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Henry Knox: Visionary General of the American Revolution Paperback – May 11, 2010

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Mark Puls delivers a compelling portrait of the Revolutionary War general who played a key role in all of George Washington's battles.

During the Siege of Boston, Henry Knox's amazing 300 mile transport of forty nine cannons from Ticonderoga saved the city. Building upon his talent for logistics, Knox engineered Washington's famous Christmas night passage to safety across the Delaware River. And it was the general's tactical successes that made the final victory at Yorktown possible. With riveting battle scenes, inspiring patriotism, and vivid prose, Puls breathes new life into the American Revolution and firmly re-establishes Knox in his deserved place in history.

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Editorial Reviews

Review

“Mark Puls gives us an action-packed account of Knox's life in uniform and in government service and provides a fitting portrait of one of America's greatest leaders. Truly this was an amazing man -- a man to whom Americans owe a great debt for his willingness to forgo personal riches for the common good. It was a pleasure to experience this story of his remarkable life.” ―The Roanoke Times

“[A] brisk, informative biography...Puls's authoritative and absorbing account of Knox's life is a fitting tribute to General Washington's 'indispensable man.'” ―
Publishers Weekly

“Competent biography of Washington's talented young protégé, who commanded the artillery throughout the American Revolution and served as the nation's first Secretary of War...a solid résumé of everything anyone would want to know about this undeservedly neglected not-quite founding father.” ―
Kirkus

“Great man though he was, George Washington did not win American independence by himself. Henry Knox, a self-taught artillery commander, was one of the the Revolution's great figures, and this book explains why we should know more about him. In the hands of Mark Puls, Knox and his beloved wife Lucy come to life in a way that reminds us of the debt we owe the men and women of the Founding generation. ” ―
Terry Golway, author of Washington's General

“At last, Henry Knox has been discovered by a historian capable of appreciating his contributions as a soldier and statesmen, and who also, no small matter, can write. Knox's attempt to create a just policy toward Native Americans that avoided Indian removal is a poignant story worth the price of admission. This is unquestionably the authoritative biography.” ―
Joseph Ellis, author of Founding Brothers and the forthcoming American Creation: Triumph and Tragedy at the Founding

“Bringing 18th Century America to life is no easy task, particularly when military leaders from the Revolutionary War are at center stage. In Henry Knox, General of the American Revolution, however, Mark Puls does that smoothly and even superbly, making the reader feel familiar and comfortable with all of them, particularly the hero. And hero he truly was, as Puls so well records. This is clearly a masterful work.” ―Tom Carhart author of Lost Triumph: Lee’s Real Plan at Gettysburg -- and Why It Failed


“Any Founding Father who ends his days in such a fighting spirit deserves still more of our attention.
Samuel Adams is a good place to start.” ―The Wall Street Journal on Samuel Adams

“Here, at last, is a new life of the man that recovers his crucial role as the Lenin of the American Revolution.” ―
Joseph J. Ellis, author of Founding Brothers, on Samuel Adams

“American history buffs will enjoy Puls' fine study.” ―
Publishers Weekly on Samuel Adams

“A sharply focused biography of the mastermind behind the American colonies' break with England.” ―
Kirkus on Samuel Adams

About the Author

Mark Puls is the author of Samuel Adams: Father of the American Revolution, winner of the Fraunces Tavern Museum Book Award, and co-author of Uncommon Valor: A Story of Race, Patriotism and Glory in the Final Battles of the Civil War with Pulitzer Prize winning journalist Melvin Claxton. Puls has worked as a journalist for The Detroit News. He lives in Hawntranck, MI.

Product details

  • Publisher ‏ : ‎ St. Martin's Griffin; First Edition (May 11, 2010)
  • Language ‏ : ‎ English
  • Paperback ‏ : ‎ 288 pages
  • ISBN-10 ‏ : ‎ 0230623883
  • ISBN-13 ‏ : ‎ 978-0230623880
  • Item Weight ‏ : ‎ 11.9 ounces
  • Dimensions ‏ : ‎ 6 x 0.65 x 9 inches
  • Customer Reviews:
    4.6 4.6 out of 5 stars 215 ratings

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Customer reviews

4.6 out of 5 stars
4.6 out of 5
215 global ratings

Top reviews from the United States

Reviewed in the United States on July 6, 2020
The book was fantastic: Henry Knox seems to have dropped from history’s sight after his heroic cannon retrieving trip from Ft Ticonderoga. What he accomplished after that was far more important. He designed lightweight cannon to haul into battle, to great effect—a tactic used later by Napoleon.
He started the Springfield Armory to manufacture gunpowder and cannon.
He started the first school for artillery officers, which included much besides artillery.
His cannoneers outperformed the French cannoneers at Yorktown.
He built the fort at West Point.
The civilians were so afraid of the military that the army was reduced to 700 men.
He argued repeatedly for a military school at West Point, saying it could teach patriotism and democratic ideals as well as military skills It became reality 1802.
He was Secretary for War for years.
While British and French ships were impressing American seamen and seizing American cargoes, he designed the frigate to be a smaller, more agile fighter than the British and French ships of the line. People expected the Constitution to sink when launched. Old Ironsides and her sister ships proved Henry’s design to be brilliant.
I do have some corrections.
1) Getting the cannons from Ft Ticonderoga: Henry PLANNED to use oxen: calmer and cheaper. They were not available. He had to hire 80 horse teams, more expensive, and they did most of the work. Horses are STRONGER than oxen! Especially the draft breeds.
2) When the cannon “magically” appeared on Dorchester Heights to confound the British, the fort was NOT DUG. The ground was still frozen.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fortification_of_Dorchester_Heights
The American objective was to get cannon onto Dorchester Heights, and fortify the position. However. the ground was frozen, so digging was impossible. Putnam, who had been a millwright, devised a plan using chandeliers (heavy timbers, 10 feet long, used as frames) and fascines. [bundles of brush, sticks, or whatever] These were prefabricated out of sight of the British.[18][19][20]
General John Thomas and about 2,500 troops quietly marched to the top of Dorchester Heights, hauling tools, the prefabricated fortifications and cannon placements. Hay bales were placed between the path taken by the troops and the harbor in order to muffle the sounds of the activity. Throughout the night, these troops and their relief labored at hauling cannon and building the parapet overlooking the town and the harbor. General Washington was present to provide moral support and encouragement, reminding them that March 5 was the sixth anniversary of the Boston Massacre.[21] By 4 a.m., they had constructed fortifications that were proof against small arms and grapeshot. Work continued on the positions, with troops cutting down trees and constructing abbatis to impede any British assault on the works.[17] The outside of the works also included rock-filled barrels that could be rolled down the hill at attacking troops.[22][18][19][20]

3) When Burgoyne surrendered at Saratoga, the troops were SUPPOSED to return to Europe and not fight again against the US. The officers did. Congress repudiated that agreement and did not allow the soldiers to go, They had a hard time as prisoners of war. Internet says many deserted and married American women and stayed. Helped to make up for American losses.
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Reviewed in the United States on May 26, 2016
Henry Knox has often been overlooked in popular history books. His time as Washington’s first Secretary of War was not impressive and he is often casually mentioned as one of Washington’s better generals. But, as Mark Puls demonstrates, Knox was a critical part of the Revolutionary War. Knox pulled off two feats that are still hard to believe given the technology of the time. One was moving sixty tons of artillery over 300 miles from Ticonderoga to Boston through the wilderness, a move which made the siege of Boston possible early in the war. As Puls notes, without that, there would almost certainly have been no early American victory that forced the British to evacuate the city. Equally impressive was Knox’s extraordinary feat of moving artillery across the Delaware River prior to Washington’s attack on Trenton. Puls spells out in some detail how Knox preformed that feat in a tiny window of time in incredibly difficult circumstances. Knox made mistakes like deciding to attack the British in a fortified house near Germantown which held back critical troops and may have turned a victory into a loss (or tie). But overall Henry Knox was one of the best generals the Americans had in the Revolution. Puls’s description of the battle scenes are page-turners and the overall organization of the book is very good.

Having read both this book and Puls’s biography of Sam Adams, I found this book much better. Perhaps the reason was that the military exploits of Knox make more compelling reading but I also found Knox’s personality more completely developed than that of Adams. The book’s subtitle, “Visionary General,” refers among other things to Knox’s work to found a military academy well ahead of the establishment of West Point and, after the war, his draft for a new constitution which mirrored in remarkable fashion the document which came later. This is an excellent biography that gives the reader real insight into both Knox’s personality as well as the strategy of the war and Knox’s deep friendship with Washington. I highly recommend it.
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Reviewed in the United States on February 27, 2021
Really I’m coming in at 3 ½ stars but to round down to 3 seems unfair to the author – so 4 stars it is.

Puls has provided us a rather “by the numbers” account of the entire life of Henry Knox cradle to grave. However, if this type of biography is worn, Henry Knox’s life was so extraordinary that this book overcomes its sameness to other biographies.

Knox’s career in the Continental Army was so closely tied to George Washington’s that the entirety of the Revolutionary War and even the first Washington Administration is told here. And that is what makes this book worth reading – it is very nearly an overview of the history of America from the Boston Massacre, through Bunker Hill, Trenton, Monmouth Courthouse, Yorktown, the Constitutional Convention, and finally the first Washington Administration.

Puls also covers Knox’s personal life, from the meeting of his eventual bride, birth & death of 7 of his 10 children, and building of his estate Montpelier in Maine. Also, Knox’s perpetual financial difficulties due to a life of public service are delved into.

The only real failing of Puls in his book is the complete lack of even a single map, which rendered several passages meaningless. For example, Puls tells us in great detail on which heights Knox sighted his artillery around Boston in 1776 to drive the British out, but without maps those places hold no significance to the reader.

Ultimately, I enjoyed this book as it added to my understanding of the fragility of the fledgling nation.

Pros: Fast overview of the start of the US as a country by following a man at the eye of the hurricane.
Cons: Lack of maps & somewhat conventional story telling.
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