Rogers’s Rangers were frontier scouts who served with the British Army during the French and Indian War (1754-1763). Led by Captain Robert Rogers, they scouted and conducted raids on enemy positions.
The Rangers were formally commissioned by Major General William Shirley in 1756 to help the British Army fight in the American wilderness. At first, they consisted of a group of about 60 men under Rogers’s command. By mid-1758, Rogers had been promoted to major and given command of nine companies. His command included about 600 men. Most of the Rangers were farmers from New England frontier towns. Rogers taught them to move quietly through the woods and to fight under a variety of conditions.
The Rangers made many long-distance patrols and raids. The most notorious was a surprise attack on a Canadian Indian village in October 1759. Rogers and his Rangers burned the village and killed many of the villagers, including women and children.
