This Rodman gun dates back to the Civil War. The vintage smoothbore is one of two, 50,000 pound columbiads at Fort Knox. Looking at the cannon recalls the courageous story of the fort’s namesake, Major General Henry Knox. Soon after the American Revolution started in 1775 at Lexington and Concord, Massachusetts, Knox befriended General George Washington. The following year, Knox transported 60 tons of cannons from upstate New York to Cambridge. The grueling march required six weeks and covered 300 miles of ice and snow. When the artillery arrived in Boston Harbor, the British made a hasty retreat. Henry Knox later became the first U. S. Secretary of War.
