsible for transporting 60 tons of canon over 300 miles in the dead of winter. The logistical challenges required Knox to frequently improvise solutions. Problems included finding sleds that could carry the canon, teams of oxen to pull them, and teamsters who could drive the oxen.
Water crossings proved challenging. The canon were carried on boats across Lake George, carefully balanced to avoid sinking, and hoping that the lake didn't freeze before they reached the other end. Once the canon were on sleds the biggest problems was that water was frozen enough to support the weight. Too much and too little snow slowed down the expedition. And the difficult crossing of the Berkshire Mountains was almost too much for the men under Knox's command
Hazelgrove writes in the style of the novel emphasizing the adventure and challenges of the expedition. There's a lot of interesting detail and facts that I hadn't known before. On the down side, Hazelgrove is very repetitious and relies on too many cliches in his writing. He also uses a valorizing tone about "the glorious Revolution" that runs contrary to the best practices of historians toward neutrality. In a few chapters he flashes back to the early military career of Washington, I suppose to compare and contrast the young Knox to his commander, but it feels like filler that detracts from the main narrative.
I believe that there's a much better single-volume history of the Knox Expedition yet to be written, but in the meantime this was an enjoyable read about a fascinating historical event
From this book I learned that Henry Knox was born and raised in Boston in a family of modest means. He attended Boston Latin School, but also was a member of the neighborhood street gangs that fought on Pope's Night. Knox witnessed the Boston Massacre in 1770 and testified in the trials of the British soldiers. In 1771, he opened the London Book Store where he sold imported books and studied military texts that supplemented his limited practical experience as a member of a local artillery militia.
In the years leading to the Revolution, Knox was active in the Patriot cause but also wooing and marrying Lucy Flucker, who came from a high-status Boston Loyalist family. Lucy would be shunned by her family and in the early years of their marriage also frequently separated from Henry as he served in the Continental Army. The isolation was a strain on Lucy and their relationship but they remained very affectionate in their correspondence.
Despite his knowledge of engineering and artillery coming primarily from book learning, Knox impressed George Washington enough to be appointed leader of the artillery. In this position, he was responsible for transporting 60 tons of canon over 300 miles in the dead of winter. The logistical challenges required Knox to frequently improvise solutions. Problems included finding sleds that could carry the canon, teams of oxen to pull them, and teamsters who could drive the oxen.
Water crossings proved challenging. The canon were carried on boats across Lake George, carefully balanced to avoid sinking, and hoping that the lake didn't freeze before they reached the other end. Once the canon were on sleds the biggest problems was that water was frozen enough to support the weight. Too much and too little snow slowed down the expedition. And the difficult crossing of the Berkshire Mountains was almost too much for the men under Knox's command
Hazelgrove writes in the style of the novel emphasizing the adventure and challenges of the expedition. There's a lot of interesting detail and facts that I hadn't known before. On the down side, Hazelgrove is very repetitious and relies on too many cliches in his writing. He also uses a valorizing tone about "the glorious Revolution" that runs contrary to the best practices of historians toward neutrality. In a few chapters he flashes back to the early military career of Washington, I suppose to compare and contrast the young Knox to his commander, but it feels like filler that detracts from the main narrative.
I believe that there's a much better single-volume history of the Knox Expedition yet to be written, but in the meantime this was an enjoyable read about a fascinating historical event
January 7, 2025
My wife and I listened to the audio book version of this together. We both enjoyed it, but felt that it sometimes diverted too far from its subject. The author would sometimes go off on a tangent, giving us information that--though historically accurate--was not really a part of the story of Knox and the Novel Train of artillery he delivered to Washington's army. I had the impression that Hazelgrove was told by the publisher to add to his word count and did so via his tangents.
On the other hahd, Hazelgrove is a strong writer who knows his subject and the book does properly honor an American hero. Henry Knox was a 25-year-old bookseller whose knowledge of engineering and artillery came almost entirely from books he had read. But when Washington was besieging the British in Boston, the nascent Continental Army desperately needed cannon. Knox took on the job of transporting 60 tons of cannon from Fort Ticandoroga to Boston through harsh winter weather, over frozen lakes and rivers and over mountains. And he did it.
Hazelgrove's vivid descriptions of the hardships of that trip are the highlight of the book. Though it does have its faults, "Henry Knox's Noble Train" is still well-worth reading.
On the other hahd, Hazelgrove is a strong writer who knows his subject and the book does properly honor an American hero. Henry Knox was a 25-year-old bookseller whose knowledge of engineering and artillery came almost entirely from books he had read. But when Washington was besieging the British in Boston, the nascent Continental Army desperately needed cannon. Knox took on the job of transporting 60 tons of cannon from Fort Ticandoroga to Boston through harsh winter weather, over frozen lakes and rivers and over mountains. And he did it.
Hazelgrove's vivid descriptions of the hardships of that trip are the highlight of the book. Though it does have its faults, "Henry Knox's Noble Train" is still well-worth reading.
July 14, 2020
I learned so much about the man that Fort Knox was named after. Who knew he was so interesting and so important to our country. This book is very detailed about Knox's life and his trip to Boston to bring the much needed ammo and hardware to save the American Revolution. Such interesting facts about George Washington also. This is a must read for any one interesting in history. I liked a couple of quotes: George Washington " liked to say many mickle makes a muckle" ie: tiny things add up. Henry Knox "nobility really was a willingness to sacrifice everything for something not yet seen"
January 17, 2022
excellent detailed account of a bookseller's determination to do the unthinkable for his country. A man of determination, we don't generally know much about Knox, or give him the kudos he deserves in his role in this war. This book provides insight to the man who would become a general and fight along Washington's side throughout the war. This book doesn't get lost on tangents of various somewhat related topics like so many others just to simply add page count to a smaller story. Book stays on point throughout. Excellent quick adventure read!
July 18, 2025
The story was so interesting to learn about Henry Knox. He was asked by George Washington to transport sixty tons of cannons and other artillery from Fort Ticonderoga near the Candian border to Boston. He and his men traveled 300 miles over frozen, treacherous terrain. Boston was surrendered to Washington as a result of these cannons.
The writing was not great, very wordy, saying the same thing over and over. The gist of the story happened in the last hour of the book.
I am glad I listened to it and would recommend it to history buffs.
The writing was not great, very wordy, saying the same thing over and over. The gist of the story happened in the last hour of the book.
I am glad I listened to it and would recommend it to history buffs.
December 23, 2025
250 years ago a Boston bookseller and self educated artillerist overcame the unforgiving mountains of the New York frontier to transport captured British artillery. It was a journey of hundreds of miles to dislodge the British from his hometown and give George Washington his first victory in the Revolutionary War. The story of Henry Knox and his “Noble Train” is not widely known outside Massachusetts, but it’s a feat in the same class as Hannibal or Napoleon crossing the Alps. A truly epic journey that arguably saved the Revolution in its most fragile early days.
February 15, 2021
I enjoy most books about the American Revolution, and this book does help to fill in the blanks of what enabled Washington's Army was able to force the British out of Boston in the winter of 1775-76. The telling of the story however wasn't as smooth as I would have hoped. I most enjoy histories that transport me to the time and place and that allow me to get into the head of the main character(s), but in this case it just didn't happen for me.
January 21, 2023
Interesting historical significance of Knox getting the cannons Washington needed to drive the British out of Boston. 300 miles in the winter, no one thought he could move all of the heavy cannons all that way over frozen lakes and rivers and the Berkshire mountains. Some of the writing gets repetitive chapter after chapter.
December 21, 2025
this was okay. lots of dramatization which I'm not a fan of. I understand it's hard to write a purely historical factual book when there's so little data or first person accounting to work with but this felt like a LOT of just filling pages to make it longer. one chapter begins by explaining, for a while, the process in which water molecules freeze into ice.
March 18, 2022
Little known facts about Washington’s victory in Boston over the British. Henry Knox was a superstar. All stories can’t be in our history books but this one should be more well known. Amazing.
August 3, 2022
Excellent intro to this operation. Conversational style and respect for the characters makes for a compelling story.
October 23, 2022
Knox is elevated and rightly belongs in the with few who made a difference in the “Glorious Cause”.
November 28, 2022
This was a slow read but it was agood read! Lots of information and very intersting. I enjoyed seeing the pictures of the places in the book!
September 20, 2023
well written history about a little known but pivotal event in the American Revolution. Henry Knox deserves more recognition - how many Americans know who Fort Knox is named for?
May 21, 2024
More novel than history.
June 20, 2024
If only Knox had picked up an editor and a few red pens when he picked up all those cannons. This author could’ve made use of them.
Way. Too. Redundant.
Way. Too. Redundant.
February 14, 2025
An interesting bit of Revolutionary War history, though the book would have been well served by an editor.
July 21, 2025
I couldn’t get in to this book, I didn’t like the writing style or how the info was presented.
August 27, 2025
Wonderful story. Pretty wild
May 22, 2025
I really wanted more from this book. I wanted more content but also more organization. Sources for this important event are scarce and writing a detailed account of the artillery train is no small feat. I understand that the author needed to give some background and clarification but felt like he leaned too heavily on extraneous information. It made the book longer but did nothing for the continuity of the story. There was a lot of repetition and unnecessary information that only tangentially related.
October 5, 2020
Yet another story of how an individual overcame impossible circumstances and contributed a critical service to the Revolution, a war effort composed of a series of fortunate events, pure luck, and people doing extraordinary things when most indicators pointed toward failure.
September 1, 2021
So irritating that a Massachusetts town which was very important in the history of the American Revolution is frequently misspelled!! It’s “CHARLESTOWN” not “CHARLESTON” !!
The Battle of Bunker Hill happened in Charlestown, Massachusetts!!! Not Charleston !!! Uaargghh. !!!
The Battle of Bunker Hill happened in Charlestown, Massachusetts!!! Not Charleston !!! Uaargghh. !!!
November 18, 2023
Great story! I work in many of the places mentioned. Well written although a bit repetitive.
Displaying 1 - 30 of 30 reviews