HUB History - Our Favorite Stories from Boston History

Henry Knox commanded the Continental Army’s artillery, founded the academy that became West Point, and went on to become the first Secretary of War for the new United States. Before any of that, though, he was a young man in Boston. He was a Whig sympathizer who was in love with the daughter of a Tory, and he owned a bookstore frequented by both sides. Young Henry Knox was catapulted to prominence after one nearly unbelievable feat: bringing 60 tons of heavy artillery 300 miles through the New England wilderness in the dead of winter, from Fort Ticonderoga in upstate New York to Cambridge. William Hazelgrove joins us on the show this week to describe how Knox accomplished this nearly impossible task. He’ll also tell us about his new book Henry Knox’s Noble Train: The Story of a Boston Bookseller’s Heroic Expedition That Saved the American Revolution, which comes out this week.

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William Hazelgrove is the national bestselling author of seven nonfiction books, including biographies of George Washington, Teddy Roosevelt, and Edith Wilson. Because that doesn’t keep him busy enough, he has also written ten novels. His latest book is Henry Knox’s Noble Train: The Story of a Boston Bookseller’s Heroic Expedition that Saved the American Revolution, which is coming out this week. Be sure to check out his Facebook page and event listing, as well.

• Visit Fort Ticonderoga
• Follow the Henry Knox Trail
• A map of Lake George, from Fort Ticonderoga in the north to Fort William Henry in the south. Fort George was built about half a mile to the east of the ruins of William Henry
• A plan of Fort Ticonderoga in 1759, before it slid into a decline

Co-host Nikki and I are hosting a virtual Boston history happy hour and trivia night. All the event calendars we usually check are basically blank at this point, so we decided to throw our own. Nikki is writing up some trivia questions, so we can have virtual bar trivia at our virtual bar night. On Friday, May 15, we’re bringing the nerdiest bar in town to you at 5:30pm So warm up your webcam, and crack open a cold one, and come hang out with us!

Just submit your email address below, and we’ll send out a link to our Zoom meeting.