Experience the American dream with today’s Patriots of the Past interview. I’m your host, John Gillespie.
It’s December 9, 1775. I’m in upper New York State at Fort Ticonderoga with General Henry Knox. It’s bitterly cold.
JG: “General Knox, what are you doing way up here in northern New York?”
HK: “Mr. Gillespie, it will be difficult, but we desperately need to get these fifty-nine cannons to Massachusetts for General Washington and the Continental Army.”
Against near impossible odds in harsh winter conditions, Henry Knox delivered fifty-nine cannons to the Continental Army, giving key artillery strength against the British.
On the General Henry Knox Trail in Westfield, Massachusetts, a historical marker reads, “Through this place passed General Henry Knox, in the Winter of 1775-1776, to deliver to General George Washington at Cambridge the Train of Artillery from Fort Ticonderoga, used to force the British Army to evacuate Boston.”
John and Jan Gillespie are the founders of the Rawhide Boys’ Ranch; they have fostered 351 teenagers and wrote the book Our 351 Sons; they have also assisted numerous churches in developing youth programs and expanding their total church ministries. After running for U.S. Senate, John founded 1776 American Dream, which exists to demonstrate the vision of our founding fathers and help our generation of youth passionately embrace those values.
