The French and Indian War

The French and Indian War Robert Rogers and the New British Tactics

After the Battle of Monongahela • Although Braddock had been aware of the possibilities of ambush and had taken what he thought were necessary precautions, when the ambush came he had little idea how to cope with Indian tactics in the forest • As he lay dying he reportedly said, “Another time we shall know better how to deal with them.” • The British did eventually make adjustments and Sir John Fortescue wrote, “Over the bones of Braddock, the British advanced again to the conquest of Canada.”

After the Battle of Monongahela • The British learned from Monongahela that tactics and formations had to be adapted to the terrain and the nature of the enemy • Regulars would have to learn to travel faster and lighter and take advantage of cover, concealment, and surprise • The British also realized the value in recruiting colonial troops and Indian allies that were more familiar with this environment (something the French had been doing for some time) • As a result of these adjustments, never again in the French and Indian War was a substantial body of British Regulars overcome by an inferior guerrilla force

After the Battle of Monongahela • The British continued to use conventional European tactics when appropriate such the classical siege warfare used to reduce the French fortress at Louisbourg in 1758 or the open field fighting at Quebec in 1759 • Elsewhere, however, light infantry, trained as scouts and skirmishers, became a permanent part of the British Army organization

After the Battle of Monongahela • When operating in the forests, light infantry troops who green or brown clothes rather than the traditional red coat of the British soldier • Sometimes the even shaved their heads and painted their skin like the Indians did • Special companies of skilled woodsmen were formed • One of these was Major Robert Rogers’s Rangers One artist’s interpretation of Roberts

Robert Rogers • Born in 1731 and raised on the New Hampshire frontier • Roughhewn and self-reliant • The quintessential “backwoods” American • Enlisted in a militia company of rangers as a teenager and helped try to protect the outlying New Hampshire settlements from French and Indian raids during King George’s War (1744-1748) • His family suffered tremendously and the family farm was torched by Indian raiders • King George’s War was Rogers’s training ground for partisan warfare

Robert Rogers • After King George’s War, Rogers received a comfortable inheritance when his father was killed in a hunting accident • Nonetheless, Rogers turned to crime and had several run-ins with the law, including a counterfeiting scheme • On the eve of what would become the French and Indian War, Rogers joined the militia and his commanding officers dismissed all criminal charges against him

Robert Rogers • The French and Indian War created unimagined opportunities for Rogers who was just 23 years old • He was a natural leader • He had a commanding presence and booming voice • 6 foot 1 inch and 200 pounds and “well known in all trials of strength” • He was given command of about 35 rangers An artist’s interpretation of Rogers

Robert Rogers • The British realized after Monongahela that conventional tactics were not going to work • Major General William Johnson was preparing an attack on Montreal and he selected Rogers’s company to serve as his scouts • Johnson’s campaign made little progress against French and Indian resistance, but a host of British commanders recognized Rogers’s talents and began competing for his services

Robert Rogers • Rogers emerged as the premier ranger leader and John Campbell, earl of Loudoun and Governor General of Virginia, directed him to write a summary of his tactics • The result was Rogers’s “Standing Orders” which became the basis of a training program for British Regulars in North America • It is also still a pillar of US Army Ranger training

Rogers’s Standing Orders (Popularized Version) • Don’t forget nothing. • Have your musket clean as a whistle, hatchet scoured, sixty rounds powder and ball, and be ready to march at a minute's warning. • When you’re on the march, act the way you would if you was sneaking up on a deer. See the enemy first. • Tell the truth about what you see and what you do. There is an army depending on us for correct information. You can lie all you please when you tell other folks about the Rangers, but don’t never lie to a Ranger or officer. • Don’t never take a chance you don’t have to. • When we’re on the march we march single file, far enough apart so one shot can’t go through two men.

Rogers’s Standing Orders (Popularized Version) • If we strike swamps, or soft ground, we spread out abreast, so it’s hard to track us. • When we march, we keep moving till dark, so as to give the enemy the least possible chance at us. • When we camp, half the party stays awake while the other half sleeps. • If we take prisoners, we keep ‘em separate till we have had time to examine them, so they can't cook up a story between ‘em. • Don't ever march home the same way. Take a different route so you won't be ambushed. • No matter whether we travel in big parties or little ones, each party has to keep a scout 20 yards ahead, 20 yards on each flank, and 20 yards in the rear so the main body can't be surprised and wiped out. • Every night you’ll be told where to meet if surrounded by a superior force.

Rogers’s Standing Orders (Popularized Version) • Don’t sit down to eat without posting sentries. • Don’t sleep beyond dawn. Dawn’s when the French and Indians attack. • Don’t cross a river by a regular ford. • If somebody’s trailing you, make a circle, come back onto your own tracks, and ambush the folks that aim to ambush you. • Don’t stand up when the enemy’s coming against you. Kneel down, lie down, hide behind a tree. • Let the enemy come till he’s almost close enough to touch, then let him have it and jump out and finish him up with your hatchet.

Robert Rogers • In 1758, Rogers was made a major and given command of all the army’s American rangers and scouts • In October 1759, Jeffrey Amherst, commander-in-chief of the British forces in North America, picked Rogers to conduct a deep raid against the Abenaki village of St. Francis St. Francis was near the present day Odanak

St. Francis Raid • Wampanoag and Narragansett Indians were dispersed after defeat in King Philip’s War • Some sought refuge with the Abenakis or the “People of the Dawnland” • During King William’s War, the Abenakis allied with Canada and conducted devastating raids into New England • In Queen Anne’s War, the Abenakis raided Maine Abenaki Indians

St. Francis Raid • Even after the Anglo-French Treaty of 1713, the Abenakis continued to clash with the British • The typical Abenaki tactic was to divide into bands of 30 or 40 and simultaneously attack villages throughout the territory • They would attack early in the morning, killing many, and seizing booty • Such raids led Massachusetts Lieutenant Governor Samuel Shute to denounce the Abenakis as rebels and place a bounty on them

St. Francis Raid • Although fearsome on the attack, the Abenakis were notoriously lack in providing for their own security • The British conducted a devastating raid on the Abenakis at Rasles’s mission at Norridgewock, Maine in 1724, causing many to relocate to St. Francis • St. Francis was a polygot community of several Indian peoples Death of Father Sebastian Rasle

St. Francis Raid • The British had a numerical advantage with some million and a half colonists • However, the colonies were far from united and their militias were amateurish • New France had just 70,000 widely scattered inhabitants • However it was a centralized regime united under a single governor and dominated by a military ethos

St. Francis Raid • On September 3, 1759, Rogers received orders from Jeffrey Amherst to take his force of 200 men and “proceed to Misiquery Bay, from whence you will march and attack the enemy’s settlements on the south side of the river St. Lawrence, in such a manner as you shall judge most effectual to disgrace the enemy, and for the success and honour of his Majesty’s arms.” • Amherst reminded Rogers of the “infamous cruelties” committed “by the enemy’s Indian scoundrels” against British subjects and ordered him to “take your revenge” • Amherst specifically ordered though that “no women or children [be] killed or hurt”

St. Francis Raid • Rogers left that night from Crown Point with his men and supplies loaded into 17 whaleboats • Leaving out night adhered to No. 24 of Robert’s maxims • Security was paramount • Only Amherst and Rogers knew of the raid’s destination • Still the movement attracted attention • Amherst countered these leaks by spreading misinformation that Rogers was heading elsewhere

St. Francis Raid • Rogers men slipped past four French vessels patrolling Lake Champlain • During daylight, he hide his men and boats in the marshes along Lake Champlain’s eastern banks • Then he resumed movement at night • While Rogers avoided detection by the French, a series of accidents reduced his force by 41 rangers • On September 23, the tenth day of the operation, Rogers’s force reached Missisquoi Bay Missisquoi Bay

St. Francis Raid • Amherst had originally intended Rogers’s raid to support an attack by Brigadier General Thomas Gage on La Galette • Gage lost his nerve and called off his attack, making the St. Francis operation all the more important Thomas Gage will become Rogers’s nemesis after the war

St. Francis Raid • In the three Anglo-French conflicts fought between 1689 and 1748, the Abenakis were among the most capable and reliable of France’s Indian allies • The Abenaki considered themselves independent allies of the French, rather than subject peoples • This created a certain tension, but for the French, the Indians were indispensable allies • Of all the Abenakis, the British considered the ones from St Francis the most vilified

St. Francis Raid • Rogers’s men concealed the boats so they could be used for the return trip and left two Indians to guard them • The French were actively patrolling the Missisquoi Bay area and the very night Rogers landed and French scout found a British oar that confirmed an enemy presence • The French sent a larger patrol into the area the next day and discovered Rogers’s cache of whaleboats • The French knew from the number of boats a big force was in the area and they prepared for an attack

St. Francis Raid • St Francis was 75 direct miles northeast of Missisquoi Bay, but the route Rogers would have to take was much longer • Along the way the two Indians left to guard the boats caught up with Rogers and gave him the bad news • Rogers recalled, “This unlucky circumstance (it may well be supposed) put us into some consternation.”

St. Francis Raid • Rather than abandoning the mission, Rogers sent Lieutenant Andrew McMullen back to Crown Point to arrange for a resupply to be delivered to the junction of the Connecticut and Ammonoosuc Rivers • Rogers kept moving through terrain so rugged that the French pursuit finally gave up • On October 3, Rogers finally reached the St. Francis River From “Wilderness Ordeal,” by John Foss AmericanHeritage.com

St. Francis Raid • Rogers men were closer to the village than they knew • They started chopping down trees to make rafts to cross the river • Indians heard the noise but ignored it • In spite of their reputation for conducting fierce raids, the Abenaki were notoriously lackadaisical about their own security

St. Francis Raid • By this time Rogers’s force had been attritted to less than 150 hungry and exhausted men • His men crossed the river and on the night of October 3, Rogers reconned the village and found no organized defenses • He placed his best shooters where they could stop any escape and attacked at about 5 a.m. on October 4

St. Francis Raid • When Rogers attacked most of the Abenaki were asleep • Rogers men killed many while they were still asleep • Contrary to Amherst’s orders, many women and children were killed • After sunrise Rogers ordered the village burned

St. Francis Raid • Rogers learned from interrogations of the villagers that a large French force was nearby • His only reasonable retreat route was a march of some 200 miles to Fort No. 4 • After covering about 70 miles in eight days, Rogers was out of food • He decided to break up his company into parties of 10 to 20 men and have them continue on in small groups so they could forage more effectively

St. Francis Raid • The French pursuit was hamstrung because the commander, not knowing Rogers had been warned, elected to try to ambush Rogers where his boats had been found • Still some of the rangers were captured • Others reported resorted to cannibalism to survive • After nine days the party led by Rogers reached the appointed rendezvous at the Connecticut and Ammonoosuc Rivers only to find that Stevens had returned to Crown Point when Rogers failed to show

St. Francis Raid • Rogers then took three men and headed for Crown Point • He left everyone else at the rendezvous site telling them he would return with supplies in ten days • He reached Fort No. 4 on October 31 and a group immediately headed to the rendezvous point with the promised supplies

St. Francis Raid • Ranger survivors trickled in • 63 rangers reached Fort No. 4 and another 17 made it to Crown Point • Ranger casualties • The French and Indians had found and killed 18 rangers • About 10 rangers were missing and presumed killed • About 20 had died of starvation • All told, of the 142 rangers that attacked St. Francis, about one-third did not return • Some 200 Indian warriors were killed as well as many women and children

St. Francis Raid Impact • The significance of the St. Francis raid was more strategic than tactical • In a war where terror was a weapon, the balance had shifted • None of the Indian villages or French towns along the St. Lawrence could now feel secure against overland attacks • Rogers’s tactical victory had the strategic effect of unnerving the enemy • The French knew they were at a disadvantage in terms of troop strength and resources • They had offset these disadvantages by relying on speed and surprise • Rogers had beat the enemy at their own game • In the process he sent a message to all Indians allied with the French • The French couldn’t protect them and the British could come get them

Ultimate Lessons Learned for the Military • Both European and American tactics are useful and it is up to the commander to determine which to use when • The discipline and organization of Regulars was necessary to seize and hold objectives in order to achieve decisive results • However, the limited mobility of Regular troops, whatever their superiority in organization and tactics, made small bodies of troops familiar with the local environment valuable, even if they lacked traditional training and discipline

Ultimate Lessons Learned for the Military • The nature of the battlefield in North America limited the employment of some traditional military forces • Force sizes in America were about one-tenth the size they were on the European battlefields of the Seven Year’s War • The scarcity of roads limited mobility, reduced the size of forces that could be moved, slowed the rate of march, created the need to devote resources to building roads, and complicated logistics • Cavalry was hardly ever used • Artillery was practical only in fixed fortifications and when it could be transported by ship

Rogers Life After the War • St. Francis elevated Rogers to fame on both sides of the Atlantic • As an honor, Amherst selected Rogers to lead the Anglo-American force that accepted the surrender of the French forts in the Ohio Country at the end of the war • Rogers then travelled to South Carolina to fight in the Cherokee War, but hostilities ended before he could see any action

Northwest Passage • Once France surrendered, Rogers was ordered to take control of the line of French outposts that stretched from Detroit to Michilimackinac, at the base of Lake Superior • He made the trip with 200 rangers rowing 15 whaleboats up the St. Lawrence River to Lake Ontario • Lake ice prevented Rogers from reaching Michilimackinac on his first attempt, put he relieved Detroit and made contact with several important Indian chiefs, including Pontiac

Northwest Passage • Rogers was made commandant of the new British trading factory at Michilimackinac • He also began lobbying for funding to lead an expedition to find an overland “Northwest Passage” to the Pacific Ocean Spencer Tracy portrayed Rogers in the 1940 film “Northwest Passage” based on the Kenneth Roberts book

Northwest Passage • Such a waterway would allow Britain to challenge both Spain and Russia for the lucrative East Asian trade • Rogers claimed to have special knowledge gleaned from the Indians that a river named Ourigan provided such a route • He lobbied for a force of 228 men to conduct the expedition • Charles Townshend, Lord of the Admiralty, and John Campbell, agent for Georgia, supported Rogers

Northwest Passage • Rogers succeeded in gaining a rare audience with King George III and convinced him to authorize the expedition • Obtaining funding was a different matter, but when the Admiralty offered a substantial reward for discovery of the passage, Rogers decided to borrow money from interested traders to finance an attempt • He also used his post at Michilimackinac to formulate a long term Indian strategy to bring peace and trade to the region

Northwest Passage • Rogers ultimately dispatched Jonathan Carver on an expedition in 1766, but Carver ran out of supplies and was forced to return to Michilimackinac the next year • By then Rogers had run afoul of Thomas Gage who charged him with treason • Rogers was found not guilty by a court martial, but when Carver sought reimbursements for his expedition, they were denied on the grounds that Rogers had no authority to launch the expedition

Northwest Passage • Carver was understandably bitter • His Travels Through the Interior Parts of North America in the Years 1766, 1767, and 1768 was a popular work, but he still died in poverty • Rogers’s last years were also disappointing • He became an alcoholic • He could not regain his French and Indian War reputation as a ranger leader during the American Revolution • His one contribution to the effort was assisting in the capture of Nathan Hale • He died with none of his earlier glory and deep in debt

Sources • “Robert Rogers: Frontier Anglo-American,” John Grenier • American Military History, Maurice Matloff • War on the Run, John Ross • “Reading Abenaki Traditions and European Records of Rogers’ Raid,” Marge Bruchac available at http://www.vermontfolklifecenter.org/childrens-books/malians-song/additional_resources/rogers_raid_facts.pdf • “Rogers’ Rangers Inquiry” available at http://www.gemsvt.org/middle/grade8/socialstudies/rangers.htm

The French and Indian War