Rogers' Rangers

On January 21, 1757, during the First Battle on Snowshoes, Rogers led 74 rangers to ambush the French, capturing seven prisoners near Fort Carillon at the south end of Lake Champlain. They then were attacked by about 100 French and Canadien (French Canadian) militia and their Ottawa allies from the Ohio Country. Rogers' men suffered casualties and retreated without further losses, since the French lacked snowshoes and were "floundering in snow up to their knees."[3] Rogers' Rangers had maintained positions on the high ground and behind large trees.[3] According to Francis Parkman, Ranger casualties were 14 killed, 6 captured, and 6 wounded, the wounded returning with 48 men who were unharmed. The French consisted of 89 Regulars and 90 Canadians and Indians; they had 37 killed and wounded.[4] The French and Indian casualties may have included one of the captured prisoners. One wounded and captured Ranger who was later exchanged claimed to have killed one of the captured Frenchmen by striking him on the head with a tomahawk after the Rangers were ambushed. It is unclear if this was the fate of the other captured French as well.

A company of the rangers led by Noah Johnson was stationed at Fort William Henry in 1757 during the siege. The siege ended with the surrender and massacre of the British forces in August. After this, the Rangers were stationed on Rogers Island near Fort Edward. This allowed them to train and operate with more freedom than the regular forces.

On March 13, 1758, at the Second Battle on Snowshoes, Rogers' Rangers ambushed a French-Indian column and were then ambushed in turn by enemy forces. The Rangers lost 125 men in this encounter, as well as eight men wounded, with 52 surviving. One reference reports casualties of the Regulars, who had volunteered to accompany the Rangers, as 2 captured and 5 killed. Of Rogers' Rangers, 78 were captured and 47 killed and missing (of whom 19 were captured).[5] Rogers estimated 100 killed and nearly 100 wounded of the French-Indian forces. The French, however, reported their casualties as just 10 Indians killed and 17 wounded, and three Canadians wounded.[6]

The French originally reported killing Rogers in the second battle. This was based on their finding some of his belongings, including his regimental coat containing his military commission; however, he had escaped. This episode gave rise to the legend of Rogers' sliding 400 feet (120 m) down the side of a mountain to the frozen surface of Lake George. There is no conclusive proof this actually happened, but the rock face is still known as "Rogers' Slide" or "Rogers Rock".[7]

Four companies of Rogers Rangers (500 rangers) arrived on the provincial vessel King George and were at Dartmouth, Nova Scotia from April 8 until May 28, awaiting the Siege of Louisbourg (1758). While there, they scoured the woods to stop raids on the capital. During the Siege, the rangers were the first to go ashore at Freshwater Cover and encountered 100 Mi'kmaq and French soldiers. James Wolfe and Scott followed up the rangers. The Rangers killed and scalped the Chief Mi'kmaq. In their retreat, the rangers captured 70 defenders and killed more than 50. Historian Burt Loescher describes this as "one of the most admirable feats ever performed by a detachment of the Corps."[8]

On July 7–8, 1758, Rogers' Rangers took part in the Battle of Carillon. On July 27, 1758, between Fort Edward and Half-Way Brook, 300 Indians and 200 French/Canadians under Captain St. Luc ambushed a British convoy. The British lost 116 killed (including 16 Rangers) and 60 captured.[9]

On August 8, 1758, near Crown Point, New York, a British force of Rangers, light infantry, and provincials was ambushed by a French-Canadian-Indian force of 450 under Captain Marin. In this action, Major Israel Putnam was captured. He was reportedly saved from burning at the stake by the Abenaki through the intervention of a French officer and a providential thunderstorm. Francis Parkman reported 49 British fatalities and "more than a hundred" killed of the enemy. Rogers claimed the British losses were 33 and that those of the enemy as 199. Another source[10] reports that the French casualties were four Indians and six Canadians killed, and four Indians and six Canadians wounded, including an officer and a cadet.

During 1759, the Rangers were involved in one of their most famous operations, the St. Francis Raid. They had been ordered to destroy the Abenaki settlement of Saint-Francis in Quebec. It was the base of the raids and attacks on British settlements. Rogers led a force of 200 Rangers from Crown Point deep into French territory. Following the October 3, 1759 attack and successful destruction of Saint-Francis, Rogers' force ran out of food on their retreat through the wilderness of northern New England. They reached a safe location along the Connecticut River at the abandoned Fort Wentworth, where Rogers left them encamped. He returned a few days later with food and relief forces from Fort at Number 4 (now Charlestown, New Hampshire), the nearest British outpost.

In the raid on Saint-Francis, Rogers claimed 200 enemies had been killed, leaving 20 women and children to be taken prisoner; he took five children as captives and released the rest.[11] The French recorded 30 deaths, including 20 women and children.[12] According to Francis Parkman, Ranger casualties in the attack were one killed and six wounded; in the retreat, five were captured from one band of Rangers, and nearly all in another party of about 20 Rangers were killed or captured.[13] One source alleges that only about 100 returned of about 204 Rangers, allies, and observers.[14]

In the Spring of 1760 the Rangers joined in Amherst's campaign on Montreal but before doing so conducted a successful preemptive raid on Fort Sainte Thérèse which was used to supply the French army as well as being a vital link in the communication and supply line between Fort Saint-Jean and the French forces at Île aux Noix. The settlement and fort were then burned by Rogers following which French and Indian ambushes were repelled before their return to Crown Point with only minor losses.[15]

Roger's Rangers were part of William Haviland's force who marched from Lake Ontario in the west along the St Lawrence River and from upper New York via the Richelieu River in August. Along the way the Rangers fought to reduce the fortified French island of Île aux Noix. During the bombardment of the island Haviland sent Rogers' four ranger companies as well as light infantry and a force of Indians to drag three cannon through the forest and swamps further down to the rear of the French position. With much difficulty this was achieved and in a few days the guns were planted on the river-bank where a French naval force stood defending it.[16] Rogers' cannon opened up upon these vessels surprising them; the closest sloop cut her cable and a strong west wind then drove her ashore into the hands of the British. The other vessels and gunboats made all sail downstream but stranded in a bend of the river, where the rangers, swimming out with their tomahawks, boarded and took one of them, and the rest soon surrendered. With their communications cut the French evacuated the island which then fell to the British.[17] Soon after the Forts of Saint Jean and Chambly were burned by the French; the Rangers then led the final advance on Montreal which surrendered without a fight the following month.