Often hailed as the godfather of today’s elite special forces, Robert Rogers trained and led an unorthodox unit of green provincials, raw woodsmen, farmers, and Indian scouts on “impossible” missions in colonial America that are still the stuff of soldiers’ legend. The child of marginalized Scots-Irish immigrants, Rogers learned to survive in New England’s dark and deadly forests, grasping, as did few others, that a new world required new forms of warfare. John F. Ross not only re-creates Rogers’s life and his spectacular battles with breathtaking immediacy and meticulous accuracy, but brings a new and provocative perspective on Rogers’s unique vision of a unified continent, one that would influence Thomas Jefferson and inspire the Lewis and Clark expedition. Rogers’s principles of unconventional war-making would lay the groundwork for the colonial strategy later used in the War of Independence—and prove so compelling that army rangers still study them today. Robert Rogers, a backwoods founding father, was heroic, admirable, brutal, canny, ambitious, duplicitous, visionary, and much more—like America itself. **
From Booklist
Modern practitioners of military special operations know of Robert Rogers’ principles of their craft, but history readers are apt to ask, Rogers who? American Heritage editor Ross answers that query absorbingly, creating a colorful portrait of a remarkable American colonial officer of the French and Indian War. Of Scots-Irish immigrant heritage, Rogers (1731–95) experienced frontier raids in what is now New Hampshire in his boyhood. As a young man, Rogers acquitted himself with shrewd scouting as well as in brutal battles with woodland parties of the French and their Indian allies and was awarded an officer’s commission in the British army (an honor George Washington coveted in vain). Rogers’ hard-won eminence in colonial society came apart after the peace of 1763. He was court-martialed, went to debtors’ prison, sided with Tories in 1776, ensnared Nathan Hale, then receded from history. Ross’ recovery of Rogers from the footnotes closes a gap in colonial historiography with a sanguinary war biography that is practically a movie script unto itself. Buffs of the period will love it. --Gilbert Taylor
Review
“This vivid and deeply engaging book tells the story of Robert Rogers, who with his small force of Rangers developed a new American way....Rogers himself appears as a character of high complexity. Distrusted by leaders on all sides, his loyalty was to the land itself. His writings taught British settlers to think of their backcountry as a continental frontier, and his stage play Ponteach portrayed American Indians with sympathy and respect. John F. Ross has given us a memorable portrait of an authentic American-antihero, and an historical figure of high importance.”—David Hackett Fischer, Pulitzer-Prize winning author of Washington’s Crossing
"This is an epic tale of America's first great war, told with novelistic flair, and bringing to life the greatest American military leader that most readers have never encountered until now."—Joseph J. Ellis, Pulitzer Prize-Winning author of Founding Brothers: the Revolutionary Generation
“There are good books and extraordinary books. *War on the Run is one of those latter rarities. Ross has restored an authentic American hero, Robert Rogers, to the national pantheon by vividly retelling his heartbreaking story with new depth and understanding.”—Thomas Fleming, author of The Perils of Peace: America's Struggle to Survive After Yorktown “Robert Rogers and his intrepid rangers played a vital role in shaping colonial America into the future United States. Ross relates their phenomenal feats in a thrilling, meticulously researched, highly readable narrative.”—Stanley Karnow, Pulitzer Prize-winning author of Vietnam: A History*
“The ceaseless innovation that Robert Rogers applied to warfare on the American frontier is pivotal to understanding the country's twenty-first century struggles among regions and people equally remote to many of us. Only a work of singular histor...
Description:
Often hailed as the godfather of today’s elite special forces, Robert Rogers trained and led an unorthodox unit of green provincials, raw woodsmen, farmers, and Indian scouts on “impossible” missions in colonial America that are still the stuff of soldiers’ legend. The child of marginalized Scots-Irish immigrants, Rogers learned to survive in New England’s dark and deadly forests, grasping, as did few others, that a new world required new forms of warfare. John F. Ross not only re-creates Rogers’s life and his spectacular battles with breathtaking immediacy and meticulous accuracy, but brings a new and provocative perspective on Rogers’s unique vision of a unified continent, one that would influence Thomas Jefferson and inspire the Lewis and Clark expedition. Rogers’s principles of unconventional war-making would lay the groundwork for the colonial strategy later used in the War of Independence—and prove so compelling that army rangers still study them today. Robert Rogers, a backwoods founding father, was heroic, admirable, brutal, canny, ambitious, duplicitous, visionary, and much more—like America itself. **
From Booklist
Modern practitioners of military special operations know of Robert Rogers’ principles of their craft, but history readers are apt to ask, Rogers who? American Heritage editor Ross answers that query absorbingly, creating a colorful portrait of a remarkable American colonial officer of the French and Indian War. Of Scots-Irish immigrant heritage, Rogers (1731–95) experienced frontier raids in what is now New Hampshire in his boyhood. As a young man, Rogers acquitted himself with shrewd scouting as well as in brutal battles with woodland parties of the French and their Indian allies and was awarded an officer’s commission in the British army (an honor George Washington coveted in vain). Rogers’ hard-won eminence in colonial society came apart after the peace of 1763. He was court-martialed, went to debtors’ prison, sided with Tories in 1776, ensnared Nathan Hale, then receded from history. Ross’ recovery of Rogers from the footnotes closes a gap in colonial historiography with a sanguinary war biography that is practically a movie script unto itself. Buffs of the period will love it. --Gilbert Taylor
Review
“This vivid and deeply engaging book tells the story of Robert Rogers, who with his small force of Rangers developed a new American way....Rogers himself appears as a character of high complexity. Distrusted by leaders on all sides, his loyalty was to the land itself. His writings taught British settlers to think of their backcountry as a continental frontier, and his stage play Ponteach portrayed American Indians with sympathy and respect. John F. Ross has given us a memorable portrait of an authentic American-antihero, and an historical figure of high importance.”—David Hackett Fischer, Pulitzer-Prize winning author of Washington’s Crossing
"This is an epic tale of America's first great war, told with novelistic flair, and bringing to life the greatest American military leader that most readers have never encountered until now."—Joseph J. Ellis, Pulitzer Prize-Winning author of Founding Brothers: the Revolutionary Generation
“There are good books and extraordinary books. *War on the Run is one of those latter rarities. Ross has restored an authentic American hero, Robert Rogers, to the national pantheon by vividly retelling his heartbreaking story with new depth and understanding.”—Thomas Fleming, author of The Perils of Peace: America's Struggle to Survive After Yorktown
“Robert Rogers and his intrepid rangers played a vital role in shaping colonial America into the future United States. Ross relates their phenomenal feats in a thrilling, meticulously researched, highly readable narrative.”—Stanley Karnow, Pulitzer Prize-winning author of Vietnam: A History*
“The ceaseless innovation that Robert Rogers applied to warfare on the American frontier is pivotal to understanding the country's twenty-first century struggles among regions and people equally remote to many of us. Only a work of singular histor...