Wednesday, June 19 (7pm) – Saturday, June 22 (5:00pm)
Led by: Dr. Phillip Hamilton
HQ: Latham, NY
Tour Registration: $575.00
One of the most iconic operations of the Revolutionary War was the transport of artillery and military munitions from Fort Ticonderoga and Crown Point to Boston by Col. Henry Knox. In the dead of winter, the “Noble Train of Artillery” was floated south on Lake George. After a heavy snowfall, the guns were pulled by sled from Lake George to Albany after crossing the Mohawk and Hudson rivers, and then hauled over the Berkshires to Boston. Here the guns were placed on Dorchester Heights by George Washington’s army in March 1776, much to the surprise of the British currently under siege in Boston. A young, former Boston bookseller, Knox, who had a penchant for artillery, was given the chance to command the expedition which he completed successfully. It is a story worth telling as we approach the 250th anniversary of this event next year. We’ll avoid the snow drifts, ice and sleet experienced by Knox’s men by traversing the route in June, rather than the blistery cold days of December through February in 1775-76. But it will be a memorable trek, nonetheless. [Read more…]
The Sullivan-Clinton campaign against the Iroquois in 1779 has been described as implementing a “scorched earth” policy for no useful purpose other than eradicating Indians, or a failed attempt to capture Fort Niagara. No campaign of the American War for Independence has been more inaccurately described or remains more controversial than the Continental Army’s invasion of the Iroquois Confederacy in 1779. This tour is designed to follow the main effort of that offensive as conducted by troops commanded by Major General John Sullivan. Sullivan’s troops took the war to the very heart of the territory controlled by the Six Nations of Haudenosaunee who had allied themselves with the British Crown. At the tour’s end you’ll decide if the campaign was a success or a well-executed failure; justifiable retribution for the raids and Cherry Valley massacre in 1778 or unvarnished genocide.