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Robert Rogers, or Rodgers (7 November, 1731 – 18 May, 1795), was an English-American colonial frontiersman whose service to the people of New England in the various struggles for its existence against the indigenous population and the final might of the French monarchy was so valuable to them that it outweighed his later service to the crown during the American Revolution. Rogers was the model of the rugged frontiersman who cared little for law, government or ideology, but rose to greatness in defence of his native land. History is kinder to him that it has been to Benedict Arnold. The latter's name has become synonymous with traitor, but Rogers' name escaped that fate. Nevertheless Rogers died alone in poverty in the city of London, far from his family and from the woods and mountains of New Hampshire.
Rogers and the rangers
Rogers raised and commanded Rogers' Rangers during the French and Indian War. He did not invent the concept of ranger nor its far-ranging strategy. The daring attack on a select target far behind enemy lines by a small band of highly disciplined special forces is known from antiquity; for example, the Slavs used it against the Byzantine Empire, and the Goths against the Persian Empire. For the most part the American colonials knew nothing of those events.
The method was reinvented by the aboriginals of New England in their struggle to drive the English settlers from their lands, and was imitated and carried to new levels by those same settlers. As the natives discovered, the ranger strategy and ranger tactics alone are insufficient to win a war, which must be won by regular forces. Meanwhile the method is effective as far as it goes.
After a brief period of harmonious relations with the natives, the colonials of New England found themselves locked in a life-or-death struggle with the tribes and groups that had not converted to Christianity over the issue of whether the English would be allowed to live or to remain on American soil. The contest began with King Phillip's War. The bitter result was unfavorable to the natives. They found it expedient to abandon their vulnerable settlements and found new ones on the outskirts of English settlement. Among them were the Abenaki, who removed to St. Francis, Quebec (near Pierreville).
From these outlying lands the natives harbored resentment and struck out at the colonists whenever they could in daring, long-distance raids, during which they eliminated English homesteads and took English captives, to be sold, traded or raised as natives. The colonists retaliated in kind, developing striking units whom they called rangers, giving the ordinary English word meaning forester a new use.
Rogers evidenced an unusual talent for ranging. He took the initiative in raising, equipping and commanding ranger units. He added theory to the art, writing the first field manual of the topic. The Queen's York Rangers of the Canadian Army and the U.S. Army Rangers claim him as their founder and "Rogers' Rules of Ranging" are still quoted.
Rogers operated in the area that is now New England and South Eastern Canada and developed the basis of modern special forces tactics. During the French and Indian War, Rogers' Rangers specialized in reconnaissance and deep penetrating raids into enemy territory. Mental and physical toughness, discipline and courage were highly valued and regularly displayed by all rangers. Major Rogers went deeply into debt, as he was personally responsible for paying his soldiers, and took loans to ensure his soldiers were paid properly. He was never compensated by the British Army or government, though he had reason to believe he should have those expenses reimbursed. This started his financial troubles.
Early life
The events of Robert Rogers' life have been of interest to local and amateur historians for some time. Many have written about him, but the details vary considerably. Part of the problem is the strong partisan sentiments he seems to evoke, and another part the circumstance that many have written from hearsay. Only detailed research by professional historians can settle many of the questions. The account given in this article is a very general one based on some prevalent current views.
Robert was born to James and Mary McFatridge Rogers on November 7, 1731, in Methuen, a small town in northeastern Massachusetts (today no longer small and continuous with the city of Lawrence). A plaque marks the spot today. At that time the town served as a staging point for colonization to the north. In 1739, when Robert was eight years old, the family went pioneering to the north, where James, an Irish immigrant, founded a settlement on 2190 acres of upland, which he called Munterloney after a hilly place in Derry and Tyrone, where he had once resided. Robert refers to this place as Mountalona. Later it was renamed to Dunbarton, New Hampshire.
Robert was not allowed much of a childhood that we would consider normal. The English colonies were engaged in a series of conflicts with other European powers and their colonies, who shared the aboriginal desire to remove the English from New England. King George's War (1740-1748), known on the continent as the War of the Austrian Succession, broke out when Robert was nine and ended when he was 17.
At that time Robert was a veteran, a skilled frontiersman, and a French speaker. He does not tell us much about these years, but it seems likely that he served in the New Hampshire militia. He might have scouted for Pepperrell's force, raised in 1745 for the purpose of taking Louisburg from the French, but this is only speculation. The age of 14 allows time for his rough education and is about right for membership in the colonial militia in time of war.
By 1748 Robert had found his talents, but he was now adult, free of obligation and faced with the necessity of earning an independent living. Like many another warrior without war, he turned to (or rather continued) the free and predatory way of life, but in those frontier times, fine legal distinctions were not always made. For example, most of the colonials with the means practiced smuggling. In 1754 (age 23), the year before the beginning of his greatest success, he was indicted for being the head of a gang of counterfeiters recruited by himself.
French and Indian wars
In 1753 French forces took a fort being constructed by the British in the vicinity of Pittsburgh and renamed it Fort Duquesne. The region already had been settled and was being used by English traders. Governor Dinwiddie of Virginia therefore sent a force under George Washington in 1754 to retake the fort. He was attacked by the French and defeated at the Battle of Great Meadows on July 3, 1754. The French received his surrender and graciously allowed him to return to Virginia, hoping that this gesture would rid them of the English.
The hope proved vain. In 1755 Major General Edward Braddock marched on Fort Duquesne with a force of about 2000 men, including colonials under Washington. On July 9 they were ambushed near the fort by 7000 native Americans led by 250 French colonials. Braddock received a mortal wound and Washington assumed command. He beat a hasty retreat.
In that year war became general over all the colonies, spreading also to Europe. Britain and France declared war on each other. The English in America suffered a string of defeats similar to that of Braddock. Encouraged, native Americans living on the entire periphery of English settlement launched a savage attack, once again with the intent of driving the colonists into the sea.
Ranger recruiter
These events transpired in the middle of Robert Rogers' criminal case. We do not know what happened to the counterfeiting ring, except that much of it probably went into the rangers with Rogers. Charges against him were dropped. In 1755 he appears as a recruiter for John Winslow. Perhaps the colonial government decided it needed experienced militiamen more than it needed to prosecute Rogers, or perhaps Rogers made a deal. We don't know.Rogers arrived in Portsmouth, New Hampshire, in 1756. There he began to recruit rangers. It was probably at this time that the rangers recruited by him began to be called "Rogers'". He was well supported by the frightened and angry colonials. The masons of St. John's Lodge in Portsmouth received him with two degrees. In Portsmouth also he met his future wife, Elizabeth Browne, youngest daughter of Reverend Arthur Browne (Anglican). They were to marry in 1761. By the end of 1756, Rogers had raised three more companies of rangers, making four. He commanded one.
Robert's brothers James, Richard and possibly John all served in Rogers' Rangers. Richard died of small pox in 1757. James went on to take over Robert's post in the King's Rangers at the end of the Revolution. It is not known what became of John but it is suspected he remained in the south after Robert's 1762 visit to Charleston, South Carolina.
Northern campaign
From 1755 to 1758 the rangers served under a series of unsuccessful British commanders operating over the northern accesses to the English colonies: Major General William Johnson, William Shirley, Colonel William Haviland, Major General James Abercromby. The British could do no more than fight holding actions around Lake Champlain, Crown Point, Ticonderoga and the upper Hudson. They were victorious in Nova Scotia (Acadia), from which they transported the French to Louisiana.In these campaigns the rangers were indispensable. They grew gradually to twelve companies and a few companies of natives who had thrown in their lot with the English. Rangers were kept organizationally distinct from regulars. They reconnoitered and skirmished. They were the commander's eyes, ears and first line of defence. Rogers was their acting commander as well as the direct commander of his own company. He gave advice, which was for the most part ignored. In 1758 Abercromby recognized his status by promoting him to major, with John Stark as second in command. He then held two ranks appropriate to his double role: captain and major.
In 1759 the tide of battle turned and the English advanced on Quebec. Until now the rangers had done nothing to distinguish themselves from other irregular troops. Now, Major General Jeffrey Amherst had a brilliant and definitive idea. He sent major Rogers on an expedition far behind enemy lines to the west against a vital point there: St. Francis, a staging base for native raids into New England. The natives had given up their aboriginal way of life and were living in a town next to a French mission. Rogers burned the town, killed about 1/4 of its population, and barely escaped before pursuers down the Connecticut River under great duress.
The blow struck by Rogers was a major psychological victory. The colonists no longer felt that they were helpless. The unfortunate residents of St. Francis (a combined group of Abenakis and others) understood that they were no longer beyond reach. Raiding from there did not cease, but it diminished.
Western campaign
Quebec fell in 1759 to be followed by Montreal in 1760. Native activity against colonials in the east ceased. Rogers' service there was over. General Amherst transferred him to Brigadier General Robert Monckton, commanding at Fort Pitt (formerly Fort Duquesne). Following Amherst's lead, Monckton sent the rangers to take Detroit, far to the north, which they did.The French had lost their zest for war and were mainly waiting for the English to come and end it, but the Indians retained their hostility. Meanwhile operations on either side declined. In 1760, Rogers received the submission of the French posts on the Great Lakes. It was the final act of his command. The rangers were disbanded. Monckton offered Rogers command of a company of regulars in South Carolina, but after visiting the place Rogers decided to swap it for a company in New York. That also was disbanded shorty and Rogers went into retirement at half-pay.
At last he had some personal time on his hands. He returned to New England to marry Elizabeth in June, 1761, and set up housekeeping with her in Concord, New Hampshire. Like many New Englanders, they owned slaves, including a native lad taken at St. Francis.
The state of his finances at this time is not compatible with what he and others professed it to be later. Rogers received large grants of land in southern New Hampshire in compensation for his services. He sold much of it at a profit and was able to purchase and maintain slaves. He did deed much of his land to his wife's family, which served to support her later. These facts are not compatible with the image of the debt-ridden soldier struggling to pay the salaries he had advanced his men at his own expense.
In peace Robert was a restless spirit. The colonists were in the process of quelling native operations piecemeal. Late in 1761 he accepted command of a company of what today would be mercenaries for the purpose of pacifying the Cherokees in North Carolina, after which he returned home.
In 1763 Pontiac's Rebellion broke out in Michigan. Rogers volunteered again, going along as staff with Captain James Dalzell to the relief of Detroit. Evidently Amherst had decided that a company would be sufficient. The rebellion collapsed, Pontiac faded away into obscurity and death, the war came to an end that same year with the Treaty of Paris, and Rogers found himself once more a soldier of fortune, still on half-pay. Later his worst enemy, General Thomas Gage, remarked that if the army had put him on whole pay, they could have prevented his later unfit employment (Gage's terms).
Post-war success and failure
Rogers had brought total dedication to his position as commander of the rangers. As was often the custom in the British and American armies, he had spent his own money to equip the rangers when needed and consequently had gone into debt. In 1764 he was faced with the problem of repaying his creditors.
Robert engaged briefly in a business venture with the fur trader, John Askin, near Detroit. After it failed, he hoped to win the money by gambling, with the result that he was totally ruined. His creditors put him in prison for debt in New York, but he escaped.
Author in Britain
In 1765, Rogers voyaged to England to obtain pay for his service and capitalize on his fame. His journals and A Concise Account of North America were published. Immediately thereafter, he wrote a stage play, Ponteach *: or the Savages of America (1766), significant as an early American drama and for its sympathetic portrayal of Native Americans. He enjoyed some moderate success with his publications (However, Ponteach was condemned by the critics.) and attracted royal attention. Following an audience with King George III, to whom he proposed to undertake an expedition to find the Northwest Passage, Robert Rogers was bestowed an appointment as governor of Michilimackinac (Mackinaw City, Michigan) with a charter to look for the passage, and returned to North America.Governor in Michigan
The prospects of the young governor must have seemed bright as he and his wife moved to Michigan and he took up his post acclaimed by all. He had some powerful friends: General Amherst and George III, but they were now far away. General Amherst had been replaced as commander of British forces in America in 1763 by Sir Thomas Gage, Viscount, an aristocrat who had purchased his way up in the British army. This practice gave subordinate officers a certain independence, which was not quelled until the Duke of Wellington took a firm stand against preference based on birth. Gage had opposed Amherst in nearly everything he did. As a friend of Amherst and a common colonial to boot, Robert Rogers became a cause celebre of this officer who later did more than any other to drive the colonies to revolution. Gage set out to ruin Rogers in any way that he could, and succeeded.Rogers' position as governor was subject to the same paradoxical weakness that prevailed in the rest of the British Empire of the times. The restoration of Charles II had failed to define the king's legal position exactly. On the one hand British monarchs possessed the same theoretical powers they had had before the English Revolution. If they dared to exercise these powers, however, they might be removed or worse by Parliament. The monarch became only one of contending powers and could never be sure if his decisions would be acted upon. This same question as to who was in charge and would be obeyed manifested itself at every level of British government.
Rogers had been appointed governor by the king and was given a mandate by him to govern. At the same time Rogers was still at half-pay in the British army and was therefore to some degree under the jurisdiction of Viscount Gage. The latter would not have dared to attack Amherst or other nobility openly and he did not dare to attack the kings appointee, unless he could find good reason. If he could find reason, the king would not dare to countermand legal processes in order to save his subordinates. Many royal supporters had died in just this way, while the king stood by, helpless to save them. Gage actively set about finding reason to attack Rogers.
Meanwhile Rogers went about performing his duties with considerable talent, perhaps not even suspecting the grief that Gage was planning for him. His actions show some ignorance of governmental tensions in British society. He did send expeditions under Jonathan Carver and James Tute, but they found no Northwest Passage. The path to the Pacific remained to be discovered by the Lewis and Clark expedition. Perceiving a need for unity and stronger government, Rogers negotiated with the Indians, parlayed with the French and developed a plan for a province in Michigan to be administered by a governor and privy council reporting to the king. The plan was loyal to his friend, George III, but had little chance of being adopted. Parliament and its instruments had no intention of strengthening the king's hand.
Arrest for treason
Viscount Gage used every opportunity to defame Rogers, portraying him as an opportunist who had gotten rich on the war only to gamble his money away as a profligate. How much these allegations were true and how much Gage really believed them to be true are difficult if not impossible to say. A person of such character as Gage professed Rogers to have been might be of questionable loyalty and therefore needed watching. Rogers' dealings with the natives troubled Gage, as he and all the major British officers in America had come to regard the natives as treacherous vermin.
Gage used his resources to set spies on Rogers, intercept his mail and suborn his subordinates. At last Rogers offended his private secretary, Nathaniel Potter, and Potter gave Gage the excuse he needed. He made an affadavit that Rogers had said he would offer his province to the French if the British failed to approve the plan.
The story is absurd. The defeated French were not in any position to receive Rogers, especially as there was a British governor sitting in Montreal. Nevertheless on the strength of it Rogers was arrested in 1767, charged with treason, and taken to Montreal in chains for trial. He was not tried until 1768. Elizabeth, carrying their first and only child, went home to Portsmouth. Their son was the only child Robert's subsequent fate would allow them to have. The son became a lawyer in Portsmouth and had a family that descended to modern times.
Vindication
Gage had done the worst he could do. He had to send Rogers to Montreal, but once there Rogers was among the friends of Lord Amherst and the king. He was acquitted of all charges and the verdict was sent to the king for approval. He approved, but he could not call Gage a liar openly. Instead he made a note that there was reason to think Rogers might have been treasonous.A return to Michigan and the power of Gage was unthinkable, and besides, Elizabeth was not there now. Rogers went to Britain in 1769 to petition again for the relief of his debt. The king had done all he could do. He was beginning to be occupied by an issue larger than himself, the proper rule of the dissatisfied colonies. Rogers spent more time in debtor's prison and ended by suing Gage for false imprisonment. The Viscount settled out of court by offering Rogers the half-pay of a major in return for dropping the suit.
Alcoholic or spy?
Being incarcerated or in legal process in Britain, Robert Rogers missed the major events that disaffected the colonies. He was out of touch with common sentiment there. When he heard that revolution was about to break out he decided to return to America, which he did in 1775. The American were by now out of touch with Rogers as well. Looking upon him as the noted ranger leader, and expecting him to behave as one, they were at a total loss to explain his strange behavior on his return. Knowing who his friends had been, they finally took him for a spy. However, Rogers even at that time was probably suffering from the malady that blighted his later life and led to the loss of his family, land, money and friends: alcoholism.Exactly what happened between the revolutionaries and him and why is not clear. Had he been the man he was, he should have become a leading revolutionary commander. Instead we read that he was arrested by the Committee of Safety and released on parole that he would not serve against the colonies. He was offered a commission in the revolutionary army by the Continental Congress but turned it down on grounds that he was a British officer on half-pay. He wrote to Washington asking for a command but instead Washington had him arrested.
The broken man
Rogers in short did not behave as a returned countryman, or potential revolutionary. He did not return to new Hampshire to resume life with Elizabeth. Instead he wandered the countryside talking with all kinds of persons, loyalist and revolutionary, claiming to have a pass from congress, and taking contradictory views. Perhaps the key to this behavior is not that he was a spy, as Washington concluded, but was a broken man, a shadow of his former self. In talking to people he always seemed to be in or coming from a tavern, where he partook heavily of good cheer.Escaping from prison and finding revolutionary ranks firm against him he offered his services to the British Army. They also were hoping he would live up to his reputation. In August, 1776 he formed another ranger type unit, which still exists today as the Queen's York Rangers and is a reconnaissance regiment in the Canadian Army. The command called for a rank of Lieutenant Colonel. He did not command long and saw action once. He did help send a noted patriot to his death.
In September 1776, Rogers assisted in the capture of Nathan Hale, a most famous spy for the Continental Army. A contemporary account of Hale's capture written by Consider Tiffany, a Connecticut shopkeeper and Loyalist, was obtained by the Library of Congress. In Tiffany's account, Rogers found Hale to be an unconvincing teacher and lured him into his own betrayal by pretending to be a patriot spy himself. *
In 1777 Rogers was forcibly retired by reason of "poor health." A return home now was not possible; the death of Hale and the raising of rangers aganst the colonials seemed to confirm Washington's suspicions. He wrote to the legislature of New Hampshire. In 1778 they passed two decrees regarding Rogers: one a proscription and the other a divorce from his wife on grounds of abandonment and infidelity. She could not afford any friendship or mercy toward Robert now if she expected to remain in New Hampshire. At the end of the war, the few remaining "tories", as loyalists were called, were ejected from the incipient United States. Elizabeth soon found consolation and support in the arms of a patriot, the captain of good ship Ranger, subsequently captained by John Paul Jones.
After a brief sojourn in Britain Rogers returned in 1779 to raise rangers for General Sir Henry Clinton. He was unable to keep the position due to alcoholism, but his place was taken by his brother, James. He was of no further use to the British army. Accidentally snared by an American privateer journeying from Quebec to New York he spent more time in prison, escaping in 1782. In 1783 he was evacuated with other British troops to Britain. There he was not able to command himself or defeat his disease. He died in obscurity and debt, what little money he had going to pay an arrears in rent.
The memory of Rogers
On May 30, 2005, (Memorial Day in the U.S.), a statue of Major Roberts was unveiled during a ceremony on Rogers Island in the Hudson River, 40 miles north of Albany, New York. This is near to the site where Rogers penned his "Rules of Discipline." *
Rogers participation in the French and Indian War and his later life are depicted in the novel Northwest Passage by Kenneth Roberts. That novel inspired a movie of the same title staring Spencer Tracy.
Notes
External links
- Biography at the Dictionary of Canadian Biography Online
- Robert Rogers the Ranger
- Biography from U-S-history.com
- Roger's Rangers. Some of the external links cited in this article are listed below.
- Major Robert Rogers of the Rangers
- Biography from acidus.com
- The early campaign
- A Battle Fought on Snow Shoes
- The attack on St. Francis
- The Tarnished Tale of Robert Rogers
- Robert Rogers Estimate of the Fur and Peltry Trade in the District of Michilimackinac
- Oil portrait by contemporary artist Cecy Rose of Major Robert Rogers, "Wabo Madohondo - White Devil"
Rogers also wrote a little known play called "Ponteach: Or the Savages of America" and seemed to show his political admiration for Pontiac a great native leader at the time of his military height.
1731 births | 1795 deaths | British loyalists in the American Revolution | French and Indian War people
"Robert Rogers (soldier)"