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6 Responses to “How effective were Rangers during the French & Indian War?”Leave a Reply
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As I understand it, they were only marginally effective
To determine the effectiveness of the Rangers we first have know what their purpose was. That was to gain intelligence. Since the crown had no Indian allies with which to speak, the Rangers became the eyes of the frontier army. In this capacity, they worked extremely well. Rogers' Rangers would continually get prisoners for interrogation and spy upon the enemy. Much more reliable than Indians and since they were trained resonably well could give reliable information. As long as the crown used them in that capacity the Rangers had a fearsome reputation. Obviously, that wasn't always the case.
If we give validitiy to the historical backgroung in Kenneth Roberts novels,we must assume that the rangers were the answer to the french use of indians and gave us a force that could work with indians who wanted to work with the british. They also established the credibility of colonials as a fighting force.
Rogers Rangers & other organizations like them throughout the colonies were effective in scouting, intelligence gathering & early warning. When it came to 'formal' operations they all proved less effective… it was not what they were trained & organized to do.
marginal
They were created as a response to the very effective raiding strategy of the French and Indians. The French added discipline and military objectives to the Indian techniques for moving and fighting in the environment of North America.
Like the Rangers, they were not suited to the more formal methods of the last war (1755-1763), though they could be very deadly,e.g., during the siege of Québec