These intellect of these two leaders — Roger Sherman of Connecticut and Henry Knox of Massachusetts — helped not only cement their legacies in American history but book-ended opposite ends of the Revolution.
Knox, who became George Washington’s artillery chief, led an expedition he thought of to Fort Ticonderoga to bring artillery pieces back to Boston Harbor to flush out the British. Sherman’s "Great Compromise" between the small-state and large-state plans proposed the idea of a federal bicameral legislature at the Constitutional Convention. Both men also served in the new federal government: Sherman as a congressman and senator, and Knox as the first Secretary of War.
Roger Sherman
• State judge
• Delegate to Continental Congress
• Member of committee that drafted Declaration of Independence
• Yale professor
• Mayor of New Haven, Connecticut
• Delegate to Constitutional Convention
• Proposed "Great Compromise"
• Congressman
• U.S. senator
• Only person to sign Declaration of Independence, Articles of Association, Articles of Confederation and U.S. Constitution
Henry Knox
• Sons of Liberty member
• Continental Army artillery chief
• Veteran of Bunker Hill, Trenton, Princeton, Brandywine, Germantown, Monmouth and Yorktown
• Senior Officer of the U.S. Army
• First U.S. Secretary of War (under Articles of Confederation and Washington Administration)
• A Fort Knox in Kentucky and Maine, as well as Knoxville, Tennessee, and nine states’ Knox Counties, are named in his honor
FORGOTTEN FOUNDING FATHERS TOURNAMENT BRACKET
Round 2
Washington Bracket
1. George Mason 88%
- John Witherspoon 12%
*
- Frederick Muhlenberg 38%
2. William Penn 62%
Jefferson Bracket
1. Nathanael Greene 75%
- Edmund Randolph 25%
*
- John Carroll 20%
2. Richard Henry Lee 80%
Madison Bracket
1. Roger Williams 71%
- Isaac Shelby 29%
*
- Henry Knox
- Roger Sherman
Franklin Bracket
- John Jay
- John Dickinson
*
- John Paul Jones
- Friedrich Wilhelm von Steuben
FFFs and match-ups are determined by my interpretation of who I believe were the 32 greatest FFFs. Personal politics, favoritism and reader response was NOT a factor in selection or seeding. As for the tournament itself: each match-up will be conducted every 24 hours with a synopsis written by yours truly and readers can determine using the poll function who the winner should be for that match-up; there is no #1 overall seed; FFFs retain their seeds throughout; the winner of the Washington bracket will face the winner of the Jefferson bracket, and the winner of the Madison bracket will face the winner of the Franklin bracket; after having the first tie, I've decided the higher seed will win ties. I am not voting nor will I pick sides in discussion. I wish I could somehow do a more rigid time duration period for each round but there’s no guarantee I’ll be on a computer or awake at that time so I’m gonna say polling lasts until I post the next match-up, or roughly 24 hours later. Readers may choose whichever FFF contestant they wish, but the point of the tournament is to select the greatest Forgotten Founding Father — the most influential, most important, most impactful, who contributed the most to the Revolution and/or seeds of American liberty. Please read the original diaries in addition to the information provided above so you have all the information before voting. Have fun!