1.
French and Indian War
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The French and Indian War comprised the North American theater of the worldwide Seven Years War of 1754–1763. At the start of the war, the French North American colonies had a population of roughly 60,000 European settlers, the outnumbered French particularly depended on the Indians. Following months of localised conflict, the nations declared war on each other in 1756. The name French and Indian War, used mainly in the United States, British and European historians use the term the Seven Years War, as do English speaking Canadians. French Canadians call it La guerre de la Conquête or the Fourth Intercolonial War, fighting took place primarily along the frontiers between New France and the British colonies, from Virginia in the south to Newfoundland in the north. It began with a dispute over control of the confluence of the Allegheny and Monongahela rivers, called the Forks of the Ohio, and the site of the French Fort Duquesne. The dispute erupted into violence in the Battle of Jumonville Glen in May 1754, in 1755, six colonial governors in North America met with General Edward Braddock, the newly arrived British Army commander, and planned a four-way attack on the French. None succeeded, and the effort by Braddock proved a disaster, he lost the Battle of the Monongahela on July 9,1755. In 1755, the British captured Fort Beauséjour on the border separating Nova Scotia from Acadia, orders for the deportation were given by William Shirley, Commander-in-Chief, North America, without direction from Great Britain. The Acadians, both captured in arms and those who had sworn the loyalty oath to His Britannic Majesty, were expelled. Native Americans were likewise driven off their land to make way for settlers from New England, after the disastrous 1757 British campaigns, the British government fell. France concentrated its forces against Prussia and its allies in the European theatre of the war, between 1758 and 1760, the British military launched a campaign to capture the Colony of Canada. They succeeded in capturing territory in surrounding colonies and ultimately the city of Quebec, though the British later lost the Battle of Sainte-Foy west of Quebec, the French ceded Canada in accordance with the Treaty of Paris. The outcome was one of the most significant developments in a century of Anglo-French conflict, France ceded its territory east of the Mississippi to Great Britain. It ceded French Louisiana west of the Mississippi River to its ally Spain, in compensation for Spains loss to Britain of Florida. Frances colonial presence north of the Caribbean was reduced to the islands of Saint Pierre and Miquelon, the conflict is known by multiple names. In British America, wars were often named after the sitting British monarch, such as King Williams War or Queen Annes War. As there had already been a King Georges War in the 1740s, British colonists named the war in King Georges reign after their opponents
2.
Kingdom of Great Britain
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The Kingdom of Great Britain, officially Great Britain, was a sovereign state in western Europe from 1 May 1707 to 31 December 1800. It did not include Ireland, which remained a separate realm, the unitary state was governed by a single parliament and government that was based in Westminster. Also after the accession of George I to the throne of Great Britain in 1714, the early years of the unified kingdom were marked by Jacobite risings which ended in defeat for the Stuart cause at Culloden in 1746. On 1 January 1801, the kingdoms of Great Britain and Ireland were merged to form the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Ireland. In 1922, five-sixths of Ireland seceded from the United Kingdom, the name Britain descends from the Latin name for the island of Great Britain, Britannia or Brittānia, the land of the Britons via the Old French Bretaigne and Middle English Bretayne, Breteyne. The term Great Britain was first used officially in 1474, in the instrument drawing up the proposal for a marriage between Edward IV of Englands daughter Cecily and James III of Scotlands son James. The Treaty of Union and the subsequent Acts of Union state that England and Scotland were to be United into one Kingdom by the Name of Great Britain. However, both the Acts and the Treaty also refer numerous times to the United Kingdom and the longer form, other publications refer to the country as the United Kingdom after 1707 as well. The websites of the UK parliament, the Scottish Parliament, the BBC, additionally, the term United Kingdom was found in informal use during the 18th century to describe the state. The new state created in 1707 included the island of Great Britain, the kingdoms of England and Scotland, both in existence from the 9th century, were separate states until 1707. However, they had come into a union in 1603. Each of the three kingdoms maintained its own parliament and laws and this disposition changed dramatically when the Acts of Union 1707 came into force, with a single unified Crown of Great Britain and a single unified parliament. Ireland remained formally separate, with its own parliament, until the Acts of Union 1800, legislative power was vested in the Parliament of Great Britain, which replaced both the Parliament of England and the Parliament of Scotland. In practice it was a continuation of the English parliament, sitting at the location in Westminster. Newly created peers in the Peerage of Great Britain were given the right to sit in the Lords. Despite the end of a parliament for Scotland, it retained its own laws. As a result of Poynings Law of 1495, the Parliament of Ireland was subordinate to the Parliament of England, the Act was repealed by the Repeal of Act for Securing Dependence of Ireland Act 1782. The same year, the Irish constitution of 1782 produced a period of legislative freedom, the 18th century saw England, and after 1707 Great Britain, rise to become the worlds dominant colonial power, with France its main rival on the imperial stage
3.
British Army
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The British Army is the principal land warfare force of the United Kingdom. As of 2017 the British Army comprises just over 80,000 trained Regular, or full-time, personnel and just over 26,500 trained Reserve, or part-time personnel. Therefore, the UK Parliament approves the continued existence of the Army by passing an Armed Forces Act at least once every five years, day to day the Army comes under administration of the Ministry of Defence and is commanded by the Chief of the General Staff. Repeatedly emerging victorious from these decisive wars allowed Britain to influence world events with its policies and establish itself as one of the leading military. In 1660 the English, Scottish and Irish monarchies were restored under Charles II, Charles favoured the foundation of a new army under royal control and began work towards its establishment by August 1660. The Royal Scots Army and the Irish Army were financed by the Parliament of Scotland, the order of seniority of the most senior line regiments in the British Army is based on the order of seniority in the English army. At that time there was only one English regiment of dragoons, after William and Marys accession to the throne, England involved itself in the War of the Grand Alliance, primarily to prevent a French invasion restoring Marys father, James II. Spain, in the two centuries, had been the dominant global power, and the chief threat to Englands early transatlantic ambitions. The territorial ambitions of the French, however, led to the War of the Spanish Succession and the Napoleonic Wars. From the time of the end of the Seven Years War in 1763, Great Britain was the naval power. As had its predecessor, the English Army, the British Army fought the Kingdoms of Spain, France, and the Netherlands for supremacy in North America and the West Indies. With native and provincial assistance, the Army conquered New France in the North American theatre of the Seven Years War, the British Army suffered defeat in the American War of Independence, losing the Thirteen Colonies but holding on to Canada. The British Army was heavily involved in the Napoleonic Wars and served in campaigns across Europe. The war between the British and the First French Empire of Napoleon Bonaparte stretched around the world and at its peak, in 1813, the regular army contained over 250,000 men. A Coalition of Anglo-Dutch and Prussian Armies under the Duke of Wellington, the English had been involved, both politically and militarily, in Ireland since being given the Lordship of Ireland by the Pope in 1171. The campaign of the English republican Protector, Oliver Cromwell, involved uncompromising treatment of the Irish towns that had supported the Royalists during the English Civil War, the English Army stayed in Ireland primarily to suppress numerous Irish revolts and campaigns for independence. Having learnt from their experience in America, the British government sought a political solution, the British Army found itself fighting Irish rebels, both Protestant and Catholic, primarily in Ulster and Leinster in the 1798 rebellion. The Haldane Reforms of 1907 formally created the Territorial Force as the Armys volunteer reserve component by merging and reorganising the Volunteer Force, Militia, Great Britains dominance of the world had been challenged by numerous other powers, in the 20th century, most notably Germany
4.
Guerrilla warfare
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The term, the diminutive form of war in Spanish, is usually translated as little war, and the word, guerrilla, has been used to refer to the concept since the 18th century, and perhaps earlier. In correct Spanish usage, a person who is a member of a guerrilla is a guerrillero if male, the term guerrilla was used in English as early as 1809, to refer to the fighters, and also to denote a group or band of such fighters. However, in most languages guerrilla still denotes the style of warfare. The use of the diminutive evokes the differences in number, scale, guerrillas usually carries positive connotations, and is often used by such fighters themselves and by their sympathizers, while their foes in many cases call them terrorists. Making an objective definition of the difference between a guerrilla and a terrorist has proven a difficult task, the strategy and tactics of guerrilla warfare tend to focus around the use of a small, mobile force competing against a larger, more unwieldy one. The Guerrilla focuses on organizing in small units, depending on the support of the local population, tactically, the guerrilla army would avoid any confrontation with large units of enemy troops, but seek and eliminate small groups of soldiers to minimize losses and exhaust the opposing force. Not limiting their targets to personnel, enemy resources are preferred targets. All of that is to weaken the strength, to cause the enemy eventually to be unable to prosecute the war any longer. It is often misunderstood that guerrilla warfare must involve disguising as civilians to cause enemy troops to fail in telling friend from foe, however, this is not a primary feature of a guerrilla war. This type of war can be practiced anywhere there are places for combatants to cover themselves, at least one author credits the ancient Chinese work The Art of War with providing instruction in such tactics to Mao. The Chinese general and strategist Sun Tzu, in his The Art of War or 600 BC to 501 BC, was the earliest to propose the use of guerrilla warfare and this directly inspired the development of modern guerrilla warfare. Guerrilla tactics were employed by prehistoric tribal warriors against enemy tribes. Evidence of conventional warfare, on the hand, did not emerge until 3100 BC in Egypt. Since the Enlightenment, ideologies such as nationalism, liberalism, socialism, because of the innovative tactics he used during his command, he made himself the name of Terror Romanorum. A counter-insurgency or counterinsurgency operation involves actions taken by the government of a nation to contain or quell an insurgency taken up against it. Counter-insurgency operations are common during war, occupation and armed rebellions, the two most influential of scholars of counter-insurgency have been Westerners whose job it had been to fight insurgents. Robert Thompson fought during the Malayan Emergency and David Galula fought during the Algerian War, together these officers advocated multi-pronged strategies to win over the civilian population to the side of the counter-insurgent. The widely distributed and influential work of Sir Robert Thompson, counter-insurgency expert of the Malayan Emergency, thompsons underlying assumption was that the counter-insurgent was committed to improving the rule of law and bettering local governance
5.
Light infantry
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Light infantry are soldiers whose job was to provide a skirmishing screen ahead of the main body of infantry, harassing and delaying the enemy advance. Light infantry was distinct from medium, heavy or line infantry, heavy infantry were dedicated primarily to fighting in tight formations that were the core of large battles. Heavy infantry originally had heavier arms and more armour than light infantry, as with so called light infantry of later periods, the term more adequately describes the role of such infantry rather than the actual weight of their equipment. Peltast equipment, for example, grew steadily heavier at the time as hoplite equipment grew lighter. It was the fact that peltasts fought in order as skirmishers that made them light infantry. Early regular armies of the era frequently relied on irregulars to perform the duties of light infantry skirmishers. In the 18th and 19th centuries most infantry regiments or battalions had a company as an integral part of its composition. Its members were often smaller, more men with high shooting ability and capability of using initiative. They did not usually fight in disciplined ranks as did the infantry but often in widely dispersed groups. They were expected to avoid melee engagements unless necessary, and would fight ahead of the line to harass the enemy before falling back to the main position. Light infantry sometimes carried lighter muskets than ordinary infantrymen while others carried rifles and these became designated as rifle regiments in Britain and Jäger regiments in German speaking Europe. In France, during the Napoleonic Wars, light infantry were called voltigeurs and chasseurs, the Austrian army had Grenzer regiments from the middle of the 18th century, who originally served as irregular militia skirmishers recruited from mountainous frontier areas. Light infantry officers sometimes carried muskets or rifles, rather than pistols, orders were sent by bugle or whistle instead of drum. Some armies, including the British and French, recruited whole regiments of light infantry, by the late 19th century the concept of fighting in formation was on the wane due to advancements in weaponry and the distinctions between light and heavy infantry began to disappear. Essentially, all infantry became light infantry in operational practice, some regiments retained the name and customs, but there was in effect little difference between them and other infantry regiments. On the eve of World War I the British Army included seven light infantry regiments, today the term light denotes, in the United States table of organization and equipment, units lacking heavy weapons and armor or with a reduced vehicle footprint. At its height, this included the 6th Infantry Division, 7th Infantry Division, 10th Mountain Division, 25th Infantry Division, operation Just Cause is often cited as proof of concept. Almost 30,000 U. S. Forces, mostly light, during the 1990s, the concept of purely light forces in the US military came under scrutiny due to their decreased lethality and survivability
6.
Fort William Henry
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Fort William Henry was a British fort at the southern end of Lake George in the province of New York. Following the 1757 siege, the French destroyed the fort and withdrew, while other forts were built nearby in later years, the site of Fort William Henry lay abandoned. In the 19th century, it was a destination for tourists, in the 1950s interest in the history of the site revived, and a replica of the fort was constructed. It is now operated as a museum and a popular tourist attraction in the village of Lake George. The French commander, Baron Dieskau, decided to launch an attack on Johnsons support base at Fort Edward on the Hudson River. Their movements precipitated the somewhat inconclusive Battle of Lake George on September 8,1755, following the battle, Johnson decided to construct a fortification near the site, while the French began construction of Fort Carillon near the northern end of the lake. Design and construction of the new fortification was overseen by British military engineer William Eyre of the 44th Foot and its walls were 30 feet thick, with log facings around an earthen filling. Inside the fort were wooden barracks two stories high, built around the parade ground and its magazine was in the northeast bastion, and its hospital was located in the southeast bastion. The fort was surrounded on three sides by a dry moat, with the fourth side sloping down to the lake, the only access to the fort was by a bridge across the moat. The fort could house 400 to 500 men, additional troops were quartered in an entrenched camp 750 yards southeast of the fort, the fort was ready for occupancy, if not fully complete, on November 13,1755. Eyre served as its first commander, with a garrison consisting of companies from his 44th, in the spring of 1757, command of the fort was turned over to George Monro, with a garrison principally drawn from the 35th Foot and the 60th Foot. By June the garrison had swollen to about 1,600 men with the arrival of militia companies from Connecticut. Because the fort was too small to quarter this many troops, when word arrived in late July that the French had mobilized to attack the fort, another 1,000 regulars and militia arrived, swelling Monros force to about 2,300 effective troops. Johnsons camp, where many were quartered, was protected by the digging of trenches. Conditions in both the fort and the camp were not good, and many men were ill, including some with smallpox, the French force of General Louis-Joseph de Montcalm arrived on August 3, and established camps to the south and west of the fort. French forces totaled some 8,000, consisting of 3,000 regulars,3,000 militia, what happened next has been described in historical and popular treatments as a massacre. They were allowed to keep their muskets but no ammunition, in addition, British authorities were to release French prisoners within three months. Montcalm, before agreeing to terms, attempted to make sure that his Indian allies understood them
7.
Siege of Louisbourg (1758)
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The British government realized that with the Fortress of Louisbourg under French control, there was no way that the Royal Navy could sail up the St. Lawrence River for an attack on Quebec unmolested. Pitt assigned the duty of capturing the fortress to Major General Jeffrey Amherst, amhersts brigadiers were Charles Lawrence, James Wolfe and Edward Whitmore, and command of naval operations was assigned to Admiral Edward Boscawen. As they had in 1757, the French planned to defend Louisbourg by a large naval build-up, however, the French fleet sailing from Toulon was blockaded in Cartagena by a British force, and a relief force was defeated at the Battle of Cartagena. After this the French abandoned their attempt to reinforce Louisbourg from the Mediterranean, British forces assembled at Halifax, Nova Scotia where army and navy units spent most of May training together as the massive invasion fleet came together. After a large gathering at the Great Pontack, on 29 May the Royal Navy fleet departed from Halifax for Louisbourg, the fleet consisted of 150 transport ships and 40 men-of-war. Housed in these ships were almost 14,000 soldiers, almost all of whom were regulars, the force was divided into three divisions, Red, commanded by James Wolfe, Blue, commanded by Charles Lawrence and White commanded by Edward Whitmore. On 2 June the British force anchored in Gabarus Bay,3 miles from Louisbourg, however, unlike the previous year, the French navy was unable to assemble in significant numbers, leaving the French squadron at Louisbourg outnumbered five to one by the British fleet. Drucour ordered trenches to be prepared and manned by some 2,000 French troops, along with other defences, such as an artillery battery, at Kennington Cove. Weather conditions in the first week of June made any landing impossible, however, conditions improved, and at daybreak on 8 June Amherst launched his assault using a flotilla of large boats, organized in 7 divisions, each commanded by one of his brigadiers. French defenses were successful and after heavy losses, Wolfe ordered a retreat. However, at the last minute, a boatload of light infantry in Wolfes division found a rocky inlet protected from French fire, Wolfe redirected the rest of his division to follow. Outflanked, the French retreated rapidly back to their fortress, continuing heavy seas and the difficulty inherent to moving siege equipment over boggy terrain delayed the commencement of the formal siege. In the meantime, Wolfe was sent with 1,220 picked men around the harbour to seize Lighthouse Point, after eleven days, on 19 June, the British artillery batteries were in position and the orders were given to open fire on the French. The British battery consisted of seventy cannons and mortars of all sizes, within hours, the guns had destroyed walls and damaged several buildings. On 21 July a mortar round from a British gun on Lighthouse Point struck a 74 gun French ship of the line, LEntreprenant, a stiff breeze fanned the fire, and shortly after the LEntreprenant caught fire, two other French ships had caught fire. LEntreprenant exploded later in the day, depriving the French of the largest ship in the Louisbourg fleet, the next major blow to French morale came on the evening of 23 July, at 10,00. A British hot shot set the Kings Bastion on fire, the Kings Bastion was the fortress headquarters and the largest building in North America in 1758. Its destruction eroded confidence and reduced morale in the French troops, most historians regard the British actions of 25 July as the straw that broke the camels back
8.
Battle of Carillon
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The Battle of Carillon, also known as the 1758 Battle of Ticonderoga, was fought on July 8,1758, during the French and Indian War. It was fought near Fort Carillon on the shore of Lake Champlain in the area between the British colony of New York and the French colony of New France. The battle was the bloodiest of the war, with over 3,000 casualties suffered, French losses were about 400, while more than 2,000 were British. Many military historians have cited the Battle of Carillon as a example of tactical military incompetence. Abercrombie, confident of a victory, ignored several viable military options, such as flanking the French breastworks, waiting for his artillery. Montcalm, while concerned about the military position of the fort. The fort, abandoned by its garrison, was captured by the British the following year and this battle gave the fort a reputation for impregnability that had an effect on future military operations in the area. Despite several large-scale military movements through the area, in both the French and Indian War and the American Revolutionary War, this was the major battle fought near the forts location. The fort was sited with Lake Champlain to the east, with Mount Independence rising on the far side, immediately to the south of the fort lay the mouth of the La Chute River, which drains Lake George. The river was largely non-navigable, and there was a trail from the northern end of Lake George to the location of a sawmill the French had built to assist in the forts construction. The trail crossed the La Chute twice, once about 2 miles from Lake George, and again at the sawmill, to the north of the fort was a road going to Fort St. Frédéric. To the west was a low rise of land, beyond which lay Mount Hope, a rise that commanded part of the portage trail, but was too far from the fort to pose it any danger. The most serious defect in the forts location was Mount Defiance. This 900 foot hill, which was steep and densely forested, provided an excellent firing position for cannon aimed at the fort. Nicolas Sarrebource de Pontleroy, Montcalms chief engineer, said of the site, Were I to be entrusted with the siege of it, I should require only six mortars. Prior to 1758, the French and Indian War had gone very poorly for the British, whose military met few of its objectives. Embarking on a strategy that emphasized defense in Europe, where France was strong, and offense in North America, large-scale campaigns were planned to capture Fort Duquesne on the Pennsylvania frontier and the fortress at Louisbourg. The third campaign, assigned to General James Abercrombie, was to launch an attack against Canada through the Champlain Valley, Howe was appointed a brigadier general, and placed as Abercrombies second in command
9.
St. John River Campaign
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The St. Monckton was accompanied by Captain George Scott as well as New England Rangers led by Joseph Goreham, Captain Benoni Danks, as well as William Stark and Moses Hazen, both of Rogers Rangers. Under the naval command of Silvanus Cobb, the British started at the bottom of the river with raiding Kennebecasis and Managoueche, then they moved up the river and raided Grimross, Jemseg, and finally they reached Sainte-Anne des Pays-Bas. The Acadian militia was led by French officer Charles Deschamps de Boishébert et de Raffetot, there were about 100 Acadian families on the Saint John River, with a large concentration at Ste Anne. Most of them had taken there from earlier deportation operations. There were also about 1000 Maliseet, according to one historian, the level of Acadian suffering greatly increased in the late summer of 1758. Along with campaigns on Ile Saint-Jean, in the Gult of St. Lawrence, at Cape Sable and the Petitcodiac River Campaign, the British Conquest of Acadia happened in 1710. Over the next years the Acadians refused to sign an unconditional oath of allegiance to Britain. During this time period Acadians participated in militia operations against the British and maintained vital supply lines to the French Fortress of Louisbourg. Acadians had lived in the Saint John valley almost continuously since the seventeenth century. After the Conquest of Acadia, Acadians migrated from peninsula Nova Scotia to the French-occupied Saint John River and these Acadians were seen as the most resistant to British rule in the region. The Saint John River residents had always proven effective at resisting the British, the Maliseet militia, from their base at Meductic, conducted effective warfare along with the Mikmaq militia against New England throughout the colonial wars. As late as 1748, there were only twelve French-speaking families living on the river, on October 28,1748, at the end of King Georges War, the Acadians and Mikmaq prevented John Gorham from landing to acquire an oath of allegiance. His rangers were fired upon killing three of the rangers and wounding three, while Gorham took two Mikmaq prisoner, in 1749, at the beginning of Father Le Loutres War, Boishebert rebuked British naval officer John Rous at St. John. Boishébert built Fort Boishebert after withdrawing from the mouth of the Saint John River under the terms of an agreement arranged by Captain John Rous and Edward How. The fort was abandoned in 1751 by Ignace-Philippe Aubert de Gaspé when the French reestablished their control. In 1749, Boishebert assigned Acadian Joseph Godin dit Bellefontaine to lead the Acadian militia in the St. John Region. In April 1755, while searching for a vessel at Port La Tour, Cobb discovered the French schooner Marguerite. During this time the British took captive a sergeant of Boisheberts detachment Grandcour, immediately after the Battle of Fort Beauséjour, Robert Monckton sent a detachment under the command of John Rous to take Fort Menagoueche
10.
Pontiac's War
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Warriors from numerous tribes joined the uprising in an effort to drive British soldiers and settlers out of the region. The war is named after the Odawa leader Pontiac, the most prominent of many leaders in the conflict. The war began in May 1763 when Native Americans, offended by the policies of British General Jeffrey Amherst, eight forts were destroyed, and hundreds of colonists were killed or captured, with many more fleeing the region. Hostilities came to an end after British Army expeditions in 1764 led to negotiations over the next two years. Native Americans were unable to drive away the British, but the uprising prompted the British government to modify the policies that had provoked the conflict. Warfare on the North American frontier was brutal, and the killing of prisoners, the targeting of civilians, the ruthlessness and treachery of the conflict was a reflection of a growing divide between the separate populations of the British colonists and Native Americans. This proved unpopular with British colonists, and may have one of the early contributing factors to the American Revolution. The conflict is named after its most famous participant, the Ottawa leader Pontiac, variations include Pontiacs War, Pontiacs Rebellion, an early name for the war was the Kiyasuta and Pontiac War, Kiyasuta being an alternate spelling for Guyasuta, an influential Seneca/Mingo leader. The war became known as Pontiacs Conspiracy after the publication in 1851 of Francis Parkmans The Conspiracy of Pontiac. Parkmans influential book, the account of the war for nearly a century, is still in print. In the 20th century, some argued that Parkman exaggerated the extent of Pontiacs influence in the conflict. Alternate titles for the war have been proposed, but historians continue to refer to the war by the familiar names. Pontiacs Conspiracy is now used by scholars. In the decades before Pontiacs Rebellion, France and Great Britain participated in a series of wars in Europe that also involved the French, the largest of these wars was the worldwide Seven Years War, in which France lost New France in North America to Great Britain. British troops proceeded to occupy the forts in the Ohio Country. Even before the war ended with the Treaty of Paris. While the French had long cultivated alliances among certain of the Native Americans, before long, Native Americans who had been allies of the defeated French found themselves increasingly dissatisfied with the British occupation and the new policies imposed by the victors. Native Americans involved in Pontiacs Rebellion lived in a defined region of New France known as the pays den haut
11.
Robert Rogers (soldier)
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Robert Rogers was an American colonial frontiersman. Rogers served in the British army during both the French and Indian War and the American Revolution, during the French and Indian War, Rogers raised and commanded the famous Rogers Rangers, trained for raiding and close combat behind enemy lines. Robert Rogers was born to Irish immigrants James and Mary McFatridge Rogers on 7 November 1731 in Methuen, at that time, the town served as a staging point for Scots-Irish settlers bound for the wilderness of New Hampshire. Rogers referred to this residence as Mountalona. It was later renamed Dunbarton, New Hampshire, in 1740, the War of the Austrian Succession broke out in Europe and, in 1744, the war spread to North America where it was known as King Georges War. In 1754, Rogers became involved with a gang of counterfeiters and he was indicted but the case was never brought to trial. In 1755, war engulfed the colonies, spreading also to Europe, britain and France declared war on each other. The British in America suffered a string of defeats including Braddocks, encouraged by the French victories, American Indians launched a series of attacks along the colonial frontier. In 1756, Rogers arrived in Portsmouth, New Hampshire and began to muster soldiers for the British Crown, Rogers recruitment drive was well supported by the frightened and angry provincials due to attacks by American Indians along the frontier. In Portsmouth, he met his future wife Elizabeth Browne. Roberts brothers James, Richard, and possibly John all served in Rogers Rangers, Richard died of small pox in 1757 at Fort William Henry. His corpse was disinterred and mutilated by hostile Indians. Rogers raised and commanded the famous Rogers Rangers that fought for the British during the French and this militia unit operated primarily in the Lake George and Lake Champlain regions of New York. They frequently undertook winter raids against French towns and military emplacements, traveling on sleds, crude snowshoes, Rogers evidenced an unusual talent for commanding his unit in conditions that the regular armies of the day were unaccustomed to working in. He took the initiative in mustering, equipping, and commanding ranger units and he wrote an early guide for commanding such units as Robert Rogers 28 Rules of Ranging. Rogers was personally responsible for paying his soldiers, and he went deeply into debt and he was never compensated by the British Army or government, though he had reason to believe that he should have his expenses reimbursed. For more details on this topic, see Battle on Snowshoes, Battle on Snowshoes, at the time, the British could do little more than fight defensive campaigns around Lake Champlain, Crown Point, Ticonderoga, and the upper Hudson. The rangers were kept distinct from British regulars
12.
John Stark
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John Stark was a New Hampshire native who served as an officer in the British Army during the French and Indian war and a major general in the Continental Army during the American Revolution. He became widely known as the Hero of Bennington for his service at the Battle of Bennington in 1777. John Stark was born in Londonderry, New Hampshire in 1728 and his father was born in Glasgow, Scotland to parents who were from Wiltshire, England, who met his wife when he moved to Derry in Ireland. When he was eight years old, he and his moved to Derryfield. Stark was married to Elizabeth Molly Page, with whom he had 11 children including his eldest son Caleb Stark, while a prisoner of the Abenaki, he and his fellow prisoner Amos Eastman were made to run a gauntlet of warriors armed with sticks. Stark grabbed the stick from the first warriors hands and proceeded to attack him, the chief was so impressed by this heroic act that Stark was adopted into the tribe, where he spent the winter. Alternatively, in The Invasion Within, Axtell describes how colonists were often abducted by Indians, the following spring a government agent sent from the Province of Massachusetts Bay to work on the exchange of prisoners paid his ransom of $103 Spanish dollars and $60 for Amos Eastman. Stark and Eastman then returned to New Hampshire safely, Stark served as a second lieutenant under Major Robert Rogers during the French and Indian War. His brother William Stark served beside him in Rogers Rangers, as a member of the daring Rogers Rangers, Stark gained valuable combat experience and a detailed knowledge of the northern frontier of the American colonies. While serving with the rangers in 1757, Stark went on a scouting mission toward Fort Carillon in which the rangers were ambushed, General Jeffery Amherst, in 1759 ordered Rogers Rangers to journey from Lake George to the Abenaki village of St. Francis, deep in Quebec. The Rangers went north and attacked the Indian town, Stark, Rogers second-in-command of all ranger companies, refused to accompany the attacking force out of respect for his Indian foster-parents residing there. He returned to New Hampshire to his wife, whom he had married the previous year, at the end of the war, Stark retired as a captain and returned to Derryfield, New Hampshire. The Battles of Lexington and Concord on April 19,1775, signaled the start of the American Revolutionary War, as soon as Stark could muster his men, he ferried and marched them south to Boston to support the blockaded rebels there. He made his headquarters in the confiscated Isaac Royall House in Medford, on June 16, the rebels, fearing a preemptive British attack on their positions in Cambridge and Roxbury, decided to take and hold Breeds Hill, a high point on the Charlestown peninsula near Boston. On the night of the 16th, American troops moved into position on the heights, as dawn approached, lookouts on HMS Lively, a 20-gun sloop of war noticed the activity and the sloop opened fire on the rebels and the works in progress. This in turn drew the attention of the British admiral, who demanded to know what the Lively was shooting at, subsequent to that, the entire British squadron opened fire. He ordered Major General William Howe to prepare to land his troops, thus began the Battle of Bunker Hill. American Col. William Prescott held the hill throughout the initial bombardment with only a few hundred American militia
Great Britain
