Knox saw himself as the embodiment of revolutionary republican ideals. He established training centers for artillerymen and manufacturing facilities for weaponry that were valuable assets in winning the war for independence. In this role he accompanied Washington on most of his campaigns and was engaged in many major actions of the war. Knox quickly rose to become the chief artillery officer of the Continental Army. Though barely 25 when the American Revolutionary War broke out in 1775, he engineered the transport of captured artillery from New York's Fort Ticonderoga, which proved decisive in driving the British out of Boston in early 1776. Knox was also on the scene of the 1770 Boston Massacre.

He is perhaps best remembered today as the namesake of Fort Knox in Kentucky, the repository of a large portion of the nation's gold reserves.īorn and raised in Boston, Massachusetts, Knox owned and operated a bookstore there, cultivating an interest in military history and joining a local artillery company. Washington, at the start of his first administration, appointed Knox the nation's first Secretary of War, a position he held from 1789 to 1794.

Following the revolution, he oversaw the War Department under the Articles of Confederation, 1785–1789. Henry Knox (J– October 25, 1806), a Founding Father of the United States, was a senior general of the Continental Army during the Revolutionary War, serving as chief of artillery in most of Washington's campaigns.

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