Celebrating 250 Years Since Knox’s Noble Train of Artillery

A snow-clad field lies where the New York town of Hillsdale meets the Massachusetts town of Alford. But it’s no ordinary stretch of state line; exactly 250 years ago, Major General Henry Knox and a group of Continental Army soldiers trekked through it, en route to Boston, dragging with them 60 tons of British artillery captured at Fort Ticonderoga. This year, on the morning of Jan. 10, roughly 200 people gathered to commemorate the historic expedition that is now known as the Noble Train of Artillery, one that proved a turning point in the Revolutionary War. 

The crowd, many wearing “Knox Trail 250” commemorative scarves, watched reenactors — resplendent in period-accurate Continental Army uniform — rattle off musket volleys and fire a cannon. Horses ceremoniously dragged cannons across the snow. The audience, organizers, and reenactors were there to celebrate not just the 250th anniversary of the Knox passage, but also one of the inaugural events of festivities across the country to ring in America’s 250th anniversary as an independent nation, culminating on July 4, 2026. 

“How amazing it is that Hillsdale and Columbia County and Alford get to kick off the nationwide 250th celebration,” said Hillsdale Town Supervisor Mike Dvorchak, who helped organize the event along with Revolution 250 Executive Director Jonathan Lane, Saratoga 250, the Daughters of the American Revolution, and state and local officials. “What an honor that is, and we’re starting it off right.” 

Knox’s three-month journey, which passed through Dutchess and Columbia counties, and crossed over into Berkshire County at Alford, was a monumental feat of logistics, endurance, and grit, and has come to symbolize the indefatigable drive for independence that the colonists carried. Only 25 years old at the time, Knox — originally a bookseller from Boston — successfully delivered the weapons to his hometown. After they were deployed by Gen. George Washington onto the high ground overlooking the city, the British were forced to abandon Boston in March 1776, the first American victory of the war.

At the re-enactment ceremony, Lane welcomed politicians such as New York State Senator Michelle Hinchey, Massachusetts State Senator Paul Mark, New York Assemblymember Didi Barrett, and Secretary of State of New York Walter Mosley, to the podium.

“Standing here today, it’s impossible not to feel the weight of history in this place,” said Hinchey. “The actions of ordinary people, united by common purpose, have shaped some of the most important turning points in our nation’s story.” Knox’s expedition is also a shared point of historical pride and unity between New York and Massachusetts. “The collaborative spirit will always overcome,” said Mark. “Thank you to my friends from New York for being here, and to the people in the Berkshires and the Hudson River Valley for working together today just as they did 250 years ago.”

Speakers also included Kathy Moser, the acting commissioner of the New York State Office of Parks, Recreation and Historic Preservation, Massachusetts Representative Leigh Davis, Kate Fox, the executive director of the Massachusetts Office of Travel & Tourism, Daughters of the American Revolution representatives Lisa O’Brien and Mary Tedesco, and Peter Tucker, a seventh-generation Alford resident, whose ancestors may have seen the Noble Train of Artillery pass by their Alford home.  

After the speakers, earth-shaking cannon rounds were fired, ceremonial musket volleys percussed through the air, and audiences, excited, albeit shuffling to keep warm, filtered off to events in Hillsdale and Great Barrington for further educational opportunities exploring Knox’s journey. 

“We started planning for this about two and a half years ago,” Lane said. “When Knox went out to take the cannons, he did the thing with three meetings — we’ve had over 50.” 

At the Hillsdale Fire Company, the education and celebration continued. Reenactor Stuart Lilie, clad in historical garb, enlightened hundreds of audience members on exactly how Knox achieved his feat of transportation, going into detail about oxen, sled building, fording techniques, and how to avoid clogging a cannon barrel with ice. He passed around cannonballs, including three-pound solid shot, grape shot, and canister shot to an excited front row of children, before employing two of them to act as oxen and hooking them into a yoke. Lilie, who is the Vice President of Public History at Fort Ticonderoga, went over the anatomy of a cannon, using a reproduction of a 1776 British 3-pounder cannon made from bronze. 

Outside, real oxen allowed adults and children alike to further immerse themselves in what Knox’s fateful voyage would have been like. “I think of myself more as a school teacher than anything,” Lilie told the Herald. “I enjoy the moments of discovery that people have along the way.” Lilie, a full-time reenactor and educator, held a packed hall in rapt attention for over an hour with showmanship, humor, and a teacherly authority. 

Before the history lesson, citations and commendations were given to the town of Hillsdale, accepted by Supervisor Dvorchak. Assemblywoman Didi Barrett gave a New York State Assembly citation, and Hinchie a proclamation, both commending the work that was done to organize the event, and commemorating the 250th anniversary of Knox’s passage through Hillsdale. 

The festivities and history lesson wrapped up at about 1 p.m. “I’m just so heartened by how interested people are in American history,” said Hillsdale Town Historian Lauren Vetellier as audiences were dispersing. “It’s wonderful to see people coming together to be entertained and educated about things they didn’t know or maybe they forgot from history class.”

Volunteers carved up a cake decorated with little chocolate cannonballs, and Stewart’s Shops employees handed out appropriately themed ice cream: “Knox Cannonball Crunch.” 

“May we all be here for the 300th,” said Senator Mark at the state line.