by laelan51 » Sun Oct 06, 2013 2:42 pm
My ancestor Henry Knox beat the "unbeatable British". He was a Boston bookseller who read ballistics books and knew how to target cannon. He went with his brother and volunteer militia to the just captured fort Ticonderoga, building roads along the way, to bring the captured artillery to Boston Heights and ran the British fleet out of Boston Harbor. He commanded the artillery at Breed's and Bunker Hill. He led the successful retreat from the Patriots' loss and facilitated the removal of the American Army to the mainland. He was General of the Artillery under Washington and his go-to guy for any orders he issued, Henry made it happen. Henry assembled the boats and enabled the successful attack on the Hessians and invented field mobile artillery maneuvers inside Trenton to crush the German professionals. Henry directed the bombardment in the final battle in which the Army inland and the French fleet out harbor resulted in the final British Defeat. Henry was appointed first head of the Department of War in the Washington Administration. When the unpaid, disaffected officers went to Washington to make him King to get some executive action and Washington declined, they went next to Henry, who likewise declined. If he hadn't, you would properly address me as Sir, rather than "troll". Henry founded West Point Academy, Springfield Armory, and the fort that the Gov. pretends to hold reserve gold(stolen by FDR in the greatest robbery of the 20th century) in is named for him. P.S. Henry's mother was daughter(or grand-daughter, my records are incomplete) of Lord Loudon, General Campbell, who defeated the French and made Canada part of the British Empire, so you can see that my interest is generational.