HENRY KNOX AND THE NOBLE TRAIN OF ARTILLERY

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In the days and weeks following the battles of Lexington and Concord, militiamen from all parts of New England formed a siege around the British army garrisoned in the town of Boston. When George Washington, the newly named commander of the Continental Army, arrived in Boston he realized that without artillery he could not force the British to abandon the town.

Washington did not have artillery on hand, but the previous spring Americans had captured the fort and 60 cannons at the British post at Ticonderoga, New York. Washington ordered Henry Knox of Boston to bring the guns to Boston. Arriving at the fort in January 1776, Knox formed his teams, disassembled the guns, and put them on sleds for the long trip through New York and Massachusetts.

The marker in Lincoln Square is one of 30 monuments in Massachusetts that mark the route of the Noble Train of Artillery. From Worcester, Knox and his men passed through several towns until they reached Cambridge. The guns were then deployed on Dorchester Heights. Seeing themselves not only blockaded but under imminent threat of bombardment, the British Army evacuated Boston on March 17, 1776.