Henry Knox: Visionary General of the American Revolution

by Mark Puls

Overview

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.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9780230623880
Publisher:	St. Martin's Publishing Group
Publication date:	05/11/2010
Pages:	288
Sales rank:	348,621
Product dimensions:	6.10(w) x 9.10(h) x 1.00(d)

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.

Table of Contents

Love and War * Ticonderoga * Ragamuffins * Delaware Crossing * The Battle for Philadelphia * Turning of the Tide * Yorktown * The End of War * Confederation Secretary * Secretary of War * Soldier's Home * Epilogue: Legacy

Editorial Reviews

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

From the Publisher

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.

author of Founding Brothers and the forthcoming Am Joseph Ellis

In this brisk, informative biography, journalist and author Puls (Samuel Adams: Father of the American Revolution) celebrates Gen. Henry Knox, "a remarkably ubiquitous presence during America's founding generation," who has been "curiously overlooked by historians." At age 18, Knox (1750-1806) joined the local Boston militia and became a self-taught "skilled engineer and military tactician." Once the American Revolution began, General Washington appointed Knox to build and lead the army's artillery corps. Knox remained at Washington's side and supervised the 1776 Christmas Day crossing of the Delaware. He went on to command the Yorktown artillery in 1781. The then "youngest major general in the American army" retired to become secretary at war and to lay the basis for a visionary citizen army. Knox later sanctioned the American navy and promoted the creation of a military academy at West Point. His private life was burdened by years of separation from his wife and the untimely deaths of nine of their 12 children. In 1806 Knox died unexpectedly from an infection caused by a chicken bone lodged in his throat. Puls's authoritative and absorbing account of Knox's life is a fitting tribute to General Washington's "indispensable man." (Feb.)

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