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Post by sloanrodgers on Feb 7, 2012 23:32:15 GMT -5
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Post by sloanrodgers on Feb 15, 2012 19:22:53 GMT -5
I'm might be biased toward Benjamin Church since one of my ancestors (Capt. John Gorham) served and was wounded with him at the 1675 Great Swamp Fight against the Narraganesett Indians. I probably wasted my time honoring Church here with an Alamo shrine or with all the Robert Rogers worship.  |
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Post by tman56 on Feb 16, 2012 22:25:20 GMT -5
I don't know that anyone here "worships" Robert Rogers, although there are some who are fascinated by him, and maybe even admire him. And while he was not the "founder" of the ranging service (or tradition), he carried it further than any of his predecessors and many of his followers. Church, the Gorhams, Ogden, Israel "Old Put" Putnam, the Snowshoe Men, and the 17th century Virginia rangers all contributed to the ranger tradition. But Rogers, with his command of multiple companies in multiple theaters of operations, his authorship of the "Rules for the Ranging Service", his command of the Cadet Company and Native American companies, and his selection by Amherst to carry the King's Colors into the Pays d'en Haut to take command of the French posts there, earned his status as the premier ranger of the colonial period.
That being said, it is unfortunate that the contributions of his predecessors and contemporaries are not better known or celebrated.
Terry Todish
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Post by sloanrodgers on Feb 20, 2012 23:46:00 GMT -5
I don't know that anyone here "worships" Robert Rogers, although there are some who are fascinated by him, and maybe even admire him. And while he was not the "founder" of the ranging service (or tradition), he carried it further than any of his predecessors and many of his followers. Church, the Gorhams, Ogden, Israel "Old Put" Putnam, the Snowshoe Men, and the 17th century Virginia rangers all contributed to the ranger tradition. But Rogers, with his command of multiple companies in multiple theaters of operations, his authorship of the "Rules for the Ranging Service", his command of the Cadet Company and Native American companies, and his selection by Amherst to carry the King's Colors into the Pays d'en Haut to take command of the French posts there, earned his status as the premier ranger of the colonial period. That being said, it is unfortunate that the contributions of his predecessors and contemporaries are not better known or celebrated. Terry Todish Point taken, but I was really just trying to incite some conversation on the first famous American ranger in Church and playing around with a religious theme in my last sentence. I don't think anyone here worships Robert Rogers, but he is admired and honored elsewhere, usually to the exclusion of the rangers that came before him. The Winter 2012 Military History Quarterly has a nice article on Rogers and as usual, implies that he was the first ranger captain in America or father of special-ops forces. My John Gorham fought with Church at the Great Swamp Fight and later died of his wound. He wasn't one of his rangers. He was the captain of the 2nd Barnstable Company of Massachusetts Militia, but I agree with your last statement. I guess it's the way of the world that some people are elevated to great heroes or villians, while others are simply ignored to different degrees. |
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Post by Chuck T on Feb 21, 2012 10:32:13 GMT -5
I believe you can attribute a lot of the fame or at least more recognition of Robert Rogers to Roberts' "Northwest Passage". When I was at Benning I must confess I never heard the name Church mentioned. That was some time ago of course, and I suspect he is better known now, with the establishment of the Ranger Regiment. In those days the guys who were studied were Rogers, Mosby, and Marion. I believe I read somewhere that it was either Truscott or Darby that had recently read Northwest Passage and were inspired by the novel to choose the name Rangers for the first battalion, then forming in Ireland. It may have been in Darby's own book or the Spearheaders. Can't recall which one.
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Post by sloanrodgers on Feb 22, 2012 21:13:17 GMT -5
I believe you can attribute a lot of the fame or at least more recognition of Robert Rogers to Roberts' "Northwest Passage". When I was at Benning I must confess I never heard the name Church mentioned. That was some time ago of course, and I suspect he is better known now, with the establishment of the Ranger Regiment. In those days the guys who were studied were Rogers, Mosby, and Marion. I believe I read somewhere that it was either Truscott or Darby that had recently read Northwest Passage and were inspired by the novel to choose the name Rangers for the first battalion, then forming in Ireland. It may have been in Darby's own book or the Spearheaders. Can't recall which one. That's the popular myth on the modern U.S. Rangers' naming, but I don't know if it's well-documented. The film Northwest Passage with Spencer Tracy and Marcus Wellby was released in 1940, just before their formation and it seems possible. The New York Rangers also made the playoffs in 1940/41, so perhaps a winning hockey team was the U.S. Rangers' namesake. Burly men on skates with hatchet-like sticks, fighting on Rogers's old stomping grounds. Seems a little too coincidental. |
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Post by tman56 on Feb 22, 2012 22:54:05 GMT -5
A big part of Rogers' notoriety comes from media exposure - and a long time before "Northwest Passage", although the success of the novel and movie made him very well known in the 30's and 40's. But newspapers in America and Britain reported on his missions during the F&I War, and Rogers himself penned two 18th century bestsellers, his "Journals" and "A Concise Account of North America", and was credited (or blamed) for the unproduced stage drama "Ponteach, or the Savages of America". And although Rogers was largely discredited because of his becoming a Tory during the War of Independence, the unit's fame continued with the Caleb Stark's "Memoir of General Stark" and Parkman's works in the 19th century. Rogers wasn't a headline seeker, but he didn't avoid publicity either, and that certainly contributed to him being remembered when others were forgotten.
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Post by sloanrodgers on Feb 23, 2012 23:42:29 GMT -5
My whole point is that there were rangers a hudred years before Robert Rogers gained fame as a proficient Indian fighter and leader. He didn't create the guerilla tactics out of whole buckskin cloth, so he should at least share paternity of the ranger profession with Benjamin Church. The U.S. Rangers also were not created in a vacuum, where the person that borrowed the name could only hear Rogers' story. Ranger(s) was a common word among Americans prior to World War II with the Texas Rangers, New York Rangers and others using the term for tough driving men.
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Post by sloanrodgers on Mar 8, 2012 18:19:35 GMT -5
My appendics ruptued recently. I have a new respect for people prior to 1900 that survived gunshot and stab wounds in the torso. Thank God for modern surgery, Lister and Pastuer. I would have gone the way of Grandaddy Gorham otherwise.
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