Knox Trail Marker - East Greenbush, NY - Signs of History on Waymarking.com

During the winter of 1775-1776 General George Washington held the high ground around Boston while the British were firmly in control of the city. If Washington had artillery he could dislodge the British and retake Boston. The nearest available artillery was at Fort Ticonderoga, which was under Continental Army control, in up-state New York.

General Henry Knox then was commissioned, in December 1775, by General Washington to secure these artillery pieces and transport them from New York, through Massachusetts, to Dorchester Heights outside Boston. To do this General Knox successfully crossed the Berkshire Mountains and several large rivers, in winter, with fifty-nine pieces of artillery. When the artillery arrived in Boston, in early March 1776, General Howe realized the hopelessness of his position and evacuated the city.

To commemorate this heroic trek a series of 56 historical markers denote the route that General Knox and his men traveled that winter. Twenty-six markers were erected in Massachusetts and thirty in New York for a total of fifty-six. The marker has a bronze bas relief sculpture of General Knox and the oxen used to transport the artillery and a map of the route from Ticonderoga, NY to Cambridge, MA. The inscribed on the map are: TICONDEROGA, FT. GEORGE, FT. EDWARDS, SARATOGA, HALF MOON, ALBANY, KINDERHOOK, CLAVERBACK, NOBLETOWN, and CAMBRIDGE. The marker is inscribed.