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Show K. - it- .r-.r--r Released by Western Newspaper Union. Rogers' Rangers, 1942 Model X'HEN a party of United States Rangers went on a British Commando raid in German-occu-' Pied France recently, the ghost of. doughty old Robert Rogers must have smiled grimly and appreciatively, apprecia-tively, to his fellows in that Valhalla where wander the shades of mighty warriors. For these American soldiers, sol-diers, trained like the British Commandos Com-mandos to climb mountains and jump down high cliffs, speed noise-, lessly through dense forests and kill silently with knives rather than with guns, gave such a good account of themselves against the Nazis as to prove their right to be named for Rogers' Rangers and thus perpetuate, perpetu-ate, with their deeds, the fame of those rough-and-ready bushflghters of long ago. i '1 M MAJ. ROBERT ROGERS Rogers was born in 1727 at Dun-barton Dun-barton in the English colony of New Hampshire. His youth was spent as a hunter and trapper in the forests of New England and Canada and there he learned the lessons in Indian In-dian warfare which were to make him invaluable in the French and the Indian war. At the opening of that conflict in 1755 Rogers led a force of hardy woodsmen from New Hampshire to Albany, N. Y., where the British and Colonial forces were being assembled as-sembled to attack the French forts at Crown Point and Ticonderoga. Sir William Johnson, the great Co-J.jnial Co-J.jnial leader, knowing of Rogers' reputation,' used him and his men as scouts. Making his headquarters headquar-ters at Fort William Henry, a new post at the south end of Lake Cham-plain, Cham-plain, Rogers began a series of forays against the French and their Indian allies. So valuable did these New Hamp-shiremen Hamp-shiremen prove to be as scouts and fighters that at the opening of the spring campaign in 1756, their leader lead-er was given a special commission by the Earl of Loudon, British commander-in-chief, to raise a picked corps of bush fighters who were to receive the same pay as the regulars regu-lars but who were to carry on their operations in their own way. Thus came into existence that splendid body of military irregulars, known as Rogers' Rangers, who were to become the terror of their enemies and set the pattern for fighting methods of American frontiersmen for the next century. Some of their adventures and their exploits make those of the dime novel heroes seem tame by comparison. When Kenneth Roberts came to write an historical novel about Rogers' Rangers, it wasn't necessary for him to draw upon his imagination to make it thrilling. All he had to do was tell the facts as anybody who saw the movie "Northwest "North-west Passage" can testify. Rogers' reward for his service was small. He visited England and suffered from poverty until he ,bor-rowed ,bor-rowed money with which to print his Journal. He presented this to the king and in 1765 was appointed commandant com-mandant at Michillimackinac. Accused Ac-cused of dishonesty he was sent in irons to Montreal and court-martialed. He. went to England again but was soon imprisoned for debt. Later he returned to America and at the outbreak of the Revolution found himself suspected by both the Patriots and Tories. Arrested by orders of Washington, he was later placed on parole but he was so embittered em-bittered by this treatment that he broke his parole and openly joined the British. Banished from America in 1778, he went to England where his later career was described as "wild, improvident im-provident and extravagant." He died some time after 1800, "a victim vic-tim to his evil habits." Thus ended in anti-climax the life of this "first-class "first-class fightin' man." Among those who served as Rogers' Rog-ers' Rangers were two who were destined for future fame as leaders in the Continental army during the Revolution. One was another New Hampshireman, John Stark, later the victor at the Battle of Bennington, Benning-ton, a "curtain-raiser" to the decisive de-cisive battle of the Revolution Sar-, atoga. The other was from Connecticut Con-necticut and he was associated with Rogers in some of his most daring exploits against the French and Indians. His name was Israel Putnam Put-nam "Old Put" of Bunker Hill and Long Island battla fame. |