One of the key figures in the historically abhorrent but no less entertaining AMC series Turn, portrayed by Angus Macfadyen, was Robert Rogers, the famed irregular whose unit excelled in combat along the frontier during the French and Indian War. (laststandonzombieisland.com)

Robert Rogers’s legacy is one of contradiction and complexity—a Patriot-born Loyalist, a wilderness tactician, and a man whose actions helped shape the fate of one of America’s earliest heroes. His life remains a compelling chapter in the story of a nation divided and forged in conflict. (familysearch.org)

At age 14, he volunteered for a local militia and continued serving in militias until he formally volunteered for military service at the beginning of the Seven Years' War in 1755. (findagrave.com)

He moved with his family to a 2,190-acre wilderness farm near what is now Dunbarton. His father, according to legend, was shot by a neighbor who mistook him for a bear. (seacoastnh.com)

Rogers, instead, codified the "Ranging Rules" and successfully recruited and trained companies of frontiersmen who defended British-held portions of North America in the Hudson River area. Unlike the formal "redcoats", rangers wore green leather uniforms, employed guerilla tactics and were empowered to act independently in battle. (seacoastnh.com)

Young Rogers himself attempted to farm for a while, but between 1743 and 1755, he later declared in his Journals , “my manner of life was such as led me to a general acquaintance both with the British and French settlements in North America, and especially with the unculticated desart, the mountains, valleys, rivers, lakes and several passes that lay between and contiguous to the said settlements.” (americanheritage.com)

Gregorian calendar was adopted in England in 1752. That year, Wednesday, September 2, 1752, was followed by Thursday, September 14th, 1752, which caused the country to skip ahead eleven days. (familysearch.org)

Major Robert Rogers, commander of the Rogers' Rangers during the French and Indian War, who was known for brutal actions, including the potential murder of unarmed women and children. His troops engaged in brutal actions, including scalping enemies and killing unarmed prisoners.  (Assistant)

The Seven Years' War began as a North American conflict then stretched between England and France. England, along with allies, battled France in America, India, and Europe, making it arguably the first global war. The conflict ended with the signing of the Treaty of Paris in 1763 and England was victorious. The Seven Years' war ultimately led to discontent in the colonies and the American Revolution. (familysearch.org)

Today re-enactors from Michigan to Oregon to Kentucky and New York still dress in green garb and relive the ranger lifestyle. (seacoastnh.com)

...the only man I was ever afraid of. (George Washington)

The Mohican people are an Eastern Algonquian Native American tribe originally from the upper Hudson River Valley of New York, whose name means "the people of the waters that are never still". They are historically related to the Lenape and lived in a region that included present-day Albany, western Massachusetts, and parts of Vermont and Connecticut. (Assistant)

Rogers' Rangers were never fully respected by the British regulars, yet they were one of the few non-Indian forces able to operate in the inhospitable region despite harsh winter conditions and mountainous terrain. (Wikipedia)

During Rogers' youth (1746), he saw service in the New Hampshire militia as a private in Captain Daniel Ladd's Scouting Company and, in 1747, also as a private in Ebenezer Eastman's Scouting Company, both times guarding the New Hampshire frontier. (Wikipedia)

Their separation during his court martial trial is the subject of a ballad by John Greenleaf Whittier appropriately titled "The Ranger." The couple soon moved to Concord, NH (then Rumford) where Elizabeth lived with her enslaved servants. Here Rogers wrote his memoirs and even authored a play. Curiously, Rogers transferred ownership of the Concord house, lands and slaves to Elizabeth's father. She later inherited them. (seacoastnh.com)

Roberts' well-researched novel, published in 1936, was largely responsible for reviving the Rogers legend. Among the people credited with assisting the author was Portsmouth librarian Dorothy Vaughan who lived to age 99. (seacoastnh.com)

The cream of the Abenaki fighting forces joined French militia to wait in ambush for Rogers and his men. (Eric Niderost)

One oral tradition suggests that a Stockbridge man was tortured and killed after he refused to return to his St. Francis Abenaki wife. The officers were abused, and Amherst was so incensed that he decided, as Rogers recalled, “to chastize these savages with some severity.” (Rod Soodalter)

St. Francis—more properly St. François de Sales—was originally established opposite Quebec, but it was relocated near the St. Francis River in 1700. It was a Jesuit mission, and many of the Indians were at least nominal Catholics. (Eric Niderost)

Rogers’s plan for attack was simple but effective. They would pounce on the village in three divisions, converging on the target from the south, east, and north. Amherst’s orders were clear: revenge could be taken, but Indian women and children were to be spared.  (Eric Niderost)

On October 3, some Abenaki women washing in the St. Francis River spotted wood chips floating on the water – oral traditions suggest that these might have been from rafts or bridges that Rogers’ men built to facilitate crossing the St. Francis River near what the Abenaki called the “little woods” around St. Joachim. (Rod Soodalter)

Amherst, commander in chief of British forces in North America, had defined the mission in deceptively simple terms: You are this night to set out with the detachment as ordered yesterday, viz. of 200 men…and proceed to Misisquey 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.…Remember the barbarities that have been committed by the enemy’s Indian scoundrels.…Take your revenge, but don’t forget that tho’ those villains have dastardly and promiscuously murdered the women and children of all ages, it is my orders that no women or children are killed or hurt. (Rod Soodalter)

The fire consumed many of the Indians who had concealed themselves in the cellars and lofts of their houses. About seven o’clock in the morning the affair was completely over, in which time we had killed at least two hundred Indians, and taken twenty of their women and children prisoners, fifteen of whom I let go their own way, and five I brought with me, viz. two Indian boys and three Indian girls. I likewise retook five English captives, which I also took under my care. (Robert Rogers, Journals of Major Robert Rogers)

The premonitions about the attack came in various forms. Some elders are said to have had recurring dreams about English or Mohawk attacks that likely resonated from their experiences as young children during King Philip’s War (1675-1676), King William’s War (1689-97), Queen Anne’s War (1702-13), Greylock’s War (also called Dummer’s War, Father Rasle’s War, and Lovewell's War, 1722-25) King George’s War (1744-48), the French and Indian War (1754-63), and other conflicts that had forced them to move north. (Rod Soodalter)

High-pitched screams rose above the crackling flames. For those Indians taking shelter in lofts and cellars, their hiding places had become funeral pyres.  (Eric Niderost)

Saint Francis was a polyglot settlement, with people coming and going at all times. English captives could often be seen there, and French-Canadian trappers and hunters frequented the place. Rogers spoke fluent French, so his mere presence would not arouse suspicion. To further conceal his visit, when Rogers arrived, St. Francis was in the midst of a giant celebration, possibly a wedding.  (Eric Niderost)

Lieutenant Samuel Stevens had been dispatched by Amherst with food and supplies, but after waiting a few days, Stevens grew uneasy and returned to Crown Point. Supposedly he saw signs of Rogers’ approach and thought it was the enemy. He missed Rogers and the rangers by two hours.  (Eric Niderost)

In desperation, some of the raiders cannibalized their own dead. One Abenaki captive, Marie-Jeanne Gill, was killed and eaten by the rangers during the retreat, according to the diary of Lieutenant George Campbell, who wrote: "Ye Chef’s wife expired & may have been kill’d by ye Stockbridges. Ye Major has asked me not to reveal this probability that Jenkins Stockbridges kill’d ye Chefs Squaw." (Rod Soodalter)

Drafted into Rogers’ elite force, often compared to the modern Green Berets, Langdon and Hunk overcome impossible odds, defeat the French, and return safely home, Imbued with patriotism. Stopping back in Portsmouth in the final scene of the film, Rogers bravely returns to the battlefront, a symbol of the indomitable American spirit. (seacoastnh.com)

The St. Francis River was known to the Abenaki as Arsikantegouk or Alsigontekw (meaning “empty cabin river” or “place of shells”), a name that recalled both a 1691 Mohawk attack and a 1700 plague. (Marge Bruchac)

The French and Abenaki records agree that only 32 Abenaki people actually died during the raid, among them 10 men and 22 women and children who were burned in their homes or shot while trying to escape. (Rod Soodalter)

He is wild, vain, of little understanding, and of as little Principle; but withal has a share of Cunning, no Modesty or veracity and sticks at Nothing . . . He deserved Some Notice for his Bravery and readiness on Service and if they had put him on whole Pay. to give him an Income to live upon, they would have done well. But, this employment he is most unfit for, and withal speaks no Indian Language. He made a great deal of money during the War, which was squandered in Vanity and Gaming. and is some Thousands in Debt here [in New York]. (Gage letter to Indian Superintendent Sir William Johnson)

Unaware of Gage's plotting, Rogers continued performing his administrative duties with considerable zest. He dispatched expeditions to search for the fabled Northwest Passage under Jonathan Carver and James Tute, but they were unsuccessful. (Wikipedia)

The Americans were as out of touch with Rogers as he was with them, looking upon him as the noted ranger leader and expecting him to behave as one; they were at a total loss to explain his drunken and licentious behavior. (Wikipedia)

At Washington's prompting, the New Hampshire legislature passed two decrees regarding Rogers: one a proscription, and the other a divorce from his wife on grounds of abandonment and infidelity. She could not afford any friendship or mercy toward Robert now if she expected to remain in New Hampshire. Later, Elizabeth married American naval officer John Roche. (Wikipedia)

As noted by the British Army today, “After the loss of the North American colonies, the British Army lacked a forested frontier where it could usefully employ a ranger unit and the capability ceased to exist in its pure form,” with later “Ranger” units such as the Central London Rangers, The Connaught Rangers, The Royal Irish Rangers, and The Sherwood Rangers Yeomanry, holding the name as more of an honorific title than as descriptor for a force designed for a specialist ranger role, or that they used unconventional tactics. (laststandonzombieisland.com)

Certainly many of Rogers’ wounds were self-inflicted; had he been able to get a handle on his drinking, he would likely have managed an honorable career in the American Revolution and a reasonably comfortable retirement. But it is also true that he was badly treated, buffeted by bad fortune and ill-will that seemed to dog him from about 1763 onward. (frontierpartisans.com)

Whether Robert Rogers was a hero is a complex question, as he is often viewed as both a revolutionary military figure and a deeply flawed individual. However, his legacy is tarnished by his financial ruin, alcoholism, and his choice to fight for the British Crown during the American Revolution. (Assistant)