The Rangers Part 2 Source: History of Charlestown, NH - Fort No. 4 by Rev. Henry H. Saunderson 1876 Chapter 5 p.91 Probably our country, in all her wars and conflicts, has never nourished up a more fearless and determined set of men than were brought out by the circumstances and duties of the times, in the old French war, (the Cape Breton, as it was called). Capt. Phineas Stevens, in the Ranger service, was the commanding spirit of the times. Dearly did the Indians pay for their raid on Rudtland, Massachusetts, when they killed two of his little brothers and took him, then a youth of sixteen, prisoner, and carried him to Canada to learn their habits and mode of warfare. They got the better of him in that transaction, but never afterwards, for in all his battles and skirmishes with them, which in number were many, he was never in a single instance, overcome; and in this service he was the exemplar and teacher of all that followed. In the subsequent war which followed the peace of Aix la Chapelle, this class of partisan leaders was more number- ous, and their commands embraced forced raised on a larg- er scale. I need not name them here as their names will be found elsewhere, in this work. But the characterist- ics of the Rangers, in its dangers, its hardships, and its requirements of unflinching courage, were, in all, the same. The Indians of whom mention has been frequently made, who caused by their incursions, so much evil to the inhabitants of Charlestown and other frontier townships of New Hampshire, were a branch of the Abenaqui tribe, whose chief location was at the village of St. Francis, situated at the mouth of the river of the same name, in Canada. The Abenaquis were the original possessors of the territory lying east of Lake Champlain, as the Iro- quois were of the lands extending westward from that lake. In modern times the tribe appears to have been divided and subdivided and to have been called by different names, according to the different localities which they were most accustomed to frequent. These divisions of the tribe also claimed for themselves particular port- ions territory which they regarded as theirs by right, and on which they did not allow any others, whether Indian or white men, to intrude. Thus the Algonquins claimed the territory north of the St. Lawrence; the St. Francis tribe, the territory now occupied by Vermont and a portion of Massachusetts, and that section of New Hampshire which lies on, and west of the Merrimac River. To the St. Francis tribe also belonged the Coosucks, who were the Indians claiming two sections of land on the Connecticut River; one above the fifteen mile falls, about Lunenburg and the other below, about Newbury. Their name was intended to be descriptive of the terri- tory they possessed, the word, "Coos" it is said mean- ing pines, and "suck" meaning a river. The St. Francis tribes regarded the Connecticut River as among their most valuable possessions, and affirmed, as the reason for their hostility to the English, that they had settled down upon their lands without purchase. How- ever this may have been, they pertinaciously refused to give up their claim to the lands on that river and till the conquest of Canada by the English, still appear to have entertained the hope of again possessing them; and in the contest for that possession they became the most blood thirsty and cruel enemies which the frontier settlements on the Connecticut River in New Hampshire and Massachusetts had ever had to encounter. Some of them settled at Newbury and continued to live there after the close of the war, but most of them re- tired into Canada. The war had greatly diminished their numbers and especially had they received a severe blow from the expedition of Major Robert Rogers, from which, had the war continued, they could never have recovered. But peace proved to them more fatal than war, for emi- gration, which had found its greatest obstacle in the contentions of the rival nations, set in immediately, in a broad and full current, the moment it was considered that the contest was closed - and colonization, which has always proved so destructive to the red man, soon swept away not only the warriors of the St. Francis tribe, who had battled for France, but the Iroquois as well, who had been the allies of England. On the subjugation of Canada by the English, in 1760 the circumstances of Charlestown as well as of the frontier towns generally, were greatly changed. For though the war between France and England still continu- ed, all incursions and depredations which had been so harassing and often so fatal to the settlers, were at an end. For fifteen years, almost to the cessation, the minds of the inhabitants had been held in a state of apprehension. For though during several of these years there had been between the bellerent nations a nominal peace, it was not of a nature to inspire confidence, as the impression was general in the English American Prov- inces that the negotiations on the part of France were entered into only with the design of taking advantage of the time that would be gained for making better prep- arations for the renewal of hostilities. It is true that for a short period, during the spring and summer of 1753 the prospect seemed favorable for a continued peace; and the inhabitants were so well assured of safety that they no longer felt under the necessity of relying for protection upon the fort; but went boldly forth to reside and pursue their avocations outside its walls. But this lull in their apprehensions was only for a short time and they were soon again destined to a disappointment in their expectations. But the conquest of Canada made an entire change in the circumstances of their situation, and they felt, at length, that their trials were over, as it was not probable that the power of France, which it had cost so much blood and treasure to overthrow, would ever be re-established; and the Indians, whatever might be their disposition if deprived of the aid of their French allies, could be speedily disposed of, as they were neither numerous nor powerful enough to sustain a contest alone. The frontier settlements were, therefore, not only relieved from all the fearful apprehensions which had so long harrassed them, but the cause which had for many years prevented the progress of emigration was also removed; the consequence of which was an almost furor of excitement for obtaining the new lands, which had been thrown open for settlement. ______________________________________________________ End Part 2 - RANGERS