Henry Knox was 25 years old when he led the “noble train of artillery” in the winter of 1775, moving 60 tons of cannons and armaments from the present day Adirondacks to Continental Army camps outside Boston. As the 250th anniversary of the American Revolution approaches, educators from Fort Ticonderoga, where Knox began his trek, are visiting schools throughout the Northeast to give students a chance to see the history that happened in their own backyards.
Stuart Lilie and David Lapointe are busy getting into character in the library of Stillwater Elementary. They’re dressed in 18th century military fatigues and laying out replica cannons and sleds.
“We're going to have students handling a non-firing replica of a cannon. It's full size, inert reproductions of 18th century shot. We'll have them handling oxen yoke and horse neck collars and loading a sled and having the physical experience of the weight of a cannon, and applying these physical experiences to broader thoughts on why did the noble train happen? How did it happen so that they really can build out their understanding of both how this moment came to be, but also what it meant at the time,” said Lilie.
Lilie, who is the Vice President of Public History at Fort Ticonderoga, has brought with him a bronze 3-pound cannon and wooden sled. It’s the kind Henry Knox’s forces would have used to transport the weapons more than 300 miles during the noble train of 1775. Students’ eyes widen as they pile into the library.
“So what we are going to go ahead, and by we I mean you, we are going to go ahead and lift this cannon onto its sled,” said Lilie.
During the lesson, students also got a demonstration of how horses and oxen were used to carry the weapons Southeast on a route that likely went straight through their village.
Lilie tells WAMC it’s his pleasure to bring this kind of hands-on learning to students.
“This whole program is built around inquiry. So, we really want students to figure things out on their own. And there's a certain joy to watching students figure things out, and even a certain joy to watching them, you know, go down paths that don't work, the struggle and seeing that, yes, indeed, students can figure out, you know, some of the basic things of how you load a cannon and how you tie it down. Seeing these aspects that would be easy to take for granted in, you know, this broader picture, but that these details are accessible to our audiences, I find that fascinating every single time,” said Lilie.
Lilie adds that this lesson is often the first exposure some students get to less-discussed events of the American Revolution.
“And I think this moment where we can talk about Henry Knox's noble train of artillery, which is a big moment, has a big national following, and the fact that this precedes the declaration of independence by over six months. You know this is a chance to widen that perspective, so that folks really can see the significance of the war. And I think too, you know, the United States that arose out of the Revolutionary War is one that was a product of that war. So much of you know what people argue about. You know, Founding Fathers intentions today came out of the practical realities of fighting for independence,” said Lilie.
Fourth graders Brayden Ramnes and Maggie Sweeney are hung up on the fact that Knox’s forces likely trudged through their backyards.
“It’s hard to imagine where the building is right now and him just going right through it on his ox or horses,” said Ramnes.
“Its hard to see that this building wasn’t here and they were just running through this area,” said Sweeney.
Vicki Schuette has been teaching for nearly four decades – she’s always happy to see her students engaged.
“It’s amazing because to teach history to younger kids is really hard because it’s so abstract to them. We take them up to the battlefield and you have to be like, ‘imagine that.’ And when we can have these programs come in that actually shows them some of that and they can feel that, it excites them to learn more but they’re able to visualize it more than just, ‘make a picture of it in your head,’ because it’s so long ago, they don’t have a concept of that time,” said Schuette.
