Noble train of artillery 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 , over the course of 3 winter months , moved 60 tons of cannons and other armaments by boat , horse and 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 . Historian Victor Brooks has called Knox ' s exploit " one of the most stupendous feats of logistics " of the entire American Revolutionary War . The route by which Knox moved the weaponry is now known as the Henry Knox Trail , and the states of New York and Massachusetts have erected markers along the route . Background . Shortly after the American Revolutionary War broke out with the Battles of Lexington and Concord in April 1775 , Benedict Arnold , a militia leader from Connecticut who arrived with his unit in support of the Siege of Boston , proposed to the Massachusetts Committee of Safety that Fort Ticonderoga , on Lake Champlain in the Province of New York , be captured from its small British garrison . One reason he gave to justify the move was the presence at Ticonderoga of heavy weaponry . On May 3 , the committee gave Arnold a Massachusetts colonel ' s commission and authorized the operation . The idea to capture Ticonderoga had also been raised to Ethan Allen and the Green Mountain Boys in the disputed New Hampshire Grants territory ( present - day Vermont ) . Allen and Arnold joined forces , and on May 10 a force of 83 men captured the fort without a fight . The next day a detachment of men captured the nearby Fort Crown Point , again without combat . Arnold began to inventory the two forts for usable military equipment . Hampered by a lack of resources and conflict over command of the forts first with Allen , and later with a Connecticut militia company sent to hold the fort in June , Arnold eventually abandoned the idea of transporting the armaments to Boston and resigned his commission . Expedition planning . In July 1775 George Washington assumed command of the forces outside Boston . One of the significant problems he identified in the nascent Continental Army there was a lack of heavy weaponry , which made offensive operations virtually impossible . While it is uncertain exactly who proposed the operation to retrieve the Ticonderoga cannon ( biographers tend to credit either Knox or Arnold with giving Washington the idea ) , Washington eventually chose the young Henry Knox for the job . Knox , a 25 - year - old bookseller with an interest in military matters , served in the Massachusetts militia , and become good friends with Washington on his arrival at Boston . When Washington gave Knox the assignment , he wrote that " no trouble or expense must be spared to obtain them . " On November 16 Washington issued orders to Knox to retrieve the cannon ( and authorized £1000 for the purpose ) , and wrote to General Philip Schuyler asking him to assist Knox in the endeavour . Washington ' s call for the weapons was echoed by the Second Continental Congress , which issued Knox a colonel ' s commission in November that did not reach him until he returned from the expedition . Knox departed Washington ' s camp on November 17 , and after traveling to New York City for supplies , reached Ticonderoga on December 5 . The night before his arrival , at Fort George at the southern end of Lake George , he shared a cabin with a young British prisoner named John André . André had been taken prisoner during the Siege of Fort St . Jean and was on his way south to a prison camp . The two were of a similar age and temperament , and found much common ground to talk about . It was not to be their last meeting ; the next time they met Knox presided over the court martial that convicted and sentenced André to death for his role in Benedict Arnold ' s treasonous behavior . Sources . The primary sources for much of the daily activity in this journey are Knox ' s diary and letters . While his description of some of the events and dates is detailed , there are significant gaps , and significant portions of the journey , especially much of the Massachusetts section , are poorly documented . Some of these gaps occur because Knox did not write about them , and others because pages are missing from the diary . While there are other sources that confirm some of Knox ' s details or report additional details , parts of the route are not known with certainty , and modern descriptions ( including the placement of markers for the Henry Knox Trail ) of those parts are based on what is known about roads across Massachusetts at the time . Nevertheless the route was more or less in the corridor of today ' s Massachusetts Turnpike ( Interstate 90 ) . Albany . Knox arrived at Ticonderoga on December 5 , and immediately set about identifying the equipment to take , and organize its transport . He selected 59 pieces of equipment including cannons ranging in size from four to twenty - four pound , mortars , and howitzers . He estimated the total weight to be transported at 119 , 000 pounds ( about 60 tons , or 54 metric tons ) . The largest pieces , the twenty - four pound " Big Berthas " , were long and estimated to weigh over . The equipment was first carried overland from Ticonderoga to the northern end of Lake George , where most of the train was loaded onto a scow - like ship called a gundalow . On December 6 , the gundalow set sail for the southern end of the lake , with Knox sailing ahead in a small boat . Ice was already beginning to cover the lake , but the gundalow , after grounding once on a submerged rock , reached Sabbath Day Point . The next day they sailed on , again with Knox sailing ahead . While he reached Fort George in good time , the gundalow did not appear when expected . A boat sent to check on its progress reported that the gundalow had foundered and sunk not far from Sabbath Day Point . While this at first appeared to be a serious setback , Knox ' s brother William , captain of the gundalow , reported that she had foundered , but that her gunnel s were above the water line , and that she could be bailed out . This was done , the ship was refloated , and two days later the gundalow arrived at the southern end of the lake . On December 17 Knox wrote to Washington that he had built " 42 exceeding strong sleds , and have provided 80 yoke of oxen to drag them as far as Springfield " , and that he hoped " in 16 or 17 days to be able to present your Excellency a noble train of artillery " . Knox then set out toward Albany ahead of the train . At Glens Falls , he crossed the frozen Hudson River , and proceeded on through Saratoga , reaching New City ( present - day Lansingburg ) , just north of Albany , on Christmas Day . Two feet ( 0 . 6 m ) of snow fell that day , slowing his progress as the snow - covered route needed to be broken open . The next day , again slowed by significant snow in the ground , he finally reached Albany . There he met with General Philip Schuyler , and the two of them worked over the next few days to locate and send north equipment and personnel to assist in moving the train south from Lake George . While the snowfall was sufficient for the use of sleds to move the train overland , the river ice was still too thin to move it over the Hudson . Knox and his men tried to accelerate the process of thickening the river ice by pouring additional water on top of existing ice . By January 4 , the first of the cannon had arrived at Albany . On the route toward Albany , and again on crossing the Hudson heading east from there toward Massachusetts , cannons crashed through the ice and fell into the river . In every instance the cannon was recovered . On January 9 the last of cannons had crossed the Hudson , and Knox rode ahead to oversee the next stage of the journey . Crossing the Berkshires . Details of the remaining journey are sketchy , as Knox ' s journal ends on January 12 . He reached the vicinity of Claverack , New York on January 9 , 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 . Knox hired additional oxen and persuaded the recalcitrant crew to continue . As the train moved further east , news of its travel spread , and people from area towns came out to watch it pass . In Westfield , 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 on January 25 . Two days later , Knox arrived in Cambridge and personally reported to Washington that the artillery train had arrived . According to Knox ' s accounting he spent £521 on an operation he had hoped would take two weeks , that instead took ten weeks to complete . Arrival . When the equipment began to arrive in the Boston area , Washington , seeking to end the siege , formulated a plan to draw at least some of the British out of Boston , at which point he would launch an invasion of the city across the Charles River . Pursuing this plan , he placed cannon from Ticonderoga at Lechmere ' s Point and Cobble Hill in Cambridge , and on Lamb ' s Dam in Roxbury . These batteries opened fire on Boston on the night of March 2 , while preparations were made to fortify the Dorchester Heights , from which cannon could threaten both the city and the British fleet in the harbor . On the night of March 4 Continental Army troops occupied this high ground . British General William Howe first planned to contest this move by assaulting the position , but a snowstorm prevented its execution . After further consideration , he decided instead to withdraw from the city . On March 17 , British troops and Loyalist colonists boarded ships and sailed for Halifax , Nova Scotia . Henry Knox went on to become the chief artillery officer of the Continental Army , and later served as the first United States Secretary of War . Legacy . To commemorate Knox ' s achievement , at the time of its sesquicentennial ( 150th anniversary ) the states of New York and Massachusetts both placed historical markers along the route he was believed to have taken at the time . In 1972 markers in New York were moved when new information surfaced about the train ' s movements between Albany and the state boundary . Most of the markers in Massachusetts are along a route the train was assumed to take , given the sparsity of documentation and what was known about roads in Massachusetts at the time .