Plausibly Live! - The Official Podcast Of The Dave Bowman Show

We love to talk about the giants of the American Revolution. Washington in command. Jefferson at his desk. Adams on his feet. But revolutions are not won by speeches alone. They are won by men who move iron in the dark. This week on Dave Does History, we step back into the winter of 1775 and meet a 25 year old Boston bookseller who understood something most armies still struggle to grasp. Strategy means nothing without logistics. Henry Knox had no formal military education. He left school at nine. He taught himself Greek, Latin, and the science of artillery by candlelight in his bookstore. When George Washington needed cannons to break the British grip on Boston, Knox offered a solution that sounded almost insane. Drag sixty tons of artillery three hundred miles through snow, mountains, and frozen rivers. What followed was one of the most daring logistical feats in American history, a “noble train of artillery” that changed the course of the war without firing a single decisive shot. In this episode, we ex