Roxbury will be center stage Saturday for the city’s 250th anniversary commemoration of General Henry Knox’s daring winter mission that helped force the British evacuation from Boston.
Knox’s Noble Train of Artillery, a 300-mile trek, brought 60 tons of captured British ammunition from Fort Ticonderoga in upstate New York to Boston.
The Roxbury event, set for 2 p.m., will trace the final stretch of Knox’s journey into Boston, blending revolutionary history with Roxbury’s present day identity.
Revolution 250, the organizing committee of the state’s celebration, has partnered with multiple community groups, including Boston 250 and Unitarian Universalist Urban Ministry, to celebrate Knox.
The event is part of Knox Trail 250, a statewide observance that has made its way across Massachusetts. Local communities have held celebrations on the date that Knox marched through, such as Feb. 8 in Framingham.
In the winter of 1775-76, Knox, a 25-year-old Boston bookseller, hauled away British cannons from Fort Ticonderoga to Boston. The cannons were positioned at Dorchester Heights, ultimately forcing the British troops to evacuate the city on March 17, 1776.
“You don’t get to declare independence without first commemorating Evacuation Day,” said Jonathan Lane, executive director of Revolution 250. “And you don’t get to Evacuation Day without telling the story of Henry Knox and his Noble Train of Artillery.”
Knox’s ties to Roxbury are significant. Before his expedition, he built fortifications in the neighborhood that caught the eye of Washington, launching his role as an officer in the artillery.
“Within a year, he was the Brigadier General of the artillery,” Lane said. “He has a meteoric rise, but that was Washington’s style.”
The events Saturday will begin at 2 p.m. with a procession from Fenway High School to John Eliot Square. Marchers will include colonial militia reenactors, patriots of color, a fife and drum unit, and the Hamilton-Garrett drumline. Two teams of Clydesdale horses will pull sleds and cannons, echoing Knox’s original winter trek.
Organizers said the event will stand apart from other Knox Trail events across Massachusetts and New York.
“We … wanted it to really feel true to what Roxbury has been and what it continues to be today as a the hub of Black Boston and a center of revolutionary thought and action,” said Alex Meadow, deputy director of partnerships in the mayor’s office.
Formal programs will be held at the Dillaway-Thomas House. Alongside Knox’s story, the programs will highlight Black patriots who fought in the Revolutionary War and explore the experiences of free, enslaved, and Indigenous people during the Siege of Boston. Black reenactors from the Living History Company and local historians, artists, and poets will participate as well.
A speaking program is planned to begin at 3 p.m. at the First Parish Church, recently reopened after a multiyear renovation. Mayor Michelle Wu is expected to attend and announce the launch of the Boston Historic Markers Program.
The event will conclude with a 15-minute light projection show as a part of the Boston Beacon initiative.
The Roxbury event is one of two Knox-related observances in Boston this month, alongside the annual Dorchester Heights ceremony on March 17. Both are part of Boston 250, the city’s public-private effort to mark its role in the nation’s founding. For Meadow, the theme running through Boston 250 is “everyday revolutionaries.”
“Henry Knox was a bookseller who went to Boston Public Schools,” Meadow said. “An important piece of this for us is through our events and through our programs, helping people realize that they hold power themselves.”
Aayushi Datta can be reached at aayushi.datta@globe.com.