During the winter of 1775-76 Boston was firmly in control of the British. George Washington was determined to break their hold but was running out of time, funds and manpower. Deliverance came in the unlikely form of a 300 lb. former Boston bookseller: Henry Knox.
 
Volunteering for service at the Battle of Bunker Hill (June 1775), and now Washington’s chief of the artillery corps, the resolute Knox was tasked with transporting heavy cannon from recently-captured Fort Ticonderoga in New York, all the way to Boston, in the midst of a cold and snowy winter. He was undaunted by the challenge.
 
On boats across Lake George, over mountains, through swamps, back and forth across the Hudson River (4 times), Knox and his men moved 120,000 lbs of artillery 300 miles in 40 days – an awesome accomplishment!
 
 
Several weeks after the canons arrived, reinvigorated and reinforced with additional troops, working through the night of March 2nd, 1776, Washington’s rag-tag army hauled the guns into place on Dorchester Heights overlooking Boston. On the morning of March 3rd the Redcoats awoke to find almost 60 big guns trained down on the town. A British officer, astounded by the sight, credited the night’s work to “the genie belonging to Aladdin’s wonderful lamp.”
 
While the British formulated plans to deal with this looming threat a sudden storm sprang up. Opting not to push their luck, within days they had boarded their fleet and sailed from the port of Boston.
 
Henry Knox’s steadfast and noble train of artillery, had led to the first major victory of the Revolutionary War.