Henry Knox was an American major-general and secretary of war. He was the first secretary of war under the U. S. Constitution.
Background
Henry Knox was born on July 25, 1750 in Boston, Massachusetts, United States. He was of Scotch-Irish descent, his father, William Knox, and his mother, Mary Campbell, having landed in Boston in 1729 from the north of Ireland. Married in February 1735, they had ten children, all sons, of whom Henry was the seventh. The father, a shipmaster by occupation, suffered financial reverses and died in the West Indies at the age of fifty, and Henry, then but twelve years old, was the sole support of his mother.
Education
Henry was admitted to the Boston Latin School, where he studied Greek, Latin, arithmetic, and European history.
Career
Leaving the grammar school, the boy found work in the bookstore of Wharton & Bowes, in Cornhill, Boston. On his twenty-first birthday he opened for himself "The London Book-Store, " which became a resort of British officers and brought him a fair income.
A robust and enterprising youth, Knox was early interested in military affairs and enlisted in a local company when he was only eighteen. At the "Boston massacre, " March 5, 1770, he endeavored to restrain Captain Preston from firing on the mob. Through the bursting of a fowlingpiece on a hunting expedition, he lost the third and fourth fingers of his left hand. He joined in 1772 the crack "Boston Grenadier Corps" as second in command under Captain Joseph Pierce and made a study of military science and engineering.
With the outbreak of the Revolution, Knox, although urged to adhere to the Royalist cause, withdrew with his wife from Boston in June 1775. He promptly offered himself as a volunteer to General Artemas Ward and entered upon a career of unceasing activity, participating in nearly every important engagement of the war.
His rise in the American army is like a tale of romance. The Patriots gladly accepted his experience as an artillerist; he soon, through his talents and personality, became one of General Washington's closest friends and advisers; and, although he had never been in a battle, he was commissioned colonel, November 17, 1775, in charge of the artillery of the army. At his own suggestion and with the approval of Washington, he went with his brother William on a hazardous expedition to Fort Ticonderoga and brought back to Boston the supply of British ordnance captured on May 10, 1775, by Ethan Allen. His arrival in late January 1776, dragging "a noble train of artillery" over the snow, strengthened his reputation for daring and resourcefulness; and the fortification of Dorchester Heights with these guns compelled General Howe to evacuate Boston with eleven hundred Loyalists, including the Fluckers. After laying out defenses at exposed points in Connecticut and Rhode Island, Knox joined Washington at Long Island, where he took part in the battles around New York. He reported, June 10, 1776, that he had available 120 cannon, but only 520 officers and men to handle them. The business of organizing the artillery was very arduous, and he wrote, September 19, 1776, "I have not had my clothes off o' nights for more than forty days".
When most Patriots were despondent he remained optimistic, constitutionally incapable of being downhearted. Under his direction Washington's troops on Christmas night, 1776, crossed the Delaware River, filled with floating ice, and, marching on Trenton, captured more than 1200 Hessian prisoners.
At the battle of Princeton in January 1777 his regiment was conspicuous for its aggressiveness. When the army went into winter quarters at Morristown, the indefatigable Knox was sent to Massachusetts, where he started a government arsenal at Springfield. In the ensuing May, Ducoudray, a French officer, arrived in the colonies expecting to be made commander-in-chief of artillery. Deeply grieved, Knox addressed Congress on the subject, and Washington joined with Generals Greene and Sullivan in objecting to the substitution of Ducoudray for Knox. As a consequence, the latter was retained in his position. In the autumn campaigns of 1777, Knox's regiment took an active part, especially at Brandywine, where a contemporary account said that they behaved "with their usual coolness and intrepidity, " and at Germantown. During the terrible winter at Valley Forge, he was allowed a leave of absence to visit his wife in Boston.
In 1779 he made the first move for the establishment of the military academy which later became West Point. In 1780, when Pennsylvania troops mutinied, he was selected by Washington to present to the New England states the grievances of the army and secured some monetary relief from Massachusetts and New Hampshire. Later in the year he sat on the court-martial which tried Major John André. At the siege of Yorktown in the autumn of 1781 he placed the American cannon, and Washington declared that "the resources of his genius supplied the deficit of means. " During the siege, Mrs. Knox was the guest of Mrs. Washington at Mount Vernon.
Knox's commission as major-general was dated November 15, 1781, shortly after the surrender of Yorktown. At the close of hostilities he was named on a board to arrange with the British for an exchange of prisoners, but no agreement could be reached. For some months he was stationed at West Point and on August 29, 1782, was placed in command of that post. When the neglected army grew restless, Knox, heading a committee of officers, petitioned Congress for aid.
In May 1783 he conceived and organized the Society of the Cincinnati, composed of Revolutionary officers, and was made its first secretary, under
He became vice-president of the order in 1805. During the autumn of 1783 the army was disbanded, and, after Washington had said farewell to his staff on December 4, it was to Knox that he first extended a parting handclasp. Resigning in January 1784, Knox moved to Boston, where he was appointed by the General Court on a commission to treat with the Penobscot Indians.
On March 8, 1785, he accepted an election by Congress as secretary of war, at a salary of $2, 450, out of which he paid an assistant. A "furious Federalist, " he denounced the "State systems" and sent to General Washington, January 14, 1787, a "rude sketch" for a general government.
The army at that time numbered only 700 men, but when Knox prepared in 1790 a comprehensive plan for a national militia, it was rejected by Congress. He was also defeated in a controversy with Alexander Hamilton, secretary of the treasury, as to which department of the cabinet should purchase military stores and supplies. He promoted the negotiation of treaties with the Indian tribes, and urged both an adequate navy and a chain of coast fortifications.
On December 28, 1794, he retired to private life. While he was in the cabinet, he and his wife entertained elaborately, both in New York and Philadelphia, spending much more than their income and maintaining an expensive establishment. Manasseh Cutler once dined at Knox's table with forty-four other gentlemen and described the entertainment as being "in the style of a prince. " His luxurious habits gave him the title of the "Philadelphia nabob. "
In June 1796 Knox settled on the estate inherited by Mrs. Knox from her maternal grandfather, Gen. Samuel Waldo, near Thomaston, Maine, where he had just finished building an imposing mansion, called "Montpelier, " at the head of the St. George's River. Here he carried on a great variety of projects, such as brickmaking, cattle-raising, ship-building, and lumber-cutting.
As early as 1791, he had been engaged with William Duer in extensive land speculation in Maine, which led them into heavy borrowing. The amount of money involved was large, and Knox was drawn into many law-suits which kept him from having an easy mind. He lived, however, in state and entertained many distinguished foreigners, including Talleyrand, Louis Philippe, and Alexander Baring. From time to time he sat in the General Court and on the Governor's Council, and he served on several commissions, among them one for the adjustment of the northeastern boundary.
In 1798, during the diplomatic crisis with France, he was appointed by President John Adams as major-general but was mortified by the fact that Hamilton and Charles C. Pinckney were given precedence over him.
The best portrait of Knox, by Gilbert Stuart, shows him in uniform, with his crippled left hand resting upon a cannon. It is in the Museum of Fine Arts in Boston.
Achievements
Politics
Knox was a staunch supporter of the new Constitution.
Views
He was critical of the American officers and wrote on September 5, 1776, "We want great men who, when fortune frowns, will not be discouraged. "
Personality
Washington described Knox as "a man of great military reading, sound judgment, and clear conceptions".
Knox was a full-blooded, florid man, who, in 1783, weighed nearly three hundred pounds. Maclay, who did not like him, referred to his "Bacchanalian figure, " and contemporaries ridiculed his pompous, self-complacent walk. He was forceful, often profane, in his language, and expressed himself very freely on most subjects. Although his sanguine disposition was an asset on the battlefield, it led him into hazardous business ventures. He was both generous and hospitable, and had qualities which endeared him to such different men as Greene, Lafayette, and Washington.
Quotes from others about the person
"General Knox, who has deservedly acquired the character of one of the most valuable officers in the service, and who combating almost innumerable difficulties in the department he fills has placed the artillery upon a footing that does him the greatest honor; he, I am persuaded, would consider himself injured by an appointment superseding his command, and would not think himself at liberty to continue in the service. Should such an event take place in the present state of things, there would be too much reason to apprehend a train of ills, such as might confuse and unhinge this important department. "
Connections
On June 16, 1774 Knox married Lucy Flucker, daughter of Thomas Flucker, royal secretary of the province.
Madam Knox, as she was commonly called, was almost as corpulent as her husband, and they were known in New York as "the largest couple in the city. " She was described as "a lively and meddlesome but amiable" woman, but she had domineering ways, to which Knox was often obliged to yield, and her "lofty manners" led him occasionally to reprove her. Her tactless remarks and social blunders caused much amusement, but her position as a hostess, and her influence with Mrs. Washington, were undeniable. Of her twelve children, nine died young--two of them on the same day in 1796--and only three survived their parents. She herself died in 1824.