HENRY KNOX.
Henry Knox, born in Boston in 1750, lost his father at an early age. His mother’s income being a slender one, and his devotion to her being very great, he soon felt the need of personal exertion, and before attaining his majority, had established himself as a bookseller. Having a natural fondness for military tactics, he joined a company of grenadiers, and thus when the smouldering fire of dissatisfaction against taxation without representation burst into the flames of the Revolution, Knox had gained practical knowledge of warlike manœuvres. His father-in-law was a pronounced Tory; but his wife, sharing his own sentiments, helped him to escape from Boston that he might join the army. Appreciating our need of artillery, and knowing that no cannon were to be had except those in the old forts along the Canadian frontier, he volunteered to bring this ordnance to Washington’s camp at Cambridge, and accomplished this difficult and hazardous undertaking with such skill and courage that Washington rewarded him with the command of the artillery. This branch of the Continental service being attached to the main body of the army, Knox was in every battle where Washington fought, and never failed to exhibit the judgment, perseverance, and bravery that gained him success in the Canada expedition. On the 27th of December, 1776, Congress appointed him brigadier-general. At the battle of Monmouth, June 28, 1778, he was wounded in his left hand. For his distinguished services at the siege of Yorktown in 1781, Congress appointed him major-general on the 22d of March, 1782. He was one of the three commissioners intrusted with the adjustment of the terms of peace. On the 25th of November, 1783, he received as Washington’s deputy the surrender of the city of New York; and his military career ended with the command of West Point. When the Continental army was about to be disbanded, he conceived the idea of forming a society of his old and dearly loved companions-in-arms. This was the origin of the Society of the Cincinnati, of which Knox was first vice-president.
At the close of 1783, Knox retired to his home in Maine, but in 1784, Congress, under the Articles of Confederation, appointed him Secretary of War, which office he held until, in 1795, Washington reluctantly accepted his resignation. It was during the time he was at the head of the War Department, and by his advice, that the United States Marine Service was organized. Retiring once more to his home in Maine, he dispensed the most princely hospitality, it being no unusual thing for him to entertain a hundred guests daily. When events threatened a war with France, and President Adams thought best to form an army, Knox was again appointed major-general. He died suddenly at his residence in Thomaston, Maine, in 1806.
WILLIAM MOULTRIE.
William Moultrie, born in England in 1731, came of good Scotch ancestry. His education was such as could be gained at that early day in the South Carolina colony to which his family had removed while he was still a child. In 1761, as captain of a company of volunteers, he marched against the Cherokee Indians, and gained much of that military skill that made him such a conspicuous character during the Revolution. In 1775, he was a member of the South Carolina Provincial Congress, and when that body authorized the seizure of the public arsenals, he was one of the patriot band who put this advice into practice. When news of the battle of Lexington reached South Carolina, he was appointed colonel of one of her regiments, and designed the flag—a blue field with a silver crescent in the right-hand upper corner—which her troops carried to their first victory. The driving of the British sloops-of-war from Charleston Harbor, the seizing of Fort Johnson, and finally the glorious victory at the Palmetto Fort on Sullivan’s Island, freed South Carolina for several years from the horrors and the devastations of war, and secured to Moultrie immortal fame and a prompt recognition of his military ability. He received the thanks of Congress; the fort he had so ably defended was named for him; and Sept. 16, 1776, he was raised to the rank of brigadier-general in the Continental army, with the duty of attending to the interests of South Carolina and Georgia. The campaign of 1779 brought a renewal of hostilities in the South, with most disastrous results. Repulsed and kept at bay for a while by Moultrie, the British finally concentrated their forces at Charleston, but badly provided as that city was for a siege, it held out for six weeks, until driven by famine to surrender. Moultrie was held a prisoner for two years, during which time he used all his influence in obtaining justice for his fellow-prisoners and the people of the country, and in vigorously keeping the enemy to the terms of the capitulation. Several attempts were made to induce him to resign his commission and enter the British service; and finally he was offered large sums of money and command of a regiment in Jamaica, to which he sternly replied, “Not the fee simple of all Jamaica should induce me to part with my integrity.” He was exchanged about the end of February, 1782, and promoted to the rank of major-general on the 15th of October of the same year.
When the British evacuated Charleston in December, the American army under General Greene resumed possession of it, Moultrie holding a conspicuous position in the triumphant procession. In 1785 and 1794, he was chosen Governor of South Carolina, discharging the duties of his office to the satisfaction of all. From the close of his second term until his death, which occurred in Charleston on the 27th of September, 1805, he enjoyed a well-earned and honorable repose.
The famous Palmetto Fort on Sullivan’s Island was constructed by Moultrie. The cannonade from the “Admiral’s Ship,” the “Bristol,” produced little effect upon the fort, owing to the soft spongy palmetto-wood. After a nine-hours engagement, Sir Peter Parker withdrew, with his ship almost a wreck.