Robert Rogers (1731-1795)

Sources

Frontier soldier

Background. The strange career of Robert Rogers is ample proof that some skills and attitudes that produce success in war, such as aggressive ambition, great daring, trickery, and contempt for rules, may be just the reverse of what is needed for success in peacetime. Born in Methuen, Massachusetts, Rogers grew up on the New Hampshire frontier, hunting, trapping, trading, and occasionally smuggling. In the summer of 1755 he joined the New Hampshire militia to escape trial as a counterfeiter. In August and September of that year he distinguished himself in the failed attempt by William Johnson to capture the French fort at Crown Point.

Ranger Leader. In March 1756 Gov. William Shirley of Massachusetts made Rogers a captain commanding a company of men charged with the task of raiding deep into French territory to attack outposts, disrupt communications, ambush supply trains, spread terror among the Indian tribes allied with the French and bring back information on French movements and plans. Operating from Fort William Henry in upstate New York, Rogers made himself thoroughly familiar with all the terrain around Crown Point and Fort Ticonderoga, coming close enough to draw plans of the fortifications and, in one instance, carry off a sentry who had challenged him. He was a natural leader, one whose woodcraft and smuggling experience were useful to his mission. Moving quickly, burdened by only the minimum of food and arms, using waterways by night and resting by day, his rangers were soon enough of a problem for the French to offer a reward to anyone who could kill or capture Rogers. In January 1757 his force of 68 rangers was ambushed near Fort Ticonderoga by nearly 200 French. Rogers was wounded and lost 20 men, but in return killed and wounded more than 37 French. Promoted to a major in 1758, Rogers commanded nine companies of rangers, and British officers were often sent to him to learn the art of wilderness warfare. In addition to leading raids deep into French territory, Rogers and his rangers scouted for several British regular armies, notably at the assault on Fort Ticonderoga in 1758, the advance on Crown Point in 1759, and the attack on Montreal in 1760. In September 1759 he raided into Canada to destroy the Abenaki stronghold at St. Francis, and he and his rangers suffered extraordinary hardships in escaping from large bodies of pursuers.

Disgrace and Obscurity. In 1761 Rogers married a clergyman’s daughter, Elizabeth Browne of Portsmouth, New Hampshire, but found he had no taste for everyday life in a peaceful, well-established community. Instead, he went south to command a military unit fighting against Cherokees in South Carolina, then commanded a company of New Yorkers in Pontiac’s rebellion. After a visit to England, where he published his journals and was acclaimed as a hero, he returned to North America to a command at the fur trading post at Fort Michilimackinac on Lake Michigan. His sloppy business practices and involvement in smuggling and other shady schemes led to his arrest and trial for treasonous dealings with the French. Though acquitted, he found it difficult to secure another post and returned to England where he wangled a commission as colonel of a British regiment but soon found himself imprisoned for debt. After his brother paid his creditors, he got out of prison and came back to North America, where he tried to sell his services to both the colonials and the British in 1775. George Washington had him arrested as a spy in 1776, but he escaped and raised a Loyalist regiment of rangers for the British. He lost his command to his brother because of his drunkenness and dishonesty. After his wife divorced him, he returned to London in 1780 and lived fifteen more years in poverty, dying in a boardinghouse.

Sources

John R. Cuneo, Robert Rogers of the Rangers (New York: Oxford University Press, 1959);

Robert Rogers, The Journals of Major Robert Rogers (New York: Corinth Books, 1961).