page_title: Noble train of artillery
section_title: Crossing the Berkshires
hierarchical_section_title: Noble train of artillery / Crossing the Berkshires
caption_attribution_description: English: "Knox entering camp with artillery". Henry Knox on horseback with soldiers transporting a disassembled canon on a sled through the snow, winter 1775-76, following his famous capture of artillery at Fort Ticonderoga. Wood engraving, hand-colored.
context_page_description: The noble train of artillery, also known as the Knox Expedition, was an expedition led by Continental Army Colonel Henry Knox to transport heavy weaponry that had been captured at Fort Ticonderoga to the Continental Army camps outside Boston, Massachusetts during the winter of 1775–1776.
  Knox went to Ticonderoga in November 1775 and moved 60 tons of cannon and other armaments over the course of three winter months by boat, horse, ox-drawn sledges, and manpower along poor-quality roads, across two semi-frozen rivers, and through the forests and swamps of the lightly inhabited Berkshires to the Boston area, covering approximately 300 miles. Historian Victor Brooks has called Knox's exploit "one of the most stupendous feats of logistics" of the entire American Revolutionary War. The route which he followed is now known as the Henry Knox Trail, and the states of New York and Massachusetts have erected markers along the way.
context_section_description: Details are sketchy concerning the remaining journey, as Knox's journal ends on January 12.  He reached the vicinity of Claverack, New York on January 9, 1776 and proceeded through the Berkshires, reaching Blandford, Massachusetts two days later.  There the lead crew refused to continue owing to a lack of snow and the upcoming steep descent to the Connecticut River valley, but Knox hired additional oxen and persuaded the crew to go on.  As the train moved east, news of it spread and people came out to watch it pass.  In Westfield, Massachusetts, Knox loaded one of the big guns with powder and fired it to the applause of the assembled crowd.
  At Springfield, Knox had to hire new work crews, as his New York-based crews wanted to return home.  John Adams reported seeing the artillery train pass through Framingham, Massachusetts on January 25, and Knox arrived in Cambridge two days later and personally reported to Washington that they had arrived.  According to Knox's accounting, he spent £521 on an operation that he had hoped would take two weeks but actually took ten weeks.
caption: 19th-century drawing depicting the arrival of the weapons
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