Knox's "Noble Train", Fort Edward and Schuylerville, NY- Saturday, December 13, 2025

    We usually have our trips pretty planned out, but sometimes it's fun to be spontaneous.  On Friday morning, Scott was up even earlier than usual.  Abby's school was closed for parent-teacher conferences, so we were taking her to Grandpa and Grandma W. for the day and had to leave even earlier than usual.  Around a quarter after 4:00 AM, Scott was scrolling through Facebook as he was waking up and noticed a re-enactor dressed as Henry Knox with horses pulling a cannon.  He saw that they had done something "yesterday," and were doing more "tomorrow" and "over the weekend." 

    "Wait..." though Scott.  "Do they mean 'tomorrow' tomorrow?"  He glanced up at the week's plans on the black wall and saw that there were no firm plans for the weekend.  By the time Julie got up at 4:30, she knew something was up because Scott was smiling.  He explained what he wanted to do.  Julie was a bit taken aback since she was not expecting anything this weekend.  She was quite tired and had worked her 8:00 AM to 8:00 PM day yesterday for her own parent conferences.  But she also knew that Scott really liked these events, and you have to go to the anniversary events when they happen.  After school, they picked Abby up from Julie's folks and headed on the almost five hour drive to the far side of New York State.

       The events this weekend are part of the 250th Anniversary commemorations of the Revolutionary War.  Scott had been to Lexington and Concord's anniversaries back in April, but he knows he can't go to everything.  He had already missed the anniversaries of Bunker Hill, the capture of Fort Ticonderoga and is not going to make Arnold's attack on Quebec on New Year's Eve.   When he learned about this weekend's events he really wanted to try to go.  

       The Patriots had captured Fort Ticonderoga in May of 1775.  The British continued to occupy Boston.  If there was some way to move the captured cannon from Fort Ticonderoga to the heights around Boston, the Patriots could finally force the British to evacuate the city.  The audacious plan was devised and carried out by the young Henry Knox.  His "noble train of artillery" was an important early victory for the Patriots.  He brought 59 guns on 42 sleds a total of over 300 miles in the winter, to arrive in Boston 56 days later.   It was quite a feat by any measure and he was only 25 years old when Washington entrusted him with this task.

     We slept pretty soundly in our hotel in Queensbury.  Julie noticed it was next door to an amusement park that was closed for the winter, but that might be fun to come back to some summer day.   For today, the weather was cold, in the 20s, but the air was still so it didn't feel that bad.

    After breakfast, Scott took the car and headed off to the nearby town of Fort Edward where the first part of the day's events were.   The phone's GPS helped him find the town's junior-senior high school where the parade was stepping off and the re-enactors and other participants were forming up.  He found the monument in front of the school which is one of many that mark Knox's route.  He watched the wreath laying there at 9:00, but when he started talking to a family about where the parade was going, he learned that the horses weren't going to join the parade until further down the route.  According to one person there, the horses wouldn't cross the railroad tracks in town, so they had to join the parade on the other side of them.  It may also be true that they didn't want the heavy cannons behind the horses as they were going down a pretty steep hill into town from the school.  Since everyone was there to see the cannons on the sleds, we moved into town where we could see them.  Scott ended up watching from in front of the Washington County Historical Society.  The parade had veterans groups, a fire truck, cars with people from various historical societies like the Daughters of the American Revolution and some student groups, along with two busses that looked like trolleys, but the stars of the parade were the re-enactors and the two teams of draft horses pulling the cannons on sleds.  The sleds themselves were made by local BOCES students and had wheels underneath them so that they could move on modern roads.  The re-enactors fired a volley and the nearby church bells were chiming as the artillery passed.

    Scott followed the traffic behind the parade to the Old Fort House Museum where the parade ended.   This home was built in 1772 from timbers left from the old fort, Fort Edward.  Washington himself was supposed to have visited this house after the war.   The building is part of a complex of buildings used for historical displays.  Scott looked around inside the buildings.  He liked seeing the model of the old wooden Fort Edward and browsing around the gift shop.  He took some pictures of the horses and the sleds before leaving there to walk over a mile back to the car.  He started talking to a guy from Frederick, Maryland, while he was walking and was grateful when he offered him a ride up the big hill back to where the car was parked.  Scott's feet were already hurting, and he had promised Julie that he was going to be back at the hotel to pick up her and Abby by 11:00. 

    Meanwhile, Julie and Abby had been playing at the hotel.  Abby had brought a suitcase full of stuffed animals with her.  Of course, she was also looking forward to swimming in the pool.  The water was apparently VERY cold.  Several families with young kids were swimming that morning.  Julie said it was funny to watch the kids jump right in, but the adults' eyes would bug out when they tried to go in.  Abby liked being able to walk across the 3 foot section.  They got out and dried off and were ready when Scott came back from the parade.  Abby was making friends with the hotel staff by drawing pictures as gifts for them.

    Julie had seen a cute place she wanted to try for lunch called, "The Silo."  It was probably too cute for its own good though, because when we got there the parking lot was jammed full.  We decided to try a nearby diner called the Ambrosia Diner.  We weren't disappointed there, and Abby was able to get a plate of her favorite-- spaghetti.  

    The next stop for the artillery train was to go to Schuylerville in nearby Saratoga County, so we headed there.  On the way, we stopped at another historical marker for the Knox Trail at a "Pocket Park," and it looked like we had missed a wreath laying ceremony there earlier that day.  It was very close to the Dix Bridge at Hudson Crossing Park, where the next event was to be.  We pulled into the park and since the regular lots were already full, Julie was told to park as close to the snow banks as possible so that the horses could get through.  By that point, Abby was fast asleep, since her swim in the cold water that morning had worn her out.  Scott walked ahead to the bridge.  The horses, sleds and re-enactors crossed there at about 1:00 and there was a short ceremony where the "linstock" was ceremonially passed from the Washington County officials to the Saratoga County officials.  Scott got a good look at the re-enactor playing Henry Knox-- he was an appropriately large man.  Julie got her first look at the horses, cannons and sleds as they went by the car, but Abby was still asleep.

    The next stop was a little over a mile away at "Knox Fest."  It was at Fort Hardy Park in Saratoga.  After we found a place to park on a nearby street, the three of us headed to the festivities.  Abby got to see the horses and sleds arrive this time.  Snow was falling, but we followed the crowds, past the food trucks and a place where people were starting a bonfire, down to a big heated tent.  The merch table that Scott had been hoping for was there, but he was disappointed that they didn't have any t-shirts in his size and no pins at all.  He liked the design that commemorated "Knox's Heavy Metal Tour" and he and Abby did get it on stickers.  There were many historical displays from the National Parks and other historical groups.   Julie was standing near a table that put out free Saratoga 250 bags and grabbed one for Scott.   We looked around quickly and then went back outside to the gunboat and artillery out by the horses.  Scott managed to get a picture with "General Knox" himself, though a reporter was talking to the general as we did it.  

    We knew we probably weren't going to stay at "Knox Fest" long.  We had more than four and a half hours to drive to get home, and it gets dark at 4:30 or so now.  Abby was looking forward to seeing if the Elf on the Shelf had moved and checking to see what was in the doors of the advent calendar tree today.  We started the trek back home and were quite tired, but we feel like Scott's spontaneous trip idea was a good one.