It
was a typical morning at breakfast that June 29, 1776. Lucy was relaxing with
her husband, American General Henry Knox, in a beautiful mansion overlooking
New York Harbor. The palatial building served as the Continental Army’s base of
operations.
What
should have been an ordinary morning meal shared between the couple, however,
took a drastic turn.
Terror
seized Lucy as she looked down through the second-story window and saw the
British fleet filling up the harbor. The Colonial city was under attack and
gunfire from the American forces to alert the residents erupted everywhere.
In
David McCullough’s 1776, he quotes a letter written by Henry Knox to his brother
William about that frightening morning:
“You
can scarcely conceive of the distress and anxiety which (Lucy) then had. The
city in an uproar, the alarm guns firing, the troops repairing to their posts,
and everything in the height of bustle. I not at liberty to attend her, as my
country cries loudest.”
According
to McCullough, Henry Knox had been trying to get Lucy to leave the city with
their infant daughter for several weeks. Henry sensed the impending danger and
now, seeing the reality of thousands of enemy troops in New York, the general
despaired that she had not done so before.
“My
God, may I never experience the like feelings again! They were too much, but I
found a way to disguise them, for I scolded like a fury at her for not having
gone before.”
Lucy
and their baby did successfully escape, along with Martha Washington and Caty
Greene (wife of General Nathanael Greene) and her infant. Once he knew his wife
was safely in Connecticut, Henry Knox wrote to her expressing his relief, as
well as declaring his great love for her. Henry also shared his concerns for
their future.
“We
are fighting for our country, for posterity perhaps. On the success of this
campaign the happiness or misery of millions may depend.”
Two
days after the British landed on Staten Island, New York, the Continental
Congress signed the Declaration of Independence in Philadelphia. It was the
fourth of July, 1776.
On
July 8, 1776, Henry wrote to Lucy that 10,000 Redcoats occupied the island
across the harbor. That number would increase to 32,000 British troops by the
middle of August. They were poised to attack the 7,000 American troops under
General Washington in New York City.
Henry
knew after the arrival of the enemy troops that the situation was not going to
get any safer for his wife, Lucy, to rejoin him. He told her, despite the
actions of other officers’ wives, that she should stay where it was safe:
“The
greatest happiness for me (is) to be with you, but to be under a continual
uneasiness on account of your safety is what you would not wish.”
He
informed her of how close in distance the enemy was and, were she to come, she
would not have time to gather herself and her carriage to escape if the
Redcoats approached. He imagined the terror for his wife and young daughter at
such a risky venture. “The reality would kill me,” he wrote.
He
ends his missive to Lucy with the most tender of words:
“Write me, my love, as
often as lays in your power and believe me to have no other earthly love but
you. Kiss and bless your babe for me.”
These
words from her husband are heartrending as the young wife must be separated
from Henry for extended periods of time. After the victory at Trenton in
December of 1776, Henry writes again to his wife:
“It
grieves me exceedingly that I still date my letters from this place and that I
am so far distant from the dearest object of my affections. This War with all
its variety is not able to banish your much lov’d Idea from my heart. Whatever
I am employ’d about still you are with me…as soon as the sacred calls of his
Country will permit, (I) will return with the permission of heaven and enjoy all
the blessings of conjugal affection.”
These
touching love letters are even more soul-stirring when one realizes that Lucy
Flucker Knox had separated herself from her own family for the cause of
Liberty. Her parents were Loyalists and when the Tories abandoned Boston, her
parents fled without so much as a goodbye.
Nancy
Rubin Stuart, author of Defiant Brides, tenderly describes
Lucy Knox as a woman who longed for family and hoped to fill the Knox home with
numerous children. In their marriage of 32 years, Lucy gave birth to a total of
thirteen children, yet only three survived to adulthood.
With
their less-than-trim figures, Lucy and Henry would likely not be the couple
chosen for the cover of a historical romance. But their ardor for each other
would fill the pages of any novel with a depth of commitment forged through
love and war—a romance of the most passionate kind.
