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Hailed as the father of today’s elite special forces, Robert Rogers was not only a wilderness warrior but North America’s first noteworthy playwright and authentic celebrity. In a riveting biography, John F. Ross reconstructs the extraordinary achievements of this fearless and inspiring leader whose exploits in the early New England wilderness read like those of an action hero and whose innovative principles of unconventional warfare are still used today.
They were a group of handpicked soldiers chosen for their backwoods savvy, courage, and endurance. Led by a young captain whose daring made him a hero on two continents, Rogers’s Rangers earned a deadly fame among their most formidable French and Indian enemies for their ability to appear anywhere at any time, burst out of the forest with overwhelming force, and vanish just as quickly. This swift, elusive, intelligence-gathering strike force was the brainchild of Robert Rogers, a uniquely American kind of war maker capable of motivating a new breed of warrior.
The child of marginalized Scots-Irish immigrants, Robert Rogers learned to survive in New England’s dark and deadly forests, grasping, as did few others, that a new world required new forms of warfare. Marrying European technology to the stealth and adaptability he observed in native warriors, Rogers trained and led an unorthodox unit of green provincials, raw woodsmen, farmers, and Indian scouts on “impossible” missions that are still the stuff of soldiers’ legend. Covering heartbreaking distances behind enemy lines, they traversed the wilderness in whaleboats and snowshoes, slept without fire or sufficient food in below-freezing temperatures, and endured hardships that would destroy ordinary men.
With their novel tactics and fierce esprit de corps, the Rangers laid the groundwork for the colonial strategy later used in the War of Independence. Never have the stakes of a continent hung in the hands of so few men. Rogers would eventually write two seminal books whose vision of a unified continent would influence Thomas Jefferson and inspire the Lewis and Clark expedition.
In War on the Run, John F. Ross vividly re-creates Rogers’s life and his spectacular battles, having traveled over much of Rogers’s campaign country. He presents with breathtaking immediacy and painstaking accuracy a man and an era whose enormous influence on America has been too little appreciated.
They were a group of handpicked soldiers chosen for their backwoods savvy, courage, and endurance. Led by a young captain whose daring made him a hero on two continents, Rogers’s Rangers earned a deadly fame among their most formidable French and Indian enemies for their ability to appear anywhere at any time, burst out of the forest with overwhelming force, and vanish just as quickly. This swift, elusive, intelligence-gathering strike force was the brainchild of Robert Rogers, a uniquely American kind of war maker capable of motivating a new breed of warrior.
The child of marginalized Scots-Irish immigrants, Robert Rogers learned to survive in New England’s dark and deadly forests, grasping, as did few others, that a new world required new forms of warfare. Marrying European technology to the stealth and adaptability he observed in native warriors, Rogers trained and led an unorthodox unit of green provincials, raw woodsmen, farmers, and Indian scouts on “impossible” missions that are still the stuff of soldiers’ legend. Covering heartbreaking distances behind enemy lines, they traversed the wilderness in whaleboats and snowshoes, slept without fire or sufficient food in below-freezing temperatures, and endured hardships that would destroy ordinary men.
With their novel tactics and fierce esprit de corps, the Rangers laid the groundwork for the colonial strategy later used in the War of Independence. Never have the stakes of a continent hung in the hands of so few men. Rogers would eventually write two seminal books whose vision of a unified continent would influence Thomas Jefferson and inspire the Lewis and Clark expedition.
In War on the Run, John F. Ross vividly re-creates Rogers’s life and his spectacular battles, having traveled over much of Rogers’s campaign country. He presents with breathtaking immediacy and painstaking accuracy a man and an era whose enormous influence on America has been too little appreciated.
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Most Helpful Customer Reviews
3 of 3 people found the following review helpful
Format:Hardcover
Contrary to the sentiments expressed by the other reviewer (who not only didn't finish the book, but who also didn't seem to know what he was reading), this is a first rate history of a little known conflict. The French Indian War is today largely forgotten. Yet it was a war on which the entire future of the world literally depended. If the French win this war, North America is a completely different place today; America is a completely different place today. At the time the war began, the French controlled all of what is today Canada and most of the interior of the United States. The English controlled a narrow strip along the eastern seaboard of the United States. The war could not have gone more badly for the English at the outset. When war was declared, the French unleashed a veritable TORRENT of savagery upon the settlers of what is today Massachusetts, New Hampshire, Vermont and upper state New York.
A bounty was placed on the scalps of all English settlers -- and the Indians responded with alacrity. They came from literally all over Canada...apparently even Sioux showed up -- drawn by the blood bounty. Men, women and children were butchered, scalped, tortured, taken prisoner. At first the English were completely unprepared. They had few troops to put into the field, and those that they did were torn to pieces by the incredibly skilled guerrilla-style fighting of the French and their Indian allies. There is, by the way, a terrific movie based on this war, "Last of the Mohicans" starring Daniel Day Lewis - very faithful to the truth (unlike the bizarre fictional account of Roger's life, "The Northwest Passage"). English regulars had no clue how to fight such an enemy. Enter Robert Rogers and his irregular "provincial" troops. Rogers and his men did not get off to a particularly good start either; but at least they understood what they were up against and though they made many mistakes...they learned from them. They took the war to the French and Indians in a way the English regular troops could not. And it wasn't pretty. They fought like the Indians; which meant they used tomahawks and scalping knives. And they were just as merciless. Rogers career culminated in what has come to be considered one of the greatest and most difficult guerilla raids in recorded history - the raid on the Abenaki town of St. Francis. Ranging hundreds of miles behind enemy lines, his men not only arrived and executed their mission, but he managed to extricate them; pursued by every Indian within a two hundred miles. It was an extraordinary, epic undertaking. Rogers became famous - in his day more famous that Franklin and George Washington. He was cocky and a risk taker; he had an eye for publicity. He deliberately taunted his enemy; often leaving mocking notes which he requested be delivered to Montcalm (and they were!!). The Indians for their part were consumed by a desire to kill him (or rather torture him to death); he was revered and despised. More than one Ranger was mistaken by the Mohawks for Rogers - and their fate was horrific. They called him "Wobomagonda"; the White Devil -- though his tactics were hardly any more savage than theirs.
The English commanders very quickly came to rely upon these irregular troops for scouting missions and lightning guerilla raids into enemy territory. Indeed, Rogers is today almost worshiped by the US Army Rangers - as their founder. His "Rules of Ranging" are still in use today in an albeit modified form. You should look them up on line. Here's an example:
"14. If you are obliged to receive the enemy's fire, fall, or squat down, till it is over; then rise and discharge at them. If their main body is equal to yours, extend yourselves occasionally; but if superior, be careful to support and strengthen your flanking parties, to make them equal to theirs, that if possible you may repulse them to their main body, in which case push upon them with the greatest resolution with equal force in each flank and in the center, observing to keep at a due distance from each other, and advance from tree to tree, with one half of the party before the other ten or twelve yards. If the enemy push upon you, let your front fire and fall down, and then let your rear advance thro' them and do the like, by which time those who before were in front will be ready to discharge again, and repeat the same alternately, as occasion shall require; by this means you will keep up such a constant fire, that the enemy will not be able easily to break your order, or gain your ground."
We may think this is common sense. But for the raw recruit, or the English regular stumbling off the boat in Connecticut, following rules like these could save your life.
This book will make all of this come alive for you. You will learn much about the appalling winters these men lived and fought through. You will learn about how their families carved their existence out of an almost completely foreign and hostile environment. You will learn how their children were expected to be contributing members of the family (hunting, fishing and trapping) by the time they were 7 or 8. I think you can not fail but come to respect them. A few short years after the French and Indian War, America was convulsed again by the Revolutionary War. Many of Roger's Rangers were caught up in that conflict as well. Many of them sided with the English - and when they lost, they became refugees. Many trekked hundreds of miles up the St Lawrence River where they eventually settled and started all over again -- this time, in effect, founding Canada. My own forefathers were part of that trek. These men and women were made of steel. They never gave up and they never surrendered to fate or circumstances.
Those of us who live today in North America owe them much.
The Last Of The Mohicans [1992] [DVD]
A True Ranger: The Life and Many Wars of Major Robert Rogers
White Devil: An epic story of revenge from the savage war that inspired The Last of the Mohicans: The Epic Story of Revenge and Savage Warfare That ... the Mohicans" (Cassell Military Paperbacks)
A bounty was placed on the scalps of all English settlers -- and the Indians responded with alacrity. They came from literally all over Canada...apparently even Sioux showed up -- drawn by the blood bounty. Men, women and children were butchered, scalped, tortured, taken prisoner. At first the English were completely unprepared. They had few troops to put into the field, and those that they did were torn to pieces by the incredibly skilled guerrilla-style fighting of the French and their Indian allies. There is, by the way, a terrific movie based on this war, "Last of the Mohicans" starring Daniel Day Lewis - very faithful to the truth (unlike the bizarre fictional account of Roger's life, "The Northwest Passage"). English regulars had no clue how to fight such an enemy. Enter Robert Rogers and his irregular "provincial" troops. Rogers and his men did not get off to a particularly good start either; but at least they understood what they were up against and though they made many mistakes...they learned from them. They took the war to the French and Indians in a way the English regular troops could not. And it wasn't pretty. They fought like the Indians; which meant they used tomahawks and scalping knives. And they were just as merciless. Rogers career culminated in what has come to be considered one of the greatest and most difficult guerilla raids in recorded history - the raid on the Abenaki town of St. Francis. Ranging hundreds of miles behind enemy lines, his men not only arrived and executed their mission, but he managed to extricate them; pursued by every Indian within a two hundred miles. It was an extraordinary, epic undertaking. Rogers became famous - in his day more famous that Franklin and George Washington. He was cocky and a risk taker; he had an eye for publicity. He deliberately taunted his enemy; often leaving mocking notes which he requested be delivered to Montcalm (and they were!!). The Indians for their part were consumed by a desire to kill him (or rather torture him to death); he was revered and despised. More than one Ranger was mistaken by the Mohawks for Rogers - and their fate was horrific. They called him "Wobomagonda"; the White Devil -- though his tactics were hardly any more savage than theirs.
The English commanders very quickly came to rely upon these irregular troops for scouting missions and lightning guerilla raids into enemy territory. Indeed, Rogers is today almost worshiped by the US Army Rangers - as their founder. His "Rules of Ranging" are still in use today in an albeit modified form. You should look them up on line. Here's an example:
"14. If you are obliged to receive the enemy's fire, fall, or squat down, till it is over; then rise and discharge at them. If their main body is equal to yours, extend yourselves occasionally; but if superior, be careful to support and strengthen your flanking parties, to make them equal to theirs, that if possible you may repulse them to their main body, in which case push upon them with the greatest resolution with equal force in each flank and in the center, observing to keep at a due distance from each other, and advance from tree to tree, with one half of the party before the other ten or twelve yards. If the enemy push upon you, let your front fire and fall down, and then let your rear advance thro' them and do the like, by which time those who before were in front will be ready to discharge again, and repeat the same alternately, as occasion shall require; by this means you will keep up such a constant fire, that the enemy will not be able easily to break your order, or gain your ground."
We may think this is common sense. But for the raw recruit, or the English regular stumbling off the boat in Connecticut, following rules like these could save your life.
This book will make all of this come alive for you. You will learn much about the appalling winters these men lived and fought through. You will learn about how their families carved their existence out of an almost completely foreign and hostile environment. You will learn how their children were expected to be contributing members of the family (hunting, fishing and trapping) by the time they were 7 or 8. I think you can not fail but come to respect them. A few short years after the French and Indian War, America was convulsed again by the Revolutionary War. Many of Roger's Rangers were caught up in that conflict as well. Many of them sided with the English - and when they lost, they became refugees. Many trekked hundreds of miles up the St Lawrence River where they eventually settled and started all over again -- this time, in effect, founding Canada. My own forefathers were part of that trek. These men and women were made of steel. They never gave up and they never surrendered to fate or circumstances.
Those of us who live today in North America owe them much.
The Last Of The Mohicans [1992] [DVD]
A True Ranger: The Life and Many Wars of Major Robert Rogers
White Devil: An epic story of revenge from the savage war that inspired The Last of the Mohicans: The Epic Story of Revenge and Savage Warfare That ... the Mohicans" (Cassell Military Paperbacks)
3 of 8 people found the following review helpful
Format:Hardcover
Before you read on you should probably know that I have not finished this book, the end might be fantastic, but I may never find out as i lost intrest before the half way point.
I bought this book after doing a little internet research about Robert Rogers and becoming enchanted, like so many others, by the man who used back-woods skills to create an elite fighting force.
Although this book is crammed with facts about how Rogers rose from living in the wilderness with his family to being the leader of his elite group of men, I must admit that I was searching for of a historical fiction style book than just a chronological list of facts about the mans life. The book does read, in parts, like a story, but it is often stopped whilst the author goes on to describe things which I have little interest in, although I appreciate that others do.
All said and done I would recommend this book to anyone who wanted to enhance their knowledge of both the man Robert Rogers, and the 7 years war. But not to someone who is looking for historical fiction based around the man.
I bought this book after doing a little internet research about Robert Rogers and becoming enchanted, like so many others, by the man who used back-woods skills to create an elite fighting force.
Although this book is crammed with facts about how Rogers rose from living in the wilderness with his family to being the leader of his elite group of men, I must admit that I was searching for of a historical fiction style book than just a chronological list of facts about the mans life. The book does read, in parts, like a story, but it is often stopped whilst the author goes on to describe things which I have little interest in, although I appreciate that others do.
All said and done I would recommend this book to anyone who wanted to enhance their knowledge of both the man Robert Rogers, and the 7 years war. But not to someone who is looking for historical fiction based around the man.
Most Helpful Customer Reviews on Amazon.com (beta)
Amazon.com:
42 reviews
66 of 70 people found the following review helpful
A First-Class Biography
30 May 2009
Format:Hardcover
In my own book -- and I apologize for the self-serving plug, but it's pertinent -- Washington's Spies: The Story of America's First Spy Ring, I devoted part of a chapter to Robert Rogers, one of the most remarkable killing gentlemen of Colonial (and Revolutionary) America. I always, however, wanted to know more about this bewitching, wild creature, and so I'm glad that John Ross has undertaken the burden of excavating his life and times from the murk of the past.
Good, narrative-driven history-writing is tricky to pull off, but, having blazed through the book, I think Ross has done a sterling job introducing Rogers to a modern audience. Ross is particularly skilled at evoking the frightening nature of the wilderness and the unique exigencies of frontier fighting. The vast, unexplored backcountry was densely thicketed by forests, rumpled by towering mountain ranges, and watered by unbridgeable rivers -- and Rogers was master of it all. Small wonder his enemies (and friends) were terrified of him; small wonder that they (in Ross's words) "could not get their imagination around the man, this master of nature and humans who could lead unimpressionable New Englanders to the edge of death over and over."
Now, while I had once foolishly assumed that Rogers was merely a rough-hewn, if cunning, ranger with an eye for the main chance, I'm happy to admit that War on the Run set me straight. Rogers, in truth, was an immensely complex individual, being both the most famed (or notorious) frontiersman in the world -- a kind of Davy Crockett/Daniel Boone twofer -- as well as a literate and entertaining American who, through his books and a play, illuminated to his fellow colonists the amazing potential of what would become their own country come 1783.
Production-wise, the photos have been chosen with great care, and his footnotes (or rather, endnotes) are rock solid. A useful list of "Dramatis Personae" -- to help us keep track of the dozens of colorful characters stalking the early frontier -- and no fewer than 14 maps make War on the Run a worthwhile purchase. This is a very fine biography of one of America's early Greats, and it's certainly one of the most interesting books I've read all year.
Recommended for anyone interested in early America and military history (especially insurgency, Special Forces, and the evolution of tactics).
[...]
Good, narrative-driven history-writing is tricky to pull off, but, having blazed through the book, I think Ross has done a sterling job introducing Rogers to a modern audience. Ross is particularly skilled at evoking the frightening nature of the wilderness and the unique exigencies of frontier fighting. The vast, unexplored backcountry was densely thicketed by forests, rumpled by towering mountain ranges, and watered by unbridgeable rivers -- and Rogers was master of it all. Small wonder his enemies (and friends) were terrified of him; small wonder that they (in Ross's words) "could not get their imagination around the man, this master of nature and humans who could lead unimpressionable New Englanders to the edge of death over and over."
Now, while I had once foolishly assumed that Rogers was merely a rough-hewn, if cunning, ranger with an eye for the main chance, I'm happy to admit that War on the Run set me straight. Rogers, in truth, was an immensely complex individual, being both the most famed (or notorious) frontiersman in the world -- a kind of Davy Crockett/Daniel Boone twofer -- as well as a literate and entertaining American who, through his books and a play, illuminated to his fellow colonists the amazing potential of what would become their own country come 1783.
Production-wise, the photos have been chosen with great care, and his footnotes (or rather, endnotes) are rock solid. A useful list of "Dramatis Personae" -- to help us keep track of the dozens of colorful characters stalking the early frontier -- and no fewer than 14 maps make War on the Run a worthwhile purchase. This is a very fine biography of one of America's early Greats, and it's certainly one of the most interesting books I've read all year.
Recommended for anyone interested in early America and military history (especially insurgency, Special Forces, and the evolution of tactics).
[...]
27 of 29 people found the following review helpful
Rogers Rocks, then Rogers Slides
27 Oct 2009
Format:Hardcover|Amazon Verified Purchase
I am acquainted with Lake George, and the terrain around Fort Ticonderoga. Robert Rogers is a familiar name, but I knew precious little about the rest of his career. This fascinating tale, covering his early life struggles in New Hampshire, to his continental Lewis & Clark-like ambitions, to his eventual post-Revolutionary War demise in London, provides a comprehensive, unabashedly adoring review of the father of the US Army Rangers. I was particularly impressed with the author's descriptions of Rogers' mid-winter sorties up and down a hazardous Lake George. Ross's topographical description of the Battle on Snowshoes is spot on. (I have lost many golf balls on the fourth hole precisely where the conflict hit its full stride.) Ross puts the reader into a true three-dimensional realm whereby we vividly feel the terrain, the weather, and the battle raging around us. The savagery of the times comes through from battles at Fort William Henry, Fort Ticonderoga and Fort Crown Point to the impressive raid on St. Francois and subsequent weeks of staggering retreat. Dismemberment, scalping, cannibalism, and other grotesquery shocks the modern reader, but interestingly proved valuable content for a nascent newspaper industry in colonial America. Indeed, Rogers' star was fully ascendant during the French & Indian wars, and during the global seven years war between Great Britain and France, Ross makes the case that no other soldier did more to tip the outcome in favor of the English. Through backwoods cunning, outdoors skill, Yankee daring, and true American enterprise, Robert Rogers rose from country bumpkin to the rank of British officer, a feat accomplished by no other, even George Washington.
He is a world-class celebrity, a tall six-foot giant who successfully manages the ever-perilous issues brought by North American Native Indians. He travels to London, where he flouts his accomplishments, writing memoirs, a play and attracting investors to whom he pitches his next great plan - seeking the Northwest Passage.
As quickly as his star rises, it fades away even faster with changing geo-political winds. We follow Rogers' downward spiral into indebtedness, prison, failing marriage, drunkenness and debauchery. In the end, the decisive Ranger leader fails to decide a proper course during the American Revolution. He gets caught up in his own financial troubles, and he sides with the Crown...an unfortunate gambit. Nevertheless, we are amazed how he finds himself at the center of all that is important - he captures famed American spy Nathan Hale, turning him over to his British masters.
Ross puts his man on a pretty high pedestal. But in a balanced recounting of his tale, he depicts the full fall of this colonial hero. The research is impeccable, and the appendix includes fascinating letters from George Washington about Rogers, Rogers' own 28 Rules of Rangering, and never-before-seen maps of the raid on St. Francois. After returning the library's copy, I bought one for myself, and one for my father.
He is a world-class celebrity, a tall six-foot giant who successfully manages the ever-perilous issues brought by North American Native Indians. He travels to London, where he flouts his accomplishments, writing memoirs, a play and attracting investors to whom he pitches his next great plan - seeking the Northwest Passage.
As quickly as his star rises, it fades away even faster with changing geo-political winds. We follow Rogers' downward spiral into indebtedness, prison, failing marriage, drunkenness and debauchery. In the end, the decisive Ranger leader fails to decide a proper course during the American Revolution. He gets caught up in his own financial troubles, and he sides with the Crown...an unfortunate gambit. Nevertheless, we are amazed how he finds himself at the center of all that is important - he captures famed American spy Nathan Hale, turning him over to his British masters.
Ross puts his man on a pretty high pedestal. But in a balanced recounting of his tale, he depicts the full fall of this colonial hero. The research is impeccable, and the appendix includes fascinating letters from George Washington about Rogers, Rogers' own 28 Rules of Rangering, and never-before-seen maps of the raid on St. Francois. After returning the library's copy, I bought one for myself, and one for my father.
28 of 32 people found the following review helpful
Highly Recommended
14 Jun 2009
Format:Hardcover
This is a well researched and vividly written book about one of the most colorful and complex characters in colonial America. I highly recommend it. The author, apparently an outdoorsman as well as an historian, brings to bear insights on Rogers's accomplishments and presents a vastly entertaining and enlightening read in the tradition of Francis Parkman. This formative period of American history deserves much more attention, and Mr. Ross has done it justice with a book that every father should like to receive this Father's Day-- or any day.
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