JOHN JENKINS DESIGNS

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BRITISH RANGERS and REGULAR INFANTRY

ROGER'S RANGERS

Rogers’ force initially waited patiently in ambush.

An enemy party of around 96 men, mostly Indians, advanced along a frozen stream

 into the sights of the hidden Rangers.

On a given signal the Rangers rose out of their cover and blasted a volley into the column of unsuspecting Indians.

According to Roger’s journal they killed “above forty Indians”.

Half of the Rangers continued to pursue the fleeing survivors of the ambush.

The rest of the Rangers including Rogers himself remained behind to scalp the dead and dying.

Unfortunately the enemy party had turned out to be just the advance guard

of a force of over 200 additional French and Indians.

The Battle On Snowshoes, Rogers was about to realize had only just begun.

The new “BOS” set for May depicts one of the Rangers about to collect his scalp

from a wounded Indian, but out of the corner of his eye is distracted by……

The enemy party that Roger’s Rangers had initially fired upon,

 turned out to be just the advance guard of over 200 additional French and Indians.

The Battle on Snowshoes had only just begun.

The Rangers, in turn were surprised, and had to retreat and reform.

They succeeded in twice driving back the reinforced enemy party,

but had lost both the initiative and their superiority of numbers.

After losing many men, over an hour and a half of combat, Rogers saw that further resistance

 was useless, and ordered a general retreat.

However Rogers’ right flank under the command of Lieutenant William Phillips,

had become completely surrounded by a large party of Indians.

Phillips had decided to surrender after the enemy had assured him and

his men that they would be given “good quarters”.

Shortly afterwards, in Rogers’ own words,

Phillips’ and his men were “ inhumanly tied up to trees, and hewn to pieces, in a most barbarous and shocking manner.”

A French prisoner was to publish in “The Boston News-Letter” in 1758,

“above 30 of the English….. were killed and cut to pieces after they had capitulated,

 the Indians being enraged at finding a number of scalps in an officer’s pocket “

The Ranger’s having been forced to retreat and reform,

managed to hold the numerically superior enemy force for over an hour and a half.

As darkness began to fall, the French and Indian force pressed the attack to

 finish the British off for good. Rogers had no choice but to order a general retreat.

Fortunately some of the wounded had already been carried to a place

where the Rangers had earlier left their sleds.

The sleds were especially useful for evacuation of the wounded on the long journey home.

A messenger would have been sent back to Fort Edward, to request a relief force

be sent to assist in bringing back the wounded and help cover the retreat from any pursuing French and Indians.

Please check this link (fictional account) to read more about the retreat from the Battle On Snowshoes.

http://www.mohicanpress.com/snowshoes_battle.html

BRITISH REGULAR INFANTRY

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JOHN JENKINS DESIGNS

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