tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-28102666.post550270227331767669..comments2024-03-14T13:25:20.613-05:00Comments on Boston 1775: New Books on Washington and KnoxUnknownnoreply@blogger.comBlogger2125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-28102666.post-55048869420171293952008-02-22T13:36:00.000-05:002008-02-22T13:36:00.000-05:00Yes, moving the cannons from Fort Ti was an impres...Yes, moving the cannons from Fort Ti was an impressive logistical feat. But the winter offered Knox and his men help (e.g., the frozen Hudson) as well as hindrances. <BR/><BR/>I think we forget that aspect of winter, especially on days like today when it’s snowing heavily and none of us have big sleds to hitch to the horses.J. L. Bellhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/15405157000473731801noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-28102666.post-3041175141764798192008-02-22T08:10:00.000-05:002008-02-22T08:10:00.000-05:00I think Knox's actions bringing the cannons from F...I think Knox's actions bringing the cannons from Fort Ticonderoga to Boston is more a feat of divine intervention than knowledge of transportations systems and logistics (which is important for any General).<BR/><BR/>you said:But the newly appointed colonel and his contemporaries understood that winter was often the best time to move heavy goods across land. Sleds could travel faster over roads covered with snow and ice than wooden wagons could travel those same roads in other parts of the year. Winter was when lumbermen brought their heavy logs to the coast and farmers took their crops and goods to town. Another example of how eighteenth-century life adapted to the natural environment.<BR/><BR/>After studying the New York stretch of the trail... the trip was amazing... in December of 1775 on his way up to Ticonderoga - Knox ordered these sleds to be made in Stillwater NY... when General Schuyler heard of the sleds being made - he cancelled the Colonel's order but the sleds were still made. Knox needed wagon in Ticonderoga so there could not be much in the way of snow ... then he need Lake George clear of ice so that he could use boats to move the cannons... then he needed a good snow to move the cannons on sleds the rest of the journey through the Berkshires to Cambridge. He crossed the Hudson three times and he needed the Hudson to be frozen for that to happen (including an area near Albany which today (and I would assume then) was tidal... so it was an amazing feat and that was all before he crossed the mountains.<BR/><BR/>It was an amazing feat and it is good to see that a new book has been written on the truely amazing man...<BR/><BR/>Sean Kelleher<BR/>Historian - Saratoga, NYAnonymousnoreply@blogger.com