#203 Sidebar: Henry Knox and the Noble Train of Artillery Part 2
The History of the Americans
Jack Henneman
4.9 • 632 Ratings
🗓️ 13 February 2026
⏱️ 47 minutes
🧾️ Download transcript
Summary
Twenty-five year-old bookseller Henry Knox, his 19 year-old brother Will, and teamsters led by John Becker, Sr., move a long “noble train” of 59 pieces of salvaged artillery from Fort Ticonderoga to Cambridge. The route crossed frozen rivers and the not-dreamlike Berkshire Mountains under unbelievably arduous conditions. As word spread, crowds of Americans would turn out to cheer them on, and serve them cider and whiskey.
The artillery, when hoisted to the commanding heights of Dorchester above Boston, would drive the British from their long occupation of that city, and they would never return.
It is a story of initiative, ingenuity, tenacity, survival, and charismatic leadership, and was perhaps the first miracle of many that would bless the American Revolution.
Map of the Noble Train’s route (not reflecting all the river crossings discussed in the episode):
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Primary references for this episode (Commission earned for Amazon purchases through the episode notes on our website)
William Hazelgrove, Henry Knox’s Noble Train: The Story of a Boston Bookseller’s Heroic Expedition That Saved the American Revolution
Thomas M. Campeau, Major, U.S. Army, “The Noble Train of Artillery: A Study Comparison of Current Doctrinal Concepts of the Mission Command Philosophy in History.” (Master’s thesis, pdf)
Transcript
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| 0:00.0 | Welcome to the History of the Americans podcast, episode 203. |
| 0:10.8 | I'm your host, Jack Heneman, and we're recording this episode on February 12, 26, in New Orleans. |
| 0:19.8 | We are telling the history of the lands now encompassed by the United States from the beginning |
| 0:25.0 | without intentional presentism. |
| 0:28.6 | This episode's a sidebar, which is our term for an episode that's off the chronological |
| 0:33.4 | timeline of the history of the Americans. |
| 0:37.3 | The plan was to blow your minds by recording and launching this episode during the two weeks I was |
| 0:44.0 | traipsing around India. |
| 0:46.0 | I even schlepped along my books on Henry Knox, which weighed me down. |
| 0:51.0 | As it happened, one thing led to another, so I was never much up to writing the script, much less recording and editing. |
| 0:58.2 | So here we are in New Orleans, a week before Mardi Gras. |
| 1:02.8 | Happy Mardi Gras, everybody. |
| 1:05.2 | At the end of the last episode, which you really ought to listen to before this one, in case the part about part |
| 1:12.6 | two was not perfectly clear. It was December 3, 1775. Henry Knox and at least his 42 |
| 1:22.4 | militiamen were traveling north from Albany to the southern end of Lake George, where there was a fort called, not surprisingly, Fort George, arriving December 4th. |
| 1:35.9 | I say at least his militiamen, because there's confusion in the historical record about precisely how many men were along with Knox at this point in the journey. |
| 1:49.2 | Some say that Knox picked up the teamsters the General Schuyler had hired in Albany, |
| 1:55.1 | and that they all moved north to Lake George, roughly doubling the expedition at that point. |
| 2:02.5 | Others say they came into Fort George over the next few weeks. |
| 2:07.9 | The ambiguity is not historically important, but I mention it to avoid both actually comments |
| 2:15.6 | from Henry Knox's zealots, and trust me when I say they are out there, |
| 2:22.3 | and because it is a good reminder that the historical record, even as late as the American |
... |
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