Robert Rogers

by Jennifer Quasha

Book Overview

The life story of Major Robert Rogers, the New England frontiersman who recruited companies of colonial soldiers, known as Rogers' Rangers, to fight for the British in the French and Indian War, is a compelling mix of military intrigue and national identity. This feisty major codified colonial military strategies into a document, known as Standing Orders, and put these principles to practice in many battles, campaigns, and scouting.

• Format: Library Binding
• Language: English
• ISBN: 0823957314
• ISBN13: 9780823957316
• Release Date: August 2001
• Publisher: PowerKids Press
• Length: 112 Pages
• Weight: 1.08 lbs.
• Dimensions: 0.5" x 7.1" x 9.6"
• Age Range: 9 to 13 years
• Grade Range: Grades 4 to 8

Customer Reviews

The life of Robert Rogers of "Rogers' Rules for Ranging"

Despite the success of Michael Mann's remake of "The Last of the Mohicans," the French and Indian War has continued to be one of the American wars that people tend to forget about. This is probably because the war, which began anywhere in between 1660 and 1689 but ended in 1763, was fought before there was a United States of America. One notable effort against the tide of indifference with regards to that particular part of American history is Jennifer Quasha's juvenile biography of Robert Rogers for the Library of American Lives and Times series. "Robert Rogers: Rogers' Rangers and the French and Indian War" indicates that this is the story of a military leader, but young readers will probably be surprised to learn that Rogers institutionalized many frontier-style practices of warfare that became the model for the activities of later ranger groups. Having served briefly as scout for the British in King George's War, Rogers formed the group that would become known as Rogers' Rangers in 1756, a 600-man group of frontiersmen clad in green, personally recruited by Rogers. While Quasha makes it clear Rogers was not the originator of many of the fighting techniques he ended up popularizing, he did set them down, and the back of this volume includes the 29 points making up "Rogers' Rules for Ranging," first written down in 1757 (e.g., #4, "Some time before you come to the place you would reconnoiter, make a stand and send one or two men in whom you can confide, to look out the best ground for making your observations"). Young readers will learn how Rogers insisted on giving his soldiers intensive training, including exposing them to live fire exercises, so that he had a highly mobile force that could live off the land during missions and campaigns. Quasha tells how Rogers was born in a frontier town in Massachusetts and grew up learning how to fight in the wildernesses of North America like the Native Americans did. After covering the formation of Rogers' Rangers, the book looks at the major engagements and campaigns during the French and Indian War that they participated in, such as the Battle on Showshoes, the Big Push North, the attack on St. Francis, and taking the fight to the French in Canada. Rogers was also something of an exploring, trying to discover the Northwest Passage after the war was over. Young readers will understand exactly why Rogers has the reputation he does as a military leaders. What will surprise them, is that while Rogers was born in America he never became an American: because George Washington refused his services during the Revolution, Rogers found for the British, and ended up dying in London after the American Revolution was over. This is rather ironic given that the style of fighting that he championed is considered to be uniquely American, derived from the skilled woodsmen that were already here, and standing in start contrast to the British devotion to marching in straight lines while wearing bright red coats. T