Lieutenant Colonel Robert Rogers (7 November 1731 – 18 May 1795) was an American colonial frontiersman. Rogers served in the British Army during both the French and Indian War and the American Revolutionary War. During the French and Indian War, Rogers raised and commanded the famous Rogers' Rangers, trained for raiding and close combat behind enemy lines. Early life Robert Rogers was born to Ulster-Scots settlers, James and Mary McFatridge Rogers on 7 November 1731 in Methuen, a small town in northeastern Massachusetts. At that time, the town served as a staging point for Scots-Irish settlers bound for the wilderness of New Hampshire. In 1739 when Rogers was eight years old, his family relocated to the Great Meadow district of New Hampshire near present-day Concord, where James founded a settlement on of land which he called Munterloney, after a hilly place in County Londonderry, Ireland. Rogers referred to this childhood residence as "Mountalona". It was later renamed Dunbarton, New Hampshire. In 1740, the War of the Austrian Succession (1740–1748) broke out in Europe and, in 1744, the war spread to North America, where it was known as King George's War (1744–1748). During Rogers' youth (1746), he saw service in the New Hampshire militia as a private in Captain Daniel Ladd's Scouting Company and, in 1747, also as a private in Ebenezer Eastman's Scouting Company, both times guarding the New Hampshire frontier. In 1754, Rogers became involved with a gang of counterfeiters. He was indicted but the case was never brought to trial. French and Indian War In 1755, war engulfed the colonies, spreading also to Europe. Britain and France declared war on each other. The British in America suffered a string of defeats including Braddock's at the Battle of the Monongahela trying to capture Fort Duquesne. Encouraged by the French victories, American Indians launched a series of attacks along the colonial frontier. During the French and Indian War, Israel Putnam (who would go on to later fame in the Revolutionary War) fought as a Connecticut militia captain in conjunction with Rogers, and at one point saved his life. Ranger recruiter In 1756, Rogers arrived in Portsmouth, New Hampshire, and began to muster soldiers for the British Crown, using the authority vested in him by Colonel Winslow. Rogers' recruitment drive was well supported by the frightened and angry provincials due to attacks by American Indians along the frontier. In Portsmouth, he