Henry Knox, a Soldier of the Revolution; Major-General in the Continental Army, Washington's Chief of Artillery, First Secretary of War Under the Constitution, Founder of the Society of the Cincinnati 1750-1806 (Paperback)

Purchase of this book includes free trial access to www.million-books.com where you can read more than a million books for free. This is an OCR edition with typos. Excerpt from book: the preceding e frfUnticipate some- Jal order of the fhe movements figland, or make Sr Baltimore, or fdson and effect which, under yn from Canada, fetter to observe fle, Washington jown and estab- Bt Middlebrook, jt 28th of May. jtthat the British At that time, American forcesand to surprise General Sullivan at Princeton. The movement, however, was sluggish, as usual, and it was not until two days later that the entire army was in motion. How this design miscarried is described in a letter from Knox to his intimate friend, Henry Jackson. As Jackson's name occurs with great frequency in Knox's voluminous correspondence, it may be explained here that he was a native of Massachusetts and had been appointed colonel of the sixteenth additional Continental battalion raised in that State, his commission being dated January 12, 1777. He served with distinction in Sullivan's corps, and was appointed to the command of the last body of Continental troops that were disbanded in 1784. To him Knox was indebted for important financial aid in his later enterprises. Writing to him from Camp Middlebrook, 21 June, 1777, Knox says: General Howe, on the I4th, put his whole army in motion. He had for a long time past been collecting his force from Rhode Island, New York, Staten Island, etc. The boats upon which he designed to cross the Delaware as a bridge were fixed on waggons, besides which he had a large number of flat-bottom boats fixed on waggons to transport to the Delaware. These boats with the necessary apparatus, waggons to convey the baggage and the ammunition waggons, etc., swelled the number of his waggons to perhaps 1000 or 11oo, a great incumbrance to an army not very numerous. As I have before written, our position was exceeding good, and while we continued on it, the passag...