Guns for General Washington

• Paperback – 160 pages 
• by Seymour Reit 
• Houghton Mifflin Harcourt – 2001 

A novel about a little-known event in American history--the great cannon trek of 1775. Colonel Henry Knox conceived a plan to take desperately needed cannons and ammunition from New York's Fort Ticonderoga to Boston where rebel forces feared that a British attack was imminent. The huge, ungainly guns had to be moved during the winter over hundreds of miles of mountainous wilderness. The bulk of this book re-creates that arduous journey to and from the fort. Despite its pedestrian title and uninspired cover art, this is a fast paced, well-told adventure story. Dialogue among the characters sounds authentic and never forced. Will Knox, the colonel's 19-year-old brother, goes along on the trek and provides a character with whom readers can readily identify. Satisfying historical fiction that deserves a place on library shelves for its clear telling of an important but obscure chapter in American history.