Great Barrington — Berkshire County kicked off celebrations for the United States Semiquincentennial on Saturday, January 10, with a commemoration of Henry Knox’s Noble Train of Artillery.
On May 10, 1775, during the American Revolutionary War, the Green Mountain Boys—led by Ethan Allen and Benedict Arnold—captured Fort Ticonderoga in New York from British troops. Continental Army Colonel Henry Knox subsequently transported 60 tons of cannons and other artillery from Fort Ticonderoga all the way to Boston to aid the Continental Army in their battle against the British armies.
The 300-mile journey from Ticonderoga to Boston lasted from November 17, 1775, to January 25, 1776. The route Knox took is now known as the Henry Knox Trail and begins in Crown Point, N.Y., and runs through several towns in Berkshire County: Alford, North Egremont, Great Barrington, Monterey, and Otis.
On January 10, several organizations, including Revolution 250, Berkshire 250, MA250, and the Daughters of the American Revolution, held events throughout Berkshire County to commemorate Henry Knox’s Noble Train of Artillery.
The series of events kicked off at the General Henry Knox Cannon Trail Marker in Alford with a commemoration ceremony at the New York and Massachusetts state line.
That afternoon, the Great Barrington Historical Society hosted a ceremony where historical reenactors began a reenactment of General Knox’s journey through the town.
As the reenactors slowly made their way from the Historical Society to Town Hall, a commemorative event was held at the Mahaiwe Performing Arts Center featuring town representatives from Alford, Blandford, Egremont, Great Barrington, Monterey, Otis, Russell, and Sandisfield, along with various state representatives from Massachusetts and New York.
At the event, Robert Allison, professor of history at Suffolk University in Boston and a co-chair of the Revolution 250 organization, said the eight Berkshire County towns on the Knox Trail are all “connected with one another into this greater story of the American Revolution and American Independence.”
“It was this same week in January 1776 that an anonymous pamphlet appeared in Philadelphia under the author’s pseudonym of ‘Common Sense,’” Allison said, referring to Thomas Paine’s pamphlet, which advocated that people from the 13 colonies should seek independence from Great Britain. “[That pamphlet] really electrified these American provinces and united them in this common cause. As Payne goes on to say, freedom has been hunted throughout the globe. She’s been exterminated in Africa and expelled from Asia. Now, she is on the verge of being annihilated in Europe. It was America’s role to form a refuge for the fugitive and take her in. That is really the message of ‘Common Sense’ and what we in Revolution 250 have been trying to do—connecting different parts of Massachusetts with this greater cause and idea. We do know that, over the next seven years of war, Massachusetts would send more men to the Continental Army than any other state. We also know that, in 1780, Massachusetts would write a constitution. It is today the oldest written constitution still functioning in the world. These are really the greatest achievements of Massachusetts.”
Allison said the organization is already making plans to celebrate the Massachusetts Constitution’s 250th anniversary in 2030.
In her speech during the event, State Rep. Leigh Davis (D – 3rd Berkshire District) called Henry Knox “an unlikely hero.” “He was someone that rose up to the occasion,” she said. “He had a goal to travel 300 miles over two states and to do something that was a call to service. His story resonates to me because I think about individuals such as you [in the audience] realizing that we have the spirit here of the Berkshires. We had the first example of open resistance to British rule right here in Great Barrington. To me, the Berkshires has a revolutionary spirit. We are so grateful and fortunate to be celebrating this momentous occasion because this is really honoring someone that stepped into a role because he was called to serve, and that is something that resonates.”
“Two hundred fifty years ago, a colony that had grown independent, that had developed its own culture, that had developed its own local democracy, its own local practices, and its own local justice all of a sudden found itself in a world where the [English] government decided they wanted to get a little too powerful,” State Sen. Paul Mark (D – Berkshire, Hampden, Franklin, and Hampshire District) said during the event. “[King George III], with a very willing parliament, decided they were going to tax [the colony]. They were going to control who we traded with, who could come to these borders, to these shores, and to Massachusetts. I don’t know about you, but when people tell us what to do, we don’t love it.”
Mark said collaborations between New York and Massachusetts were essential in standing up to England. “We worked together regardless of an arbitrary line,” he continued. “We worked together with our brothers and sisters in New York state to make sure that we were going to fight back and stand up for what we believed in. All they were looking for was the right to self-governance, the right to freedom, the right to liberty, and the right to live the way that they wanted. These ideals haven’t changed for us, and we are willing today to collaborate and stand together and fight for those ideals and that independence. It is the same then as it is now.”
