Henry Knox

by Mark Puls

  Knox read the newspapers and kept up with the debate over independence. Unless the colonies declared a break from England, he was a rebel. If captured, he would be deemed a criminal, not a member of a national army. He also knew that America could not supply its needs for artillery and would be required to import guns from France and the Netherlands. If the country was still dependent on Great Britain, no significant help could come from other nations. Knox had become a prominent figure in the army and was buoyed with the thought of helping build a nation. On July 9, news arrived in New York that the Continental Congress had given final approval for the Declaration of Independence on Thursday, July 4, 1776. The general orders to the army that day proclaimed: "The Honorable Continental Congress, impelled by the dictates of duty, policy and necessity, having been pleased to dissolve the connection which subsisted between this country, and Great Britain, and to declare the United Colonies of North America, free and independent States.“15

  Washington exhorted the army, telling the men: "This important event will serve as a fresh incentive to every officer, and soldier, to act with fidelity and courage, as knowing that now the peace and safety of his country depends (under God) solely on the success of our arms: And that he is now in the service of a state, possessed of sufficient power to reward his merit, and advance him to the highest honors of a free country.“16

  At 6 P.M., Knox gathered his men at the regimental parade ground at his artillery park to hear the Declaration of Independence read. Knox listened to Thomas Jefferson's memorable words: "We hold these truths to be self-evident, that all men are created equal, that they are endowed by their Creator with certain unalienable rights, that among these are life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness." As he listened, Knox could take pride in his role in the victory in liberating Boston, which gave America the triumph needed to stake its support of independence. Loud cheers and shouts of joy went up. Soldiers vowed to cut down the enemy. Knox smiled at the bravado. He knew that his men faced a formidable army, and their courage was not yet tempered by the realities of war.

  That night, the soldiers and citizens of New York City celebrated. The gilded, leaden statue of an equestrian King George III—located at Bowling Green at the foot of Broadway, not far from Knox's headquarters—was pulled down and decapitated, the lead taken to make musket balls for the army. Washington did not welcome the unbridled enthusiasm and issued orders to the soldiers: "Though the General doubts not the persons, who pulled down and mutilated the statue in the Broadway, last night, were actuated by zeal in the public cause; yet it has so much the appearance of riot, and want of order, in the army, that he disapproves the manner, and directs that in future these things shall be avoided by the soldiery.“17

  Much of that zeal was deflated three days later when a fleet of another 150 ships carrying 11,000 fresh troops was seen along the horizon. Drums beat to call men to their posts, but many were so awestruck by the sight of the massive sea power that they stood along the banks gazing in amazement, unable to move. One of the most impressive vessels flew the flag of St. George and was instantly recognized as that of Admiral Richard Howe, the commander of the British navy in North America, known popularly as Black Dick due to his swarthy complexion. He was the brother of General William Howe, commander of British forces on the continent. The other ships in the fleet immediately fired salutes in honor of the admiral. At 3:20 P.M., two British frigates, the Phoenix and the Rose, of forty and twenty guns respectively, sailed up the Hudson River to the Tappan Sea. Knox ordered his artillery to open fire on the ships, which skirted the opposite shore nearly out of reach of his guns. The guns belched furiously, and in the blinding, acrid smoke and deafening noise, Knox yelled for his men to keep firing without pause. In the excitement, his men misfired and cannons exploded, killing some and leaving others writhing in pain. Knox's heart sank. Despite the incessant cannonade, he could not force the ships to turn back, and his men seemed to have inflicted as much damage to themselves as the enemy. His only consolation was that Lucy was safely away from the danger. He wrote her the next day: "I thank Heaven you were not here yesterday. Two ships and three tenders of the enemy . . . weighed anchor, and in twenty-five minutes were before the town. We had a loud cannonade, but could not stop them, though I believe we damaged them much. They kept over on the Jersey side too far from our batteries. I was so unfortunate as to lose six men by accidents, and a number wounded. This affair will be of service to my people; it will teach them to moderate their fiery courage."

  Although soldiers along the shore prevented the British from landing troops, the ships denied Washington access to a key water channel to Albany. Now communications and provisions could be sent only by land. The skirmish was a rude awakening for Knox, who had believed that New York could be defended by cannons. He quickly recognized that the plan to fill the ranks of the artillery regiment by borrowing unqualified men from other units would not work. He told Washington that he needed another battalion of men assigned specifically to his corps who could train and develop the necessary skills to duel with the British. The general asked him to draft a plan, which Knox provided and Washington sent to Congress with his recommendation.18 Knox also faced another problem due to the return of the British. As Robert Treat Paine pointed out in a letter to Knox: "The approach of the enemy has rendered it necessary to find some other place to cast brass cannon [than New York].“19

  Admiral Howe believed the show of British strength and the presence of 10,000 troops dug in on Staten Island would induce the Americans to seek a peace settlement. On Sunday, July 14, he sent a man-of-war with a flag of truce four miles from the city. Knox and another officer sailed to meet the British officers. The captain of the Eagle greeted them by rising, bowing, and removing his hat. "I have a letter, sir, from Lord Howe to Mr. Washington," he said, according to Knox in a letter to Lucy. The captain referred to the commander in chief of the American army merely as a private citizen, since the British did not recognize independence or the legitimacy of the rebel army. Under Washington's orders, Knox and Reed refused to accept the letter.

  "Sir we have no person in our army with that address," Reed said. The British captain took the note out of his pocket, however, and handed it to them, asking them to look at the address, which read: "George Washington, Esq., &c., &c., New York."

  "No sir," Colonel Reed said. "I cannot receive that letter." The captain expressed his deep regret. Knox, Reed, and the captain saluted and bowed to each other and parted. As the Americans sailed back to shore, Henry noticed that British captain had turned his boat around to meet them again and asked what particular title Washington would prefer. The American colonels said politely, while shouting across the water, that this was a ridiculous question not worthy of a response. Knox reported to Lucy that the British officer regretted that the divided parties did not come together just a few weeks earlier, which Henry interpreted as meaning before the signing of the Declaration of Independence.

  In communicating a peace proposal to Washington, the British commanders were in an awkward position. They could not acknowledge Washington's title as the general of the American army without implying tacit recognition of independence. On Saturday, July 20, General Howe sent his adjutant general, a Lieutenant Colonel Paterson, to complain about the refusal to receive British letters. At a meeting at Knox's headquarters, Paterson was very civil. Knox wrote in a letter to Lucy: "In the course of his talk every other word was, 'May it please your Excellency, if your Excellency so please,' in short, no person could pay more respect than the said adjutant-general.“20 But Washington was not pacified by flattery; instead he wanted formal recognition of his country. Paterson tried to explain that the salutation of "&c., &c." addressed to him "implied everything." Washington nodded, saying, "It does so, and anything." The British officer again expressed regret over the impasse concerning the issue of titles and explained that Lord and General Howe had come with great power to negotiate a peace settlement. Washington responded that he had he
ard that Lord Howe had the power to grant pardons, but he believed the Americans had not offended and did not need pardons, and only defended their rights.

  "This confused him," Knox wrote to Lucy. He told her, "General Washington was very handsomely dressed, and made a most elegant appearance." Henry noticed that the British officer was impressed by Washington's commanding presence, and "appeared awe-struck, as if he was before something supernatural. Indeed, I don't wonder at it. He was before a very great man indeed.“21

  After a half hour of meeting, the Americans brought in wine, and Henry "lamented exceedingly the absence of my Lucy" to grace the diplomatic nature of the occasion. Paterson excused himself and returned to the Eagle to report to the Howe brothers.

  Behind the pleasantries lay the threat of the destruction of the American army. Knox knew that his artillery regiment was inadequate against hundreds of guns from the British battleships anchored around New York and that his guns were poorly manned. During the last week of the month, he learned, however, that the Continental Congress in Philadelphia had on July 24 approved his plan to raise another battalion of artillery and ordered it "carried into execution as soon as possible.“22 Robert Treat Paine, who served on the Congressional Cannon Committee, wrote Knox on July 27: "We have contracted with a man to cast eighteen-, twenty-four- and thirty-two-pounders, he has succeeded so well in long eighteen-pounders that we hope he will answer our desires in the rest.“23 As encouraging as these steps may have been, they offered no help for the battle for New York that appeared imminent.

  Lucy, meanwhile, stuck in Connecticut, felt bored and lonely and began to wonder what Henry did to pass the time. She wrote asking about his daily schedule. He replied on Sunday, August 11, that he usually rose around sunrise and attended regimental prayers, sang a Psalm, and then read a chapter of the Bible at the main battery with General Putnam. "I dispatch a considerable deal of business before breakfast. From breakfast to dinner I am broiling in a sun hot enough to roast an egg." He usually dined with the American generals, Washington, Putnam Greene, and William Alexander, who styled himself Lord Stirling, claiming he descended from the Scottish Earl of Stirling. He told Lucy, "I am mortified that I haven't had them to dine with me in return. However, that cannot be. I go to bed at nine o'clock or before every night.“24

  Lucy was especially homesick for her family and the gaiety of her life of just a few years earlier. She felt out of place in Connecticut, where the people, she thought, lacked gentility and displayed coarse manners and unrefined behavior. Henry advised her: "Take care, my love of permitting your disgust to the Connecticut people to escape your lips. Indiscreet expressions are handed from town to town and a long while remembered by people not blessed with expanded minds. The want of that refinement which you seem to speak of is, or will be, the salvation of America; for refinement of manners introduces corruption and venality. . . . There is a kind of simplicity in young states as in young children which is quite pleasing to an attentive observer.“25

  The last of the ships of the British fleet arrived on Monday, August 12, giving General Howe a total of 32,000 men to oppose Washington's army of 19,000 soldiers fit for duty. "The Enemy's whole reinforcement is now arrived, so that an Attack must, and will soon be made," Washington admonished the next day. "Be ready for action at a moments call; and when called to it, remember that liberty, property, life and honor, are all at stake. . . . Their cause is bad; their men are conscious of it, and if opposed with firmness, and coolness, at their first onset, with our advantage of works, and knowledge of the ground; victory is most assuredly ours."

  At the first sign of the British attack, Knox's men were to fire three guns from the artillery park on Bayard's Hill and hoist a flag or light when the attack came, to call men to their posts.26 Gray clouds descended and rain poured down for the next several days, postponing any attack or the ability of the British to land more troops on Staten Island.

  Congressional delegate Samuel Adams, who visited the army on his way home from Philadelphia to Boston, listened to concerns from men he trusted, such as Knox and Washington, that Congress should not rely on militia to win the war and that the short-term enlistments meant an annual dissolution of the army and the loss of veteran experience. Congress needed to upgrade inducements to enlist and for longer periods of service than a year. Adams immediately wrote to his second cousin, John Adams, on August 16: "I see now, more than ever I did, the importance of Congress attending immediately to enlistments for the next campaign. It would be a pity to lose your old soldiers. I am of opinion that a more generous bounty should be given, twenty dollars and one hundred acres of land for three years at least.“27

  A few days later, Knox received a letter from John Adams dated August 13, reiterating his concern that so few men from Massachusetts had been commissioned as generals in the army despite a recent spate of congressional promotions. "I wish I was better acquainted with the persons and characters of the colonels from that state. It will never do, for the Massachusetts to furnish so many men, and have so few generals while so many other states furnish so few men and have so many generals.“28 Knox continued to press Adams and Robert Treat Paine regarding the need for more cannons. Congress, which was finding it difficult even to obtain the necessary metals or find a suitable air furnace to cast cannons, resolved on Wednesday, August 21 "[t]hat Colonel Henry Knox be authorized to draw upon the pay master general for money sufficient to pay for any quantity of copper.“29

  That same day, Knox wrote to Adams that he feared the inadequacies in the artillery corps could cause the loss of New York or even the war itself. He urged Congress to increase the pay of enlisted soldiers rather than placing hope in untrained and amateur state militias. To build an experienced army, Congress could not afford to economize on the soldiery. "When their homes were invaded," Knox wrote Adams, "they fought for self-preservation. Now that they are moved away from these, they naturally consider that those who do not fight should pay.“30

  On August 21, local inhabitants crossed the East River with reports that the British attack was imminent. According to intelligence they had gathered, about 20,000 regulars were gearing up and in motion for an assault the next day. Seven battleships were to surround New York and pin the American army in, as the British had been pinned in Boston earlier in the year. At 7 P.M. that same day, Knox watched the most dreadful thunderstorm that many people could ever remember. He was jarred by terrific thunderclaps as the storm raged for three hours. Lightning struck a tent in the city, killing a captain and two lieutenants. The tips of the men's swords melted and twisted in the electric shock, along with silver dollars in their pockets. Another man was killed on Main Street, and ten others on Long Island died from lightning strikes. The sailors in the British fleet were tossed about in the ferment of the Atlantic.31

  The storm abated by 10 P.M., at which time British and foreign troops boarded transports and began crossing the East River from Staten Island to Gravesend Bay at Utrecht on Long Island. By 10 A.M. on Thursday, August 22, 15,000 troops had landed and established a foothold within three miles of the American lines. On Friday, the British advance guard pushed north as far as Flatbush under heavy American fire from the nearby woods. Knox remained at Fort George, where Washington and his advisors believed the main attack would be against Manhattan. His men stayed on alert for three days, hoping that a timely cannonade might discourage British ships from approaching the city's shoreline. On Monday, August 26, Howe feigned an attack on Flatbush and the adjoining Bedford Pass to draw the patriot army while the bulk of his force moved farther north up Staten Island along the Jamaica Pass during the night. At two o'clock Tuesday morning, a force of Hessian mercenaries attacked the Americans in the woods with British field artillery. Knox's gunners returned fire from just a couple hundred yards away. British guns fired into the trees, splintering trunks and branches and ripping through fortifications where the Americans hoped to make their stand. A gunfight and cannon duel dragged on for seven exhaustin
g hours. Rain fell again, leaving the soldiers drenched. Ammunition became soaked and ruined. By 9 A.M. on Wednesday, August 28, the patriots realized they had been outflanked. Surrounded by the British troops that had come up the Jamaica Pass, they had to make their retreat through British lines, which were posted on roads leading to the fortifications at Brooklyn Heights. Washington ordered six regiments from Manhattan to cross the East River to reinforce the position. Knox also arrived at the scene. Two generals, Sullivan and Lord Stirling, were taken prisoner on Long Island. Sullivan was commanding only because Nathanael Greene was severely ill. Henry wrote Lucy that "I met with some loss in my regiment: they behaved like heroes and are gone to glory.“32 Several British ships attempted to sail up the East River and cut off the army on Long Island, but wind from the northeast prevented their progress.

  Washington ordered an evacuation of Brooklyn Heights on Thursday, August 29. Knox, in charge of one of the two embarkation points, was mortified when one of his cannons accidentally fired. Fortunately for the Americans, the blast did not reveal the troops' secret departure across the East River to enemy picket guards. A heavy wind blowing from the east caused a churning high tide that prevented the American departure as the British marched in their direction. In what must have seemed like a hand from providence, the wind changed at 11:30 P.M. and blew out to sea, and a heavy fog descended, providing cover for the 9,500 American troops attempting to cross the river. Knox was able to load almost all of the cannons onto barges, which were crewed by men from Massachusetts towns such as Beverly, Salem, Lynn, and Marblehead. Many of these soldiers had been fishermen and seamen before the war and were accustomed to the sea. They were led by a strict disciplinarian, Colonel John Glover, who had been a prosperous shipowner and a member of the close-knit "codfish aristocracy," which controlled the north shores of New England. Knox was able to tap the skills of the men from his home state to facilitate the crossing.33