Dramatis Personae
Abercrombie, Capt. James. Nephew and aide-de-camp to Major General Abercromby (q.v.), he early discerned the value of Rogers’s innovations.
Abercromby, James. Assumed command of British North American forces (1756-1758) after Loudoun (q.v.). He suffered disastrous defeat at the hands of a far smaller French garrison at Carillon (later Fort Ticonderoga).
Amherst, Jeffery. Took over British North American forces (1758-1768) after Abercromby (q.v.). He approved Rogers’s plan to attack Saint François, then later sent him west to the receive the surrender of western French garrisons at the end of the French and Indian War.
Atecouando, Jérôme. An Abenaki sachem and diplomat from the village of Saint François, who attempted to negotiate neutrality with the British before the French and Indian War.
Ayer, Ebenezer. Friend of Rogers’s father, who mistook him for a bear and shot him dead.
Belestre, Captain François-Marie Picoté de. Commandant of Fort Detroit, who surrendered to Rogers in 1760.
Blanchard, Colonel Joseph. Commander of the New Hampshire provincials, he gave Rogers his first command.
Bougainville, Louis-Antoine de. Aide-de-camp to the M. Montcalm (q.v.).
Bourlamaque, Brigadier General Francois Charles de. Commander of Carillon (later Fort Ticonderoga).
Braddock, General Edward. After concentrating the first large British force in North America, he built a road toward the French stronghold at the Forks of the Ohio in 1755, and was bitterly defeated and died.
Bradstreet. Lieutenant Colonel John. Commander of bateau men during the French and Indian War.
Brown, Thomas. A 16-year-old private when he fought alongside Rogers at the Battle on Snowshoes, he recorded his experience of being wounded and captured in a hair-raising journal.
Browne, Arthur. Portsmouth rector, Rogers’s father-in-law, and fellow member of the Masonic Lodge.
Bulkeley, Capt. Charles. A ranger who pacified the mutiny on Rogers’s Island and fought valiantly in the Battle on Snowshoes.
Burbank, Capt. Jonathan. A faithful ranger leader, whom the Indians mistook for Rogers and horribly mutilated.
Carver, Jonathan. Amateur mapmaker and surveyor, he served as Rogers’s partner in his search for the Northwest Passage after the war. Later published his discoveries and did not credit Rogers.
Cheeksaunkun, Capt. Jacob. The son of Naunauphtaunk (q.v.), whom Rogers’ commissioned to form his own Indian ranger company.
Church, Benjamin. An innovative and early ranger during the King Philip’s War (1675-1678).
Dalyell, Capt. James. In command of the British force dispatched to relieve the besieged Ft. Detroit during Pontiac’s uprising; he fell in his first engagement with the Indians.
Dieskau, Maréchal-de-Camp Jean-Armand, Baron de. Swiss-born mercenary French commander, who was defeated and captured by William Johnson’s forces at Lake George in 1755.
Dobbs, Arthur. Governor of colonial North Carolina (1754-1765), who had spent decades supporting the quest for the Northwest Passage and aroused Rogers’s interest in the venture.
Dumas, Major General Jean Daniel. Led a mixed French Canadian and Abenaki forces against Rogers’s Saint François expedition on their return.
Durantaye, Ensign Sieur de la. Of the Compagnies Franches de la Marine, he joined with Langy to deliver one of Rogers’s most bitter defeats.
Gage, Thomas. Largely ineffective as a senior officer at two of the largest British military disasters—Braddock’s defeat and Ambercromby’s disastrous assault on Carillon, he raised a regiment of regulars to replace the rangers. A sworn enemy of Rogers, he pressed hard for Rogers’ court martial. Became head of British North American forces (1768-1775) after Amherst (q.v.).
George III. King of Great Britain (1760-1820).
Gill, Joseph-Louis or “Magouaouidombaouit.” A principle chief of Saint François, who was away when Rogers’ Rangers destroyed his village and took his wife and two sons prisoner.
Gladwin, Major Henry. Commander of Ft. Detroit after the French and Indian War, he discovered Pontiac’s plans to take the fort by surprise, then weathered a long seige.
Hale, Nathaniel. Young schoolteacher turned Revolutionary War spy, he was caught and brought to confess by Rogers.
Haviland, William. British colonel in the 27th Foot, he was a strong opponent of irregular forces. As commander of Ft. Edward, his decisions to cut Rogers’s unit helped lead to one of the rangers’ worst defeats at the Battle on Snowshoes.
Henry, Alexander, only the second British trader licensed to trade furs in the Great Lakes, narrowly escaped death during Pontiac’s attack on Ft. Michilimackinac, of which he survived to write a history.
Howe, Brigadier General George Augustus, Viscount. British officer and early adopter of ranger practices, he became a close friend of Rogers’ and was killed during the attack on Carillon in 1758. His brother William replaced Gage (q.v.) as commander in chief in North America in 1775.
Langis, Jean-Baptiste Levrault de, or “Langy.” A formidable French partisan fighter, who often matched wits with Rogers in fierce skirmishes in the woods.
Langlade, Charles-Michel Mouet de. Métis, or half Indian and French, he matched wits with Rogers at the Battle on Snowshoes and during other encounters.
Longueuil, Charles Le Moyne de. Governor of Montreal (1749-1755), the French Canadian city that served as the center of the fur trade and gateway to the pays d’en haut.
Loudoun, John Campbell, 4th Earl of. In 1756, he assumed command of British North American forces after Shirley (q.v.). He asked Rogers to write down the principles of successful bush warfare, which produced Rogers’s Rules of Ranging. (See Appendix 1.)
Ogden, Amos. Although wounded during the Saint François Raid, he somehow recovered on the terrible march back.
Lusignan, Paul-Louis Dazemard de. Commandant of Crown Point (1751-1758) and afterwards at Carillon, Île aux Noix, Saint-Jean, and Chambly.
Marin, Capt. Joseph de la Malgue. Officer in the Troupes de la Marine and a canny backwoods fighter, he turned the battle for the French against Braddock on the Monongahela, and was perhaps Rogers’s most dangerous adversary.
Millan, John. A London publisher, he put out Rogers’s Concise Account, The Journals of Robert Rogers, and the play “Ponteach: Or the Savages of America.”
Montcalm, Louis-Joseph de, Marquis de. Commander of French forces in North America from 1756 to his death in 1759 at Quebec. Successfully defended Carillon (later Fort Ticonderoga) against a much larger British army in 1758.
Naunauphtaunk, Capt. Jacob. One of the Stockbridge Indians for whom Rogers obtained a commission.
Phillips, Billy. A backwoodsman of mixed Dutch and Indian blood, he served with Rogers with distinction as a sharpshooter at the Battle on Snowshoes. He was captured, thought dead, but escaped to rejoin the rangers for the Saint François Raid.
Pitt, 1st Earl of Chatham, William. Imperially minded British Secretary of State during the French and Indian War, he afterwards became Prime Minister (1766-1768).
Pontiac or “Ponteach.” An Ottawa chief in the Great Lakes basin, the keystone of a pan-Indian uprising against the British succession to the French trading posts after the French and Indian War. He so impressed Rogers that he made him the hero of the second oldest American play.
Putnam, Israel. A captain of the Connecticut provincials during the French and Indian War, he joined Rogers on several scouts and was captured at the Battle of Fort Anne. Became a general in the Revolution, distinguishing himself at the Battle of Bunker Hill.
Pudney, Sr, Joseph. Family friend of Rogers’s father, James.
Roberts, Benjamin. Indian Superintendent of Michilimackinac and implacable foe of Rogers; his prosecution of Rogers falsely as a British traitor led to Rogers’s court martial.
Rogers, Elizabeth Browne, daughter of a well-renowned Portsmouth minister, Arthur Browne (q.v.), married Rogers on June 30, 1762. She gave birth to their son, Arthur, In 1769. Filed successfully for divorce in 1775, claiming long separations, drunkenness, and infidelity. Married sea captain John Roche.
Rogers, Richard. Rogers’s younger brother, he served with him as a ranger commander until his death by smallpox in 1757.
Roubaud, Father Pierre-Joseph-Antoine. Curé of the settlement of Saint François when Rogers attacked it.
Rowlandson, Mary. Carried off by Narragansett Indians in 1675, she wrote the first captivity narrative.
Sabbatis, the young Abenaki son of Gill (q.v.), the chief of St. Francis, who was carried away on Rogers’s return from Saint François and was adopted by Rogers.
Shirley, William. The king’s governor of Massachusetts (1741-1759), he assumed command of all British North American forces (1755-1756) and gave Rogers his first independent command.
Stark, John. Rogers’s boyhood friend, who distinguished himself as a ranger, then served as a Revolutionary War general; the hero of the Battle of Bennington, 1777.
Stevens, Captain Phineas. British colonial diplomat and commander of Fort No. 4, Britain’s most northern post on the Connecticut River during the French and Indian War.
Stevens, Lt. Samuel. Ordered by Amherst (q.v.) to rendezvous with the remnants of the Rogers’s rangers coming back from Saint François, he abandoned the designated spot prematurely, only hours before the starvation-ridden group straggled in. He was court-martialed and dismissed.
Sullivan, Owen. One of the most colorful and masterly counterfeiters in colonial North America, enlisted Rogers in one of his schemes. Caught and finally hung in 1757.
Theyanoguin or “Hendrick,” A Mahican sachem whose sage advice helped William Johnson (q.v.) shatter a formidable French column at the Battle of Lake George in 1755 at the cost of his life.
Tute, James. Served with distinction on the Saint François Raid, later recruited by Rogers for an expedition to find the Northwest Passage.
Vaudreuil, François-Pierre de Rigaud, Marquis de. Governor general of New France (1757-1760).
Waite, Joseph. He fought with Rogers in the Battle on Snowshoes, then successfully commanded a splinter group on the march home from Saint François.
Walker, Reverend Timothy. First minister of Rumford (earlier Penacook, later Concord) from 1730 to 1782.
Washington, George. Commander of the American forces during the Revolution from 1775, and mysteriously set against Rogers at their first meeting.
Wentworth, Benning. Royal governor of the colony of New Hampshire and a fellow mason of Rogers’s in Portsmouth.
