The history of the American Ranger is a long and colorful saga
of courage, daring, and outstanding leadership. It is a story of men whose
skills in the art of fighting have seldom been surpassed. Only the highlights
of their numerous exploits are told here.
Rangers mainly performed defensive missions until, during King
Phillip’s War in 1675, Benjamin Church’s Company of Independent Rangers (from
Plymouth Colony) conducted successful raids on hostile Indians. In 1756, Major
Robert Rogers, of New Hampshire, recruited nine companies of American colonists
to fight for the British during the French and Indian War. Ranger techniques and methods of operation inherently
characterized the American frontiersmen. Major Rogers was the first to
capitalize on them and incorporate them into the fighting doctrine of a
permanently organized fighting force.
The method of fighting used by the first Rangers was further
developed during the Revolutionary War by Colonel Daniel Morgan, who organized
a unit known as “Morgan’s Riflemen.” According to General Burgoyne, Morgan’s
men were “….the most famous corps of the Continental Army, all of them crack
shots.”
Francis Marion, the “Swamp Fox,” organized another famous
Revolutionary War Ranger element known as “Marion’s Partisans.”
Marion’s Partisans, numbering anywhere from a handful to
several hundred, operated both with and independent of other elements of
General Washington’s Army. Operating out of the Carolina swamps, they disrupted
British communications and prevented the organization of loyalists to support the British cause, substantially contributing
to the American victory.
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