Knox

noks Henry (1750-1806), an American soldier. He was a native of Boston. His father was a shipmaster. Young Henry was a clerk in a bookstore, with abundant opportunity to read. He made himself familiar with military tactics by observation and by questioning the officers of the British garrison then stationed in Boston. He was in the battle of Bunker Hill. When Washington took charge of the forces surrounding Boston, Knox proposed bringing cannon and ammunition from Ticonderoga. Washington gave him authority to do so. He loaded over fifty heavy guns and a supply of ammunition on sleds and brought the whole safely to Cambridge. Under Knox's direction the cannon were mounted on Dorchester Heights. They drove the British fleet out of the bay and the British troops out of Boston. He commended himself to Washington in the battles of Trenton, Princeton, Brandywine, Germantown, and Monmouth. He was with Washington during the trying winter of Valley Forge. In 1785 Congress appointed him secretary of war. He entered Washington's cabinet as the first secretary of the navy in 1794.