War on the Run: The Epic Story of Robert Rogers and the Conquest of America's First Frontier |  | Author: John F. Ross
Publisher: Bantam
Category: eBooks
This item is no longer available
Rating:  32 reviews
Sales Rank: 22926
Format: Kindle Book
Media: Kindle Edition
Pages: 576
Number Of Items: 1
Dewey Decimal Number: 973.3092
ASIN: B0029WRHG2
Publication Date: May 14, 2009
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Product Description
Hailed as the father of today’s elite special forces, Robert Rogers was not only a wilderness warrior but North America’s first noteworthy playwright and authentic celebrity. In a riveting biography, John F. Ross reconstructs the extraordinary achievements of this fearless and inspiring leader whose exploits in the early New England wilderness read like those of an action hero and whose innovative principles of unconventional warfare are still used today.
They were a group of handpicked soldiers chosen for their backwoods savvy, courage, and endurance. Led by a young captain whose daring made him a hero on two continents, Rogers’s Rangers earned a deadly fame among their most formidable French and Indian enemies for their ability to appear anywhere at any time, burst out of the forest with overwhelming force, and vanish just as quickly. This swift, elusive, intelligence-gathering strike force was the brainchild of Robert Rogers, a uniquely American kind of war maker capable of motivating a new breed of warrior.
The child of marginalized Scots-Irish immigrants, Robert 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. Marrying European technology to the stealth and adaptability he observed in native warriors, Rogers trained and led an unorthodox unit of green provincials, raw woodsmen, farmers, and Indian scouts on “impossible” missions that are still the stuff of soldiers’ legend. Covering heartbreaking distances behind enemy lines, they traversed the wilderness in whaleboats and snowshoes, slept without fire or sufficient food in below-freezing temperatures, and endured hardships that would destroy ordinary men.
With their novel tactics and fierce esprit de corps, the Rangers laid the groundwork for the colonial strategy later used in the War of Independence. Never have the stakes of a continent hung in the hands of so few men. Rogers would eventually write two seminal books whose vision of a unified continent would influence Thomas Jefferson and inspire the Lewis and Clark expedition.
In War on the Run, John F. Ross vividly re-creates Rogers’s life and his spectacular battles, having traveled over much of Rogers’s campaign country. He presents with breathtaking immediacy and painstaking accuracy a man and an era whose enormous influence on America has been too little appreciated.
From the Hardcover edition.
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Showing reviews 1-5 of 32
 A very good book and a Very terrible book! May 21, 2010
Jake Barnes (Pittsburgh, PA)
1 out of 2 found this review helpful
First what this book does well is describe the hostile environment that Rogers lived and fought in. Ross does an excellent job of setting the reader into the harsh frontier world and describing the specific type of combat that took place there. He develops well the sense that Rogers was a special man for these special kind of missions. I was left with a detailed sense of how personally brave Rogers was, what an extraordinary leader he was among different kinds of men both colonists and native American, and how quickly and effectively he adapted 'Indian' styles of moving forces, reconnoitering and fighting. I was left with an awe of the men who fought in such conditions and especially of Rogers, who's courage and sound thinking enabled him to survive incredible ordeals.
Secondly though there are many things in the book that Ross does only fairly well. He writes of the negative side of Rogers' personality; his inability to get along with Commanders, his criminal past, his drinking, his failed business ventures and his terrible relations as a father and husband. Ross acknowledges these dark aspects but with no historical detail, preferring to describe in detail each raid, battle and of course the arduous trek against the Abernaki at St. Francis, and it it as those moments that Ross succeeds so well, but that is only a part of the man, not the whole, which this biography claims to encompass.
And Thirdly what the author does very poorly is realistically assess the man in his time. He paints the picture of a misunderstood hero who risked all for his country and was repaid with bitter accusations and mistrust. It was mainly ego not sense of duty that drove Rogers; to undertake such dangerous missions, to finance expeditions himself and expect full monetary reimbursement, to seek a commission in the British army after the war, to search for the famed Northwest passage, and to ultimately fight against the Continental Army and publicly acknowledge Nathan Hale to be a spy. For comparison Ross puts Washington in a bad light by not securing an Officership with the British army while Rogers did obtain one. What Ross does not acknowledge is that Washington, like many other true patriots and some fellow Rangers who would go on to lead units for the American cause, no longer wanted or cared to seek a commission with an Army that so looked down on his fellow colonial officers and men. Washington returned to be a gentleman farmer because he was first and above all a Virginian. It was that love of their own American land and governments that allowed the patriots to envision a larger, separate government in America. Rogers never possessed that 'love of colony/country'. He was in many ways a tragic figure who turned out to be only good at one thing; leading men into the woods of the Northeast to kill other men ( and sometimes women and children ), which he did expertly, but unfortunately it was all that he did well and Ross fails greatly in not realizing this.
Glaringly Omitted Documented Accounts of Rogers' treason to the Continental Army:
"I, Robert Rogers, Major on half pay in his Majesty's Army, a prisoner in the custody of the Committee of Safety for the Province of Pennsylvania, and being kindly treated and protected by them, and engaged on parole, do hereby solemnly promise and engage, on the honor of a soldier and a gentleman, that I will not bear arms against the American United Colonies, in any manner whatever, during the present contest between them and Great Britain; and that I will not in that time, attempt to give intelligence to General Gage, the British Ministries or any other person or persons, of any matter relating to America.
Robert Rogers, Major. ('The Journals of Major Robert Rogers' Edited by Franklin B. Hough, 1883, Page 166; Google Books)
Virginia Gazette Number 78: July 26, 1776: "Philadelphia July 15, The night before last major Roberts made his escape from this city."
"Before he was sent off from Philadelphia, Rogers found means to escape, and found his way to General Howe, by whom he was empowered to raise a battalion of Rangers. It appears that Rogers lost no time in accepting this appointment, for a letter from William Duer, to Gen. Washington dated at Harlem, Aug. 30, 1776. He says: '. . . that on yesterday morning, one Lounsberry, in Westchester county, who had headed a body of about fourteen tories, was killed by an officer named Flood, on his refusal to surrender himself prisoner; that in his pocket book was found a Commission signed by General Howe to Major Rogers, empowering him to raise a battalion of Rangers, with the rank of Lieutenant-Colonel Commandant". ('The Journals of Major Robert Rogers' page 176)
 Very well written May 17, 2010
Thomas L. Mccrary Jr.
2 out of 3 found this review helpful
This is one of the best books I have read. The way it is written it's as if you are right there with Rogers and his rangers.
After reading this book you also understand how the British won that war. You also realize that politics were as crooked then as they are now.
WAR ON THE RUN: THE EPIC STORY OF ROBERT ROGERS AND THE CONQUEST OF AMERICA'S FIRST FRONTIER March 25, 2010
Robert A. Lynn (Orlando, Florida)
1 out of 2 found this review helpful
WAR ON THE RUN: THE EPIC STORY OF ROBERT ROGERS AND THE CONQUEST OF AMERICA'S FIRST FRONTIER
JOHN F. ROSS
BANTAM, 2009
HARDCOVER, $30.00, MAPS, CHRONOLOGY, 576 PAGES, APPENDICES, INDEX, BIBLIOGRAPHY
By its very nature, modern warfare offers little in the way of romance; however, the exploits of hard-hitting assault and reconnaissance units (commandos and special operations forces) are replete with elements of daring and stealth. These groups are generally light infantry specializing in long-distance penetration of enemy held territory; self-contained and deliberately independent of extensive logistics trains. They pride themselves on speed, surprise, initiative, and resourcefulness. Their prime utility is to disrupt enemy supply and support areas, gather intelligence, serve as flanking forces, or operate as rear guards for a retiring friendly force. An early prototype for these groups was that band of troops known collectively as Rogers' Rangers of the French and Indian War (1754-1763). Comprised of selected levies from the American colonies, and leavened with an interspersing of attached British regulars and American Indians; the Rangers were officially activated in 1755 and served intact until the war's end. No single individual so characterized the Ranger type as did the unit commander himself, Major Robert Rogers. It can be said that he cut a mold from which other charismatic leaders (Wingate in Burma) were later cast. He was born in 1731 to Scotch-Irish settlers living in Massachusett's lower Merrimack Valley, and grew up along the frontier to the west of the middle valley, in New Hampshire. Having established as a separate political entity only late in the 17th Century, New Hampshire was a wild and dangerous place during Rogers' formative years. The frontier environment wqas fluid, agrarian, one in which squatters' rights, self-reliance, and self-defense were tenets of daily existence. Six feet tall in stature and by all accounts a physically rugged individual, Rogers was in his element. He presumably developed his legendary tracking skills during his youth and early manhood. Beginning with the Battle of Lake George campaign on 8 September 1755, his career as a Ranger began. Selected by Sir William Johnson, he soon became famous for his ability to enter the wilderness, pinpoint enemy outposts, bring back seized material or prisoners/scalps, and return with generally few casualties. While the exploits would carry him as far as the Michilimackinac and Ohio countries, of his wartime ranging took part in present-day Essex, Warren, and Washington Counties, New York. This is a vast area of some 3,500 square miles: rocky, forested, cut through by numerous lakes and streams, and traversed then by few roads or tracks. In the struggle for the mastery of the continent, which ever side could force its way through this strategic terrain would then be astride either the vital northward routes, the Richelieu and the St. Lawrence, or southward down the Hudson. Because both sides were stalemated in this area through most of the war, Rogers' tactics and mobility made him immediately conspicuous. From 1755 to 1759,Rogers and his men, gradually expanded from one company to more than seven, were a formidable foe. In distinct contrast to most colonial levies, Rogers and many of his men continued in the field, year after year, through all weather and seasons. He seems to have been one of the few noteworthy colonial figures, besides George Washington and John Bradstreet, to have chosen an active military career for the entire war. He codified his methods, which were mostly successful. WAR ON THE RUN: THE EPIC STORY OF ROBERT ROGERS AND THE CONQUEST OF AMERICA'S FIRST FRONTIER starts with Rogers' genealogy, career, and personality. It's all here-the Battle of the Snowshoes, the capture of Ticonderoga, the conflict with Chief Pontiac, and Rogers' role in the American Revolution. Ross's attention to detail is astounding; one comes away from this book with a new regard of the hardships of 18th Century life in America. An outstanding read!
Lt. Colonel Robert A. Lynn, Florida Guard
Orlando, Florida
War on the run March 16, 2010
Recon Sniper
1 out of 3 found this review helpful
This was a great war book. Robert Rogers was ahead of his time and was a true combat leader. If you have served with a Recon Unit or Ranger unit you should read this book.
America's First Super Hero March 13, 2010
Earl A. Myers, Jr.
1 out of 2 found this review helpful
What a fascinating study of the life of a man few people knew ever existed! Unless you are a student of the French and Indian War, the name of Robert Rogers holds little or no significance. I, quite frankly as a somewhat interested reader of this early period of the country's development, had only a cursory acquaintance with this formidable historic figure. If the names of Boone, Crockett, Lewis and Clark are readily brought to mind, then a study of the life and times of Robert Rogers deserves as much attention.
His exploits and founder of the Rangers, today known as special operations, are legendary. The knowledge he gained and passed on to others concerning the early frontier beyond the Appalachians proved to be invaluable to the British in their efforts to expel the French and later to the Colonial forces in their fight for independence.
The author has captured the flavor of Rogers's dominant and courageous personality and the era in which he lived. For some the minutiae of Rogers's extensive raids into the interior against French strongholds may prove to be a strain; however, for those like myself, this exciting trip with Rogers and his daring Rangers was both informative and adventuresome.
It is only too sad that Rogers life was plagued by those superiors, including British and Colonial, who misunderstood his motives, by a British government that inadequately compensated him or his men for their endeavors on the government's behalf, and by creditors who were relentless and unforgiving in their avarice. Unfortunately the man was also caught between allegiances to the Crown for whom he served under most of his life and the emerging fledgling nation seeking its freedom from the same maritime establishment.
Showing reviews 1-5 of 32
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