Henry Knox

by Mark Puls

  Henry's self-taught fluency in French as well as his own gregarious nature helped foster an affectionate air between the officers as they made their introductions. Washington did not speak French, and relied on Knox and Lafayette to interpret. Knox listened diplomatically during the discussions, anxious not to reveal the Americans' limited ordnance supplies as plans for a joint campaign proceeded. Nothing of substance came from the meeting. Everyone agreed that until the second fleet of French navy arrived, they lacked the naval superiority to dislodge the British.

  On the return trip from the meeting, Knox, Washington, and Hamilton detoured to confer with General Arnold, who had set up his headquarters at the home of a man named Robinson on the opposite side of the Hudson from West Point. As they neared the fort, they were surprised by signs of disrepair to the fortifications. Arnold was nowhere to be found, so Washington and the rest of the party proceeded on to the Robinson home. Along the way they had stopped to inspect a redoubt, during which time a letter arrived at the Arnold home from a nearby commander announcing the capture of a British spy. Arnold, who received the message while eating breakfast, was horrified, realizing his plot had been detected. He said a hasty good-bye to his wife and bolted, fleeing just minutes before Washington, Knox, and their party arrived. The men immediately realized that something was profoundly wrong. Mrs. Arnold, whom Knox had met in Philadelphia, was weeping inconsolably and seemed to be in shock. Holding her infant in her arms while swaying through extremes of emotion—one minute melting into tears while lamenting her state of abandonment and in the next screaming wide-eyed that the American generals had come to kill her baby—she seemed insane.

  Washington and Knox examined the letter that had tipped off Arnold that his conspiracy had unraveled. It had been sent by Lieutenant Colonel John Jameson, commander of the American outpost at Lower Salem, New York. The suspect had been traveling under the name of John Anderson and wearing civilian attire, yet he claimed to be no spy at all. A note was attached to Jameson's message identifying Anderson as none other than John Andre, the top aide of the British commander in chief, Lord Henry Clinton. Andre had been captured by three militiamen who had searched him and uncovered several military documents concealed in his boots. All were in the handwriting of Benedict Arnold, and included notes from Washington's most recent war council, which Knox had attended, along with estimates of the number of soldiers posted at West Point and the surrounding posts and layouts of the fortifications, artillery orders, and a flag-of-truce pass written by Arnold that authorized "John Anderson" to pass the guards at White Plains without question.

  Although Jameson recognized Arnold's handwriting, he did not suspect that the general had plotted with Andre. Instead he complied with an order from Arnold to notify him if anyone answering the name of "John Anderson" appeared along the American lines.

  As the American generals tried to piece together what had happened, Knox remembered that he had spent an entertaining evening with prisoner-of-war Andre at Fort George in 1775 during his Ticonderoga mission. At the time, Andre was on his way to take part in a prisoner exchange. Knox had been immediately impressed with the British officer. As Knox and Washington discussed Andre's capture, it soon became apparent that Arnold had had a hand in the plot. Mrs. Arnold cried that she had been deserted by her cad of a husband despite her unwavering love for him. She did not deserve this fate, she sobbed, rocking back and forth and pressing her child to her breast. To Knox, Washington, and Hamilton, she appeared to be plunging toward a breakdown.

  The scene of the abandoned mother tearfully clinging to her baby tugged at the empathetic instincts in Knox and the other generals. They believed that Mrs. Arnold had been completely unaware of her husband's duplicitous plot and that both she and the nation had been betrayed in the same treasonous act. The officers tried to comfort her with soft words, assuring her that they meant no harm to her child but instead extended their deepest sympathies for her plight.

  Her manner would have "pierced insensibility itself," wrote Alexander Hamilton, who was present. In describing Mrs. Arnold in a letter written that same day to his future wife, Elizabeth Schuyler, Hamilton explained: "All the sweetness of beauty, all the loveliness of innocence, all the tenderness of a wife, and all the fondness of a mother showed themselves in her appearance and conduct. We have every reason to believe that she was entirely unacquainted with the plan, and that the first knowledge of it was when Arnold went to tell her he must banish himself from his country and from her forever.“14

  Peggy Arnold was not, however, an innocent bystander. She had supported her husband's overtures to the British from the beginning and pushed him to betray his command to satisfy her social ambitions. As she cried and moaned before Washington, Knox, Hamilton, and Lafayette, she was giving the manipulative performance of her life—as she would later admit with glowing pride.

  Knox was stunned by Arnold, a man whom he had continued to trust even after presiding over his court-martial. Uncertain how extensive the plot with the British was or whether the enemy was on the verge of attacking, Knox sent off a dispatch to Major Sebastian Baumann, who was stationed at West Point, for the troops to stand ready to fight, expressing dismay over Arnold's betrayal: "The strangest thing in the world has happened. Arnold has gone to the enemy. . . . It is incumbent on us to be on our guard." Washington, no less surprised and disheartened by Arnold's defection, turned to Knox and Lafayette and asked, "Whom can we trust now?“15

  Hamilton was sent to King's Ferry in pursuit of Arnold, who had managed to escape by climbing aboard a barge and sailing south down the Hudson to reach the British sloop The Vulture. Safely aboard, he sent a message under a flag of truce to Washington, asking that his wife be protected from acts of vengeance and justifying his actions: "I have ever acted from a principle of love to my country since the commencement of the present unhappy contest between Great Britain and the Colonies, the same principle of love to my country actuates my present conduct, however it may appear inconsistent to the world; who very seldom judge right of any man's actions.“16

  Realizing that Arnold was now providing the British with detailed intelligence about West Point, including its layout, the position of its artillery, and the location of its most vulnerable points, Knox had to rearrange its guns to offset the redcoats' precise intelligence.

  He was also given the unenviable task of sitting on the fourteen-man board of general officers appointed to try Major Andre as a spy. At his hearing, Andre pleaded that he was innocent of this charge and that he had left The Vulture dressed in his regimental uniform rather than civilian clothes. He explained that he had rendezvoused with Arnold the night of Thursday, September 21, for a meeting in neutral territory at a secluded clearing along the banks of the Hudson. The meeting continued longer than planned as they discussed the details for the British to attack and capture West Point and for Lord Clinton to ostensibly take Arnold prisoner. Dawn broke with elements of the conspiracy yet to be settled. Rather than return to the river and risk detection, Andre claimed that he followed Arnold on horseback to a safe hiding place and that Arnold and one of the general's associates had betrayed him by leading him to a house behind American lines. Arnold may have done this in order to sacrifice Andre if they were discovered. Andre said he had no choice at this point but to change out of his regimental uniform and into civilian clothes. In a written statement, he explained: "I [was] betrayed into the vile condition of an enemy in disguise within your posts.“17

  Whatever fondness Knox had for Andre, whatever sympathies he felt for the plight of a British officer who had been unwittingly betrayed by Arnold, Henry sided with the rest of the board of generals that Andre should be hanged as a spy. Knox signed the board's verdict, which was handed down on September 29, and reported its findings: "Major André, Adjutant General to the British Army, ought to be considered as a spy from the Enemy and that agreeable to the Law and usage of nations it is their opinion he ought to suffer Death.“18

  Andre impre
ssed Knox and nearly everyone else with the dignity in which he faced his fate. On the eve of his hanging, he sketched a self-portrait that showed himself in relaxed repose, his hair pulled back to reveal the delicate features of his boyish face with his eyes wistfully transfixed in distant thought. He asked for the honor of being shot like a soldier rather than hanged as a spy. Washington turned down this request. Knox watched as Andre was ordered at noon to mount a wagon beneath the gallows on Monday, October 2, 1780, at the army camp at Tappan. The condemned man drew admiration for his grace and composure in his final moments. Wearing a new suit of his regimental colors and with a sword by his side, he opened his shirt, placed a tied handkerchief over his own eyes, and uttered his last earthly words: "I have said all I had to say before, and have only to request the gentlemen present to bear testimony that I met death as a brave man.“19

  With that, the cart was pushed forward and Knox watched Andre hang. A journalist from the Pennsylvania Packet wrote of Andre's death: "Perhaps no person (on like occasion) ever suffered the ignominious death that was more regretted by officers and soldiers of every rank in our army; or did I ever see any person meet his fate with more fortitude and equal conduct.“20

  Nathanael Greene, who had recently resigned from the post of quartermaster after serving two years in that capacity, had returned to field duty. He believed that Henry Knox should be given the command of the Continental army's southern department and succeed the discredited Horatio Gates. After two successive American generals, Lincoln and Gates, had both suffered demoralizing defeats at the hands of the British in the morass of the southern states, the task of reviving American hopes in the region seemed monumental. Nevertheless, Greene told Washington that Henry had demonstrated time and time again an ability to achieve the near impossible with ingenuity and perseverance: "Knox is the man for this difficult undertaking. All obstacles vanish before him; his resources are infinite."

  "True," Washington replied to Greene, "And therefore I cannot part with him.“21

  This was no idle compliment to Knox or a polite way to dismiss Greene's recommendation. By now Knox had become more critical to Washington's own success as commander in chief than even a talented strategist and battle-field leader such as Greene. Washington was fully capable of leading troops into battle himself and could live without one of his top field generals. But Henry's specialized knowledge and skills in artillery as well as his understanding, expertise, and management of the entire U.S. arsenal of weapons could not be easily replaced. It was clear to Washington that Knox's importance had far transcended his title as brigadier general or even his position as the head of the corps of artillery. His experience in erecting the military machinery and channeling supplies and ordnance from various states, his diplomacy with congressional delegates and various governors and French allied commanders, along with his talent as a strategist and battlefield technician, meant that he influenced nearly every move the army made. No other man possessed the wide array of skills that Knox had developed in the course of the war or could step in as his replacement without crippling the Continental military. Washington could not plan any campaign without Knox at his side.

  Washington therefore informed Greene on Saturday, October 14, that he, not Knox, had been appointed to lead the Continental Army's southern department.

  Writing the news of Greene's promotion to South Carolina congressman John Mathews on October 23, Washington expressed his faith in Nathanael while alluding to the difficulties the southern commander would face: "I think I am giving you a general; but what can a general do, without men, without arms, without clothing, without stores, without provisions?“22

  Washington spelled out to Congress just how vital Knox had become to the army after news arrived that delegates promoted William Smallwood of Maryland to the position of major general. Washington viewed the promotion as a purely political move based upon "the principle of a state proportion" of top generals. Building an officer corps based on geography rather than merit threatened the most outstanding generals in the army, foremost among them Knox. Washington wrote to New Hampshire congressman James Sullivan on Saturday, November 25, warning that if Knox were passed over for promotion due to political appointments, "he will undoubtedly quit the service; and you know his usefulness too well not to be convinced this would be an injury difficult to be repaired.“23

  A month later, Washington wrote New York congressman James Duane that the army could not lose Knox or pass over his promotion and risk his resignation: "I am well persuaded that the want of him at the head of the artillery would be irrepairable.“24

  Lucy had left Boston with the couple's two children and accompanied Henry as the army moved into winter quarters at New Windsor, New Jersey, near Morristown. They took up lodging in a small, quaint farmhouse in a secluded wooded area a short distance from the artillery park. Washington and Lafayette brought Francois-Jean de Beauvoir, Chevalier de Chastellux, a major general under the command of Rochambeau and one of only forty members of the French Academy, to visit Knox's home. Knox received them, standing at the head of his artillery, which had been formed in a manner that mirrored artillery formations of the best European armies. Knox wanted to demonstrate that the American artillery corps, which he had built and trained virtually from scratch, met the standards of the leading armies in the world. The monumental nature of this achievement was not lost on Chastellux, who nodded in wonder that Knox had been able to develop into a first-class officer and produce a professional artillery corps without attending a renowned military academy or without experience in the military prior to the war. Chastellux later wrote of Knox: "From the very first campaign, he was entrusted with the command of the artillery, and it has turned out that it could not have been placed in better hands." Chastellux believed that Du Coudray, the career French artillery general who had tried to replace Knox earlier in the war, was far inferior to Henry as an officer.

  Knox was at his likable best with Chastellux. With a wink, Knox explained that he would have been happy to greet the esteemed Frenchman with a full military salute of booming cannon fire, except that British soldiers were posted on the opposite side of the river, and he did not want rouse them for battle. Knox rode with Washington and the French general down the wooded trail that led to his rural lodging. Chastellux was touched by the sight of Henry's family following him to war. "We found [Lucy] settled in," Chastellux later recalled, "at a little farm where she had passed part of the campaign, for she never quits her husband. A child of six months and a little girl of three years old formed a real family for the general." He described Knox as "very fat, but very active and of a gay and amiable character.“25

  As winter weather set in, Henry dreaded the thought of another miserable season in which the army was ill-fed, ill-clothed, and again neglected by Congress and the states. Many men wanted to return home rather than face another year of deprivation in the Continental army. Henry wrote to his brother on Saturday, December 2 that the soldiers were fighting for people who had failed to support them: "We depend upon the great Author of Nature to provide subsistence and clothing for us during a long and severe winter; for the people, whose business, according to the common course of things is to provide the materials necessary, have either been unable or neglected to do it."

  To William, Knox poured out his feelings of concern over the plight of the enlisted men and expressed his admiration at their resolve: "The soldier, ragged almost to nakedness, has to sit down at this period, and with an axe—perhaps his only tool, and probably that a bad one—to make his habitation for winter. However, this, and being punished with hunger in the bargain, the soldiers and officers have borne with a fortitude almost superhuman." Knox told himself that each of these men would someday return home to a hero's welcome and bask in the gratitude of his wartime achievements. He tried not to entertain the thought that the soldiers who had borne such suffering would be greeted with apathy by their countrymen. He told William: "The country must be grateful to these bra
ve fellows. It is impossible to admit the idea of an alternative.26 Yet he and other officers were concerned that the resentment running through the ranks was a powder keg ready to explode.

  By the end of the year, some soldiers had reached their breaking point and decided they could no longer take the missing paychecks, the starvation, and neglect by the national and state governments who had sent them to war. At 9 P.M. on Monday, January 1, 1781, several noncommissioned officers and privates from Pennsylvania stormed from the barracks at Morristown, carrying their muskets and swords, and shouted for others to join them in a march to Congress to demand their back pay. They carted off mobile artillery and raided ammunition to fire on any troops that stood in their way. Commissioned officers ordered the mutineers to stop and placed themselves in the path of the angry men. In the confusion and shouting, shooting erupted, with both officers and enlisted men killed. Nevertheless, the dissidents were not dissuaded, but marched down the road to Philadelphia in full gear.

  Knox received an urgent message from Washington, who was uncertain if the unrest would spread through other regiments in the army, that Henry must travel immediately to Connecticut, Rhode Island, Massachusetts, and New Hampshire to make a direct appeal for supplies to help keep the army together. In a circular to New England leaders, Washington said he was sending Brigadier General Knox to solicit help "that you may have every information that an officer of rank and abilities can give of the true situation of our affairs." For the army to make it through the winter, Knox needed to bring back money, flour, and clothing, especially shirts, vests, breeches, stockings, and coats.27