Henry Knox Trail Marker at Cambridge, MA (MA-27)
Corner of Garden St and Mason St on the Cambridge Common
Cambridge, MA 02138
United States
The Henry Knox Trail, also known as the Knox Cannon Trail, is a network of roads and paths that traces the route of Colonel Henry Knox's "noble train of artillery" from Crown Point, New York, to the Continental Army camp outside Boston, Massachusetts, in the American Revolutionary War. George Washington commanded Henry Knox in 1775 to transport 59 cannons (weighing over 60 tons) from captured forts on Lake Champlain, 30 from Fort Ticonderoga, and 29 from Crown Point to the army camp outside Boston to aid the war effort against British forces. They included forty-three heavy brass and iron cannons, six coehorns, eight mortars, and two howitzers.
Knox arrived in Cambridge on January 27, 1776, and delivered the guns taken from Ft. Ticonderoga intact to George Washington. After securing gunpowder, Washington ordered the largest guns to be positioned on Dorchester Heights and began firing on March 2. The British loaded their ships and evacuated Boston on March 17.
Learn about Revolutionary War Combat Strategy. Watch the Revolutionary War Animated Map.
