A Treatise of Artillery was the most influential work on artillery published in English during the second half of the eighteenth century. It was the work of John Muller (1699-1784), the long time head of the Woolwich academy, Britain’s school for artillerymen. A Treatise was Muller’s effort to impose order and standardization on the fabrication of artillery equipment and in the handling of guns, particularly in field service. The first edition of Muller’s Treatise appeared during the Seven Years’ War. George Washington owned the first edition. Henry Knox studied and sold the second edition, published in 1768, in his Boston book store. American and British artillery officers studied Muller’s Treatise, and American craftsmen used the detailed plates as plans for constructing gun carriages, mortar beds, limbers, ammunition wagons and other supporting equipment. Knox urged the publication of an American edition for the use of his men. describing it as a book “necessary for a people struggling for Liberty and Empire.” The 1779 edition was the first book on artillery published in the United States. The Continental Artillery packed seventeen extra copies of Muller’s Treatise to take on the march to Yorktown in 1781.