Henry Knox: Hero or Scoundrel?
The truth about Maine's "founding father" is that he might have been both.
By Colin Woodard
Henry Knox has been dead for more than two centuries, but he still casts a long, broad shadow over midcoast Maine, a region where the counties and older towns are named for him, his grandfather-in-law, or their business associates, and the backcountry hamlets for the ideals of the settlers who rose up against his rule.
[For the rest of this story, see the August 2008 issue of Down East.]
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Reader Comments:
I just finished reading a book about General Knox and it's a surprise to me that he would be held in such low regard. From my reading, he was described as a humble man who preferred to cast the spotlight on those who supported him and would do little to polish his own accomplisments. Hence, only having a few counties and towns taking his name. I, myself, was stationed at Fort Knox and little was said about the General other than he was, indeed a General during the revolutionary war. My curiosity of Benjamine Rush brought General Knox to light and thats how I happened on him. He is, in my eyes, an unrecognized hero of that war.