The Guns of Ticonderoga

  The capture of the guns at Fort Ticonderoga was of little military value to the Patriots unless they could be transported, in the dead of winter, from upstate New York to Boston where the rebels were besieging the British regulars - a distance of some 280 miles using available rivers and roads. George Washington dispatched the 25 year old Henry Knox, a Boston bookseller, to retrieve the cannon and other supplies and transport them back to Boston. Knox owned "The London Book Store", located opposite Williams Court in Boston, and was married to the daughter of Thomas Flucker, Royal Secretary of the Province, and as ardent a Loyalist as there was in Boston. To think of Knox's establishment merely as a "bookstore" does not give it its full due. In addition to the finest books, Knox also sold stationery and a whole variety of items to include flutes, breadbaskets, telescopes, protractors, and paper hangings, among other things. It was, in fact, an establishment described as "...a great store of display and attraction for young and old, and a fashionable morning lounge....Knox's store was a great resort for the British officers and Tory ladies who were the ton of the period."  Knox had been an eye witness to the Boston Massacre and later testified at the trials of the soldiers involved. In 1773, while hunting, Knox lost the third and fourth fingers of his left hand when a fowling piece exploded. He went through life wrapping a silk handkerchief around his hand to disguise the injury. He was fascinated with military matters and strategy, spent a great deal of time acquiring and reading books on the subject, and was a member of an artillery company at the outbreak of war.

Henry Knox

   Washington issued orders on Thursday, November 16, 1775 to Knox to proceed to Fort Ticonderoga via New York City and Albany and procure as much cannon and supplies as he could and transport them to Boston. Knox set out, accompanied by his nineteen year old brother, and arrived on December 4th, 1775. At Fort Ticonderoga, Knox found guns ranging from 12 inch howitzers to 11 foot cannon weighing 5,000 pounds apiece.The total weight of the load that he was to drag to Boston was approximately 120,000 pounds. Knox's immediate problem was to load the cannon and supplies aboard ships so that they could be transported down the lake to Fort George for loading onto sleds. The cannon were loaded onto low draught lake vessels called gundalows. After loading the cannon aboard, Knox went on ahead to Fort George and, on 11 December, 1775, contracted for  a local militia captain to round up 42 sleds that could carry 5,400 pounds apiece, 160 oxen to pull them, and 500 fathoms of sturdy three inch rope to ferry the 43 cannon and 16 mortars as far as Springfield, Massachusetts where he planned to get fresh animals for the rest of the journey.

a gundalow

      But Knox had one insurmountable problem - the weather, which was too good. Given the state of the rutted roads he had to traverse, Knox needed a good base of snow and/or ice on which to drag the sleds. It was impossible to drag the sleds over snow free roads. Knox, too optimistically, wrote Washington that he would cover twenty miles a day and that he should arrive in Cambridge by New Year's Day. But snow refused to fall. On Christmas day, Knox awoke to find a very welcome Christmas present - a two foot blanket of pristine snow. But the Christmas bounty was not to last as a warm front rapidly moved into the area, temperatures rose, and rivers began to thaw. Finally, on January 8th, 1776 a cold front moved in, lingered and Knox could get on his way.

   After clearing the rivers in New York, Knox had to haul his artillery chain through the Berkshires and a dense pine forest called Greenwoods. Many of his crew became discouraged and Knox spent a great deal of his time cajoling them to continue the journey. After trekking through the mountains and the forest, the trip became easier since they moved on an old Indian trail. As the caravan approached Springfield, Knox rode ahead to Cambridge where he reported to Washington on January 24th that the artillery would arrive in the next few days. Knox was then informed that his appointment as a Colonel had been approved by Congress and he would head the army's artillery corps of approximately 650 men.

   Knox's mission had taken twenty-four days longer than he had predicted and his entire mission stretched to fifty-six days. Knox immediately went into putting the artillery to use but decided that the Ticonderoga cannon and mortars were insufficient for his task. He wrote to General Charles Lee, on his way to New York, with a requisition for more guns. But all the artillery in the world was useless without powder and ammunition, of which the Patriots were always short. Knox was pleased to learn that shortly after he had departed on his mission that the Americans had captured a British sloop laden with military supplies to include 3,000 shells for twelve pound guns and 4,000 shells for the six pounders. But Knox was still desperately short of powder for his guns.  On February 18th, Washington informed Knox that Connecticut was going to send them 3,000 pounds of powder.

Map of the Siege of Boston with positions prior to the seizure of Dorchester Heights
(Click on the map to enlarge it.)

   The key to driving the British from Boston was the seizure of Dorchester Heights. Knox had positiioned his cannon on three heights -  Roxbury from the South, Cobble Hill from the West, and Lechmere Point on the North. On  March 2, 1776, Knox commenced his bombardment of his home town. On March 4th, as the cannonade boomed uninterurpted, General John Thomas seized Dorchester Heights with 2000 men. Under Knox's direction, and with the help of 400 oxen, the heaviest guns seized from Ticonderoga were hauled up the hill and positioned to strike the city and the British fleet in the harbor. A British Admiral spotted the guns and notified General Howe who immediately made plans to attack the position but an unfavorable wind would not allow him to mount an amphibious assault and gave Washington time to send in additional troops to secure this position and Knox time to augment and dig in his artillery. Howe soon realized his position in Boston was hopeless and on St Patrick's Day, 1776 the British commenced to evacuate Boston.
  
   The lifting of the siege not only gave a much needed boost to the flagging spirits of New Englanders, it helped to bolster a national mood that believed that Independence was inevitable.

  The irony of history: While travelling to Fort Ticonderoga, Knox encountered a snowstorm and took refuge at Fort George on December 4, 1775. He was given lodging in a one room cabin which, for lack of space, he shared with a captured British officer who, along with others, was being escorted to Lancaster, Pennsylvania where a prisoner exchange would occur. Knox was dressed in civilian clothes and revealed nothing of his mission. As they sat before the fire, the two men engaged in conversation and found an attraction for each other since both loved literature and shared many passions. The officer's intelligence and personality left a lasting impression on Knox. The officer was Lt John Andre, a member of the British Army stationed in Canada.

Westminster Abbey

  

Benedict Arnold- Some Thoughts

   While Benedict Arnold's treatment by the Church Committee may seem harsh to a contemporary American, it is not anything out of the ordinary for mid-eighteenth century military finance. The colonists adopted the complicated British system of procurement, ripe with favoritism and corruption and expected a commander to shoulder a number of exigent expenses for which he would be later reimbursed. What is interesting about Arnold's appearance before the committee is his failure to provide receipts. While Arnold would not have been able to provide receipts for the odd situation, he certainly should have had them for the bulk of his expenses. It was the job of the committee to view Arnold's claims with suspicion.
  Benedict Arnold, throughout his career, demonstrated an utter lack of political acumen. He was not an intellectual and had no feel for human interplay, the ambitions of men, and the cut throat nature of politics. Alexander Hamilton, who knew Arnold from Hamilton's days as Washington's aide, remarked of him that "the fighter did not combine...any intellectual qualities with his physical prowess. Instead of engaging in interesting argument, he shouted and pounded the table." A description of Arnold from his days in Philadelphia perhaps describes him best:

He was by nature impetuous, aggressive, alert and eager for battle under any circumstances but he had never been a good politician. He was tactless, impatient, extremely outspoken and had made numerous enemies unnecessarily.

 One of the things that Arnold's biographers gloss over during Arnold's actions during April and May of 1775, is the utterly callous way in which he abandoned his Connecticut Company in favor of a commission from a colony in which he had no friends and no political base. Colonelcies were highly sought after in every colony and there were more candidates for colonelcies than there were colonelcies. Arnold had nurtured this company but abandoned them without a moment's hesitation to take a colonelcy in a colony in which he was not known. This was a rash act of a man with no political acumen.

  In closing, it should be noted that in September 1775, Arnold turned over his financial records to Silas Deane and asked whether he might get satisfaction from the Continental Congress. Deane, who was a friend of Arnold's and sympathized with Arnold over his treatment by Massachusetts, pursued the claim. In late January 1776, the Continental Congress awarded Arnold and additional L245,14, 1. This was probably in reaction to Arnold's recent surge in stature as a wounded hero in the Patriots attempt to conquer Canada.

Major John Andre's self-sketch drawn the night before he was hung.

   

The Benedict Arnold/Dr Benjamin Church Jr. Confrontation - Part Five

   Benedict Arnold departed Crown Point on July 4th, 1775 and after arriving in Albany, New York was informed that his wife Peggy (Margaret) had died two weeks before of a fever. Three days after her death, her father, Samuel Mansfield, High Sheriff of New Haven, Connecticut, and a man to whom Arnold was very close, also passed away. The two main pillars of Arnold's personal life were now gone, and it seems so had his military reputation. After visiting briefly with General Philip Schuyler, Arnold proceeded to New Haven where he placed the care of his three young sons in the care of his sister Hannah, to whom he was very close. Hannah also took control of her brother's many business affairs since he was determined to travel to Massachusetts to confront his problems with the Massachusetts Provincial Congress and, ever the military man, to meet the new Commander of the Continental Army, George Washington. Hannah was a very resourceful and pious woman who soon had the two older boys enrolled in school and took complete control of her brother's many business affairs proving herself to be a shrewd businesswoman.

Benedict Arnold's birthplace in Norwich, CT - No longer standing

   Normally a very physically robust man, Arnold's health now took a turn for the worse and he suffered a severe attack of the gout, which periodically struck his legs, and he was bedridden for a week. (I am always struck by how so many ailments in this period were diagnosed as an "attack of the gout." Given the state of diagnostic medicine at the time, I wonder how many of these gout diagnoses were, in fact, something modern medicine would be able to identify more specifically.) Arnold's malaria also flared up again; but he soon recovered and, toward the end of July, he embraced his sons and his sister, mounted his horse, and began his second journey in just three months to Massachusetts. This time he was determined to confront a Provincial Congress whom he felt had abused him.
   With his accounts in hand, Arnold presented himself to the General Court of Massachusetts. Historians and biographers of Arnold refer to it as the "Third Provincial Congress." In fact, the Third Provincial Congress of Massachusetts had dissolved itself on June 20th, 1775 upon the advice of the Continental Congress. The Third Provincial Congress had dispatched Dr. Benjamin Church, Jr to the Continental Congress in Philadelphia with a confidential communication requesting advice from the Congress to clarify the situation of a permanent government as a result of the activities in the colony since April 1775. Acting on that request, the Continental Congress resolved that Massachusetts was correct in recognizing that the positions of Governor and Lieutenant Governor, as well as the Council were vacant. It recommended that the Massachusetts towns elect a new Assembly that would choose a Council from among its members. On July 19, 1775, this newly elected General Court "resumed" government under the old 1691 Massachusetts Charter.
   The Council, the successor to the assistants under the old charter, consisted of twenty-eight men selected from the House of Representatives. They acted as the upper body of the legislature and advisor to the governor. No money could be issued from the treasury without a warrant from the Governor and Council. The lower body of the legislature, known as the House of Deputies under the old charter, was now called the House of Representatives. Freeholders, those men holding a certain amount of property, elected the House of Representatives annually. The General Court appointed officers, passed laws and orders, organized all courts, established fines and punishments, and levied taxes, all with the consent of the governor. The House alone controlled the salaries of the governor and judicial officers.This House has been sitting in continuous session since then.

   On August 1, 1775, the House of Representatives named a committee of five, headed by Dr Benjamin Church, Jr, to review Arnold's records and recommend a final settlement of his accounts. Dr Church was not only the member of the Committee of Safety who had signed Arnold's Commission, he had four days earlier been appointed to a newly established position. The Continental Congress had created a Medical Department of the Army with a Director General and Chief Physician who would be head of both the Hospital Department of the first Army Hospital and of the first headquarters of regimental surgeons in the army before Boston. Dr Church's appointment to this position made him the chief medical officer of the Continental Army besieging Boston, under the command of George Washington as of July 3, 1775. Thus Church is considered the first "Surgeon General" of the United States
   Only a week earlier, Dr Church had authored the infamous cipher letter addressed to his brother-in-law that he attempted, through his mistress, to smuggle into Boston.
   The Church Committee was ready and waiting for Arnold and the rancor started almost immediately during a very testy, day-long hearing. The committeemen had heard all sorts of reports about Arnold from his enemies Col Easton and Brown, and from the Spooner committee, none of them favorable and they were ready to take Arnold on. Dr Church was known as a trenchant wit, quick with a retort, quip, or cutting remark or statement. Indeed, he may have been the most effective propagandist that the Patriots had in their long struggle against the Crown. Church was also the most famous poet in the colonies and had given a most remarkable oration on the anniversary of the Boston Massacre. A distinguished graduate of Harvard, Church was up against a man with a very rudimentary formal education with only a couple of years at the Reverend Cogswell's school.

The Edmund Fowle House, Watertown Massachusetts

   The Committee started off by asking Arnold why he was weeks late in reporting to the Congress since the Spooner Committee had directed him to to ride to Watertown immediately to settle his accounts. He had not received authorization to travel by way of New Haven, regardless of his personal circumstances.
   Arnold, true to his martial character, decided that the best defense was a good offense and went on the attack. He stated he resented the insinuations of the committeemen. Why did they doubt his truthfulness when he said he had to spend his own money after the meager L100 they had furnished him with which he was to pay for an entire regiment? He presented the committee with copies of a set of ledger sheets itemizing all of his expenses, listing pay for entire companies, for carpenters and a shipwright, for lumber, for milling grain, and for much more. But why, the committee wanted to know had Arnold not obtained proper receipts for each expenditure? He needed to provide them with evidence. When he asked how he could do that, they facetiously advised him to ride to Ticonderoga and secure receipts from Massachusetts' own Colonel James Easton. Arnold scoffed at the suggestion. Arnold insisted that as the man on the scene for Massachusetts, he had to make countless decisions on behalf of the Province and pay prevailing prices and wages. He had spent what he considered appropriate to maintain his men. Now was not the time for civilians to second-guess a field commander operating under very difficult conditions. The Committee, in turn, took special umbrage at the number of personal charges Arnold had levied against the public account. Even before the hearing, the House had refused to pay bills of credit drawn by Arnold on Massachusetts until it had examined his accounts.
   All day long, the committee and Arnold went back and forth and the quill pens scratching "disallowed' became more and more numerous. The first target was Arnold's horse which, he maintained, he had purchased on the authorization of the Provincial Congress before he had departed for Ticonderoga. He valued it at L16; the committee at L3. The committee also struck out L38, 4s, 9d for the wages of a wheelwright Arnold had hired to build gun carriages to transport cannon. Arnold was supposed to pay troops and use them as carpenters, not hire carpenters, no matter how skilled they were. Arnold's policy of paying well for workers and skilled mariners did not go down well in Massachusetts where it was viewed as driving up the cost of war.
   The accusations against Arnold ranged from the petty - paying L3, 15s, for an officer's out of pocket expenses without obtaining a proper receipt - to some much more serious. They objected that he had acted as his own commissary and then charged a broker's fee; they refused to pay for livestock Arnold had bought from Colonel Easton without a receipt from him. They demanded to know what had happened to the L160 reportedly found aboard the captured British sloop. The committee assumed that Arnold had pocketed the money as a prize of war and they therefore disallowed L163 from his expenses for soldiers' pay. Since Arnold had not attached the company's pay table, Dr Church would not accept Arnold's word of honor that he had ever paid the company of men before he disbanded them and the men went home. Finally, Dr Church and his committee disallowed L100 Arnold said he paid the crew of the sloop Enterprise. When the hearing was over, the committee reserved judgement until another day.
   A number of weeks later, the committee released its findings ( Dr Church was in detention at this point in the Vassall House in Cambridge) and repaid Arnold L757 - 65% of the money he said he had spent in the name of the Massachusetts Congress.

   I will conclude this story tomorrow with some final thoughts about Arnold and this whole enterprise. A contemporary American may feel that Arnold was shabbily treated based on what has been so far reported, but I think that is an emotional reaction. It's a little more complicated. One of the things that has always struck me about Arnold is that he was, in many ways - an innocent, naive, and, at times, just plain obtuse.

Note: I have included illustrations of both the Meeting House and Fowles' House in Watertown. The Meeting House has long been demolished but the Fowle House has been restored but moved from its original location. The confrontation between the Church Committee and Arnold took place in one of these buildings. Although the House met in the First Parish Church, the Upper Council met in the Fowle House and committees of the lower House did hold meetings in the Fowle House.

 To Be Continued