Henry Knox (July 25, 1750 – October 25, 1806) is a military officer of the Continental Army and later the United States Army, and also serves as the first United States Secretary of War.
Born and raised in Boston, Massachusetts, he owns and operates a bookstore there, cultivating an interest in military history and joining a local artillery company.
When the American Revolutionary War breaks out in 1775, he befriends General George Washington, and quickly rises to become the chief artillery officer of the Continental Army.
In this role, he accompanies Washington on most of his campaigns, and has some involvement in many major actions of the war.
He establishes training centers for artillerymen and manufacturing facilities for weaponry that are valuable assets to the fledgling nation.
Following the adoption of the United States Constitution, he becomes President Washington's Secretary of War.
In this role he oversees the development of coastal fortifications, works to improve the preparedness of local militia, and oversees the nation's military activity in the Northwest Indian War.
He is formally responsible for the nation's relationship with the Indian population in the territories it claims, articulating a policy that establishes federal government supremacy over the states in relating to Indian nations, and calls for treating Indian nations as sovereign.
Knox's idealistic views on the subject are frustrated by ongoing illegal settlements and fraudulent land transfers involving Indian lands.
He retires to what is now Thomaston, Maine in 1795, where he oversees the rise of a business empire built on borrowed money.
He dies in 1806 from an infection received after swallowing a chicken bone, leaving an estate that is bankrupt.
