New England’s colonial rangers began in the Rhode Island wilderness in the 17th century. Over the centuries, they 
evolved into the elite commando unit known as the Army Rangers.
Today, the light infantry unit officially known as the 75th Ranger Regiment is known for its excellent combat skills, tremendous endurance and the ability to conduct high-risk missions in challenging environments.
That description would fit the frontier settlers who fought Natives, the French and the British during the 17th and 18th centuries. But unlike today’s Army rangers, they blended Native and European military tactics that worked well in North American combat.
Rangers had to be tough. Since they had to move quickly through the wilderness, they couldn’t take many supplies with them. Typically, a ranger carried provisions, blankets and weapons—typically a rifle, more accurate than an 18th century musket.
When food ran low they hunted and ate vegetation and tree bark. Often they couldn’t light fires because they’d gone behind enemy lines. So they made shelters of pine boughs and bundled themselves up in their blankets.
But as compensation, they often made more money than their counterparts in the regular army.
Colonial Rangers
Robert Rogers was the most storied of the colonial rangers. He led a unit called “His Majesty’s Independent Company of Rangers” during the French and Indian War. They wore distinctive green uniforms and waged guerilla warfare most of the time in the Lake George and Lake Champlain regions of New York.
Rogers famously wrote 28 Rules of Ranging. They dictated, for example, that men shouldn’t cross a river by a regular ford because the enemy watches them. And they should march single file, far enough apart so one shot couldn’t go through two men.
A colonial ranger
In 1937, Kenneth Roberts wrote a novel about Rogers Rangers called Northwest Passage. In it, he made up Standing Orders based on the 28 rangers rules. Roberts’ version of Roger’s rangers rules is now included in the U.S. Army Ranger Handbook. And the 75th Ranger Regiment follows an amended version of the rangers rules.
But there is more to New England’s colonial rangers than Robert Rogers. Here are seven fun facts about the legendary scouting and special operations force.
1. The first colonial Ranger was Benjamin Church.
Benjamin Church lived in Rhode Island, the only European settler among the Sakonnet people. He learned Indigenous ways because he had to. When King Philip’s War broke out in 1675, Plymouth Gov. Josiah Winslow commissioned him to establish a company of rangers.
For a European, Church took an unconventional approach. Instead of massed formations of men assaulting the enemy from the front, he emphasized small, nimble units that used the dense wilderness for cover. Church also enlisted Sakonnet warriors as auxiliaries to teach his men how to fight and to boost their morale. Their knowledge of the terrain helped them find and kill King Philip at his hiding place on Mount Hope (now Bristol, R.I.). That brought the war closer to an end.
For the next few decades, Church led mixed groups of English and Indian fighters. He headed expeditions to raid the French province of Acadia during two of the French and Indian Wars, King William’s and Queen Anne’s.
His great-grandson, Dr. Benjamin Church, played a role in the American Revolution as a spy.
2. Robert Rogers didn’t always follow his own rules. It cost him.
Despite his fame as a frontier tactician, Robert Rogers lost several battles because he ignored his own rules. At La Barbue Creek during the French and Indian War, he made a decision that ran counter to his council of war and violated his own rules of warfare. In the winter of 1757, he and his men traveled from Fort Edward to gather intelligence about forts Frederic and Carillon (Ticonderoga).
They camped on the shores of Lake George one night halfway between the two French forts. When they saw 10 French sleighs bringing provisions across the lake, Rogers decided to ambush them. The colonial rangers seized the first two sleighs, though the others escaped. Rogers interrogated seven prisoners about the fortresses.
Robert Rogers (artist conception)
Having learned what he could from the prisoners, Rogers decided to head back the way they’d come. He went against the advice of his men and broke one of his rules for ranging: If you have the good fortune to take any prisoners, keep them separate, till they are examined, and in your return take a different rout from that in which you went out.”
The escapees had alerted the French back at their garrison, so they laid a trap along the route that Rogers had chosen. Friench soldiers and their Indian allies ambushed Rogers’ Rangers, firing at close range. Rogers took a ball in the wrist and a dozen rangers died.
3. A ranger once killed more Natives in death than in life.
One of the most brutal betrayals of the French and Indian War occurred after the surrender of Fort William Henry in 1757. British forces—including regulars, colonial militia and Rogers’ Rangers—had endured a grueling siege by French commander Montcalm and his Native American allies. When the fort finally capitulated, Montcalm granted the British the “honors of war,” allowing them to retreat to Fort Edward with their muskets (but no ammunition) under the condition they abstain from fighting for 18 months.
But as the column of defeated soldiers marched away, Native warriors—ignoring Montcalm’s orders—attacked the unarmed men, slaughtering and scalping dozens in what became known as the Fort William Henry Massacre.
Among the British forces was Richard Rogers, the younger brother of Robert Rogers. Richard had died of smallpox before the siege, and his body was buried near the fort. When Native warriors dug up his corpse to take his scalp, they unleashed a horrific consequence—smallpox infection.
Fort William Henry, now a museum
The virus spread through their villages, killing far more warriors than Richard ever had in combat. In a cruel twist of fate, the fallen Ranger became an unwitting agent of biological warfare, striking a deadlier blow in death than he ever did in life.
4. The British had their own rangers during the American Revolution.
It stands to reason. After all, they fought against the French and Indians with provincial (we’d call them American now) forces and saw the value of the colonial rangers.
A rifleman of the Queen’s Rangers
After the French and Indian War ended, Robert Rogers went to England to get paid for his services. He didn’t. But while there he made some money publishing his journals and a play, then landed in debtors’ prison. When he returned, he offered his services to George Washington. Washington didn’t trust him, so Rogers went over to the other side. He wona commission as a lieutenant colonel and ordered to recruit a unit of Loyalist rangers, to be called the Queen’s Rangers.
Rogers didn’t last long because of his erratic behavior. Maj. John Graves then took command, transforming the Queen’s Rangers into effective fighters. They harassed Washington’s army, disrupted American supply lines and were among the last to surrender at Yorktown.
5. Washington’s first ranger leader lasted 34 days.
Knowlton commanded General George Washington’s first ranger unit until his death in September 1776 during the Battle of Harlem Heights. He is depicted in John Trumbull’s famous Battle of Bunker Hill painting, standing behind the mortally wounded Joseph Warren.
Raised on a farm in Ashford, Conn., near the wilderness, Knowlton began his military career at 15, enlisting as a private in a Connecticut militia company during the French and Indian War. Excelling as a scout—a crucial role in frontier warfare—he later fought with Rogers’ Rangers during the failed British assault on Fort Carillon (later Ticonderoga).
Portrait believed to be of Thomas Knowlton. Courtesy William E. Utley.
When the American Revolution erupted, Knowlton joined a Connecticut militia as a major and marched to Boston. He led a bold raid on Charlestown, burning buildings housing British troops. As the war shifted to New York, Washington needed skilled scouts. On Aug. 12, 1778, he named Knowlton as head of a specialized ranger unit. Comprising 130 handpicked men and 20 officers from Connecticut, Massachusetts and Rhode Island, the unit provided critical reconnaissance and light infantry support.
Knowlton later called for volunteers for a dangerous spy mission. Among those who stepped forward was Nathan Hale, whose inexperience led to his swift capture by none other than Robert Rogers.
Six days before Hale’s execution, Knowlton was killed in action at the Battle of Harlem Heights, shot while leading his men in combat. https://newenglandhistoricalsociety.com/thomas-knowlton-soldier-for-two-countries/
6. The most formidable colonial ranger became a Revolutionary hero.
John Stark, as Robert Rogers second lieutenant, earned a reputation as a bold and ferocious fighter. He fought fiercely though outnumbered by the enemy and didn’t lose his head.
He led by example and his men looked up to him. During one battle in the French and Indian War he risked his life t save another.
John Stark
During the Battle of Bunker Hill, Stark’s experience as a colonial ranger paid off. He knew the left flank was weak, so he chose a strong defensive position and fortified it with sticks and rocks.
He knew the British would march in single file because rangers always studied the enemy. So he ordered his men to wait for a clear shot before firing.
And when orders were unclear, he took the initiative to fortify the left flank himself. His independence and initiative were a hallmark of colonial rangers’ leadership style.
Stark’s men shattered the British attack and forced them into a costly head-on attack of the Americans holding the hill.
Similarly, Stark’s victory at the Battle of Bennington used the ranger tactic of luring the enemy into a killing zone and then hitting the enemy from many sides.
Outside of New Hampshire, not many know about John Stark. But they may know his most famous words: “Live Free or Die.”
7. A 51-year-old Army general gave the Rangers their motto.
During the Normandy invasion in World War II, Allied troops encountered terrible confusion. Men landed in the wrong places and German defenses were stronger than anticipated.
The Allies couldn’t get a foothold on the beach under intense enemy fire and around obstacles and mines.
About one hour after the invasion started, Brig. Gen. Norman Cota, a Charlestown, Mass., native, rode a landing craft into a crossfire of bullets, artillery and mortar.
Norman Cota
He immediately set to making order out of chaos, setting up a command post on the beach. Two of his commanding officers were killed within feet of him.
Then he strode upright across the beach toward a group of soldiers pinned down by enemy fire next to a sand dune. It was then that he said,
Gentlemen, we are being killed on the beaches. Let us go inland and be killed.
He asked the commander of the 5th Ranger Battalion, ‘What outfit is this?’ When told, he replied,
Well, God damn it then, Rangers, lead the way!
“Rangers lead the way!” is now that elite unit’s official motto.
With thanks to “Frontier Rangers of Colonial New England,” by Anthony Phillip Blasi.
