The unit immediately set about building fortresses and redoubts, including the one that stood at Lookout Place. Rogers did not prove successful in this command and he left the unit on January 29, 1777. The regiment had suffered serious losses in the Battle of Mamaroneck, a surprise attack on their outpost position at Mamaroneck, New York, on October 22, 1776. Eleven months later, on September 11, 1777, they distinguished themselves at the Battle of Brandywine, suffering many casualties while attacking entrenched American positions. They were then commanded by Major James Wemyss. On October 15, 1777, John Graves Simcoe was given command, when the unit became known informally as "Simcoe's Rangers". John Graves Simcoe turned the Queen's Rangers into one of the most successful British regiments in the war. They provided escort and patrol duty around Philadelphia (1777–8); fought in the Philadelphia Campaign; served as rearguard during the British retreat to New York (1778); fought the Stockbridge Militia in The Bronx (1778); fought on October 26, 1779, at Perth Amboy, New Jersey, where Simcoe was captured but freed in a prisoner exchange on December 31, 1779; at Charlestown, South Carolina (1780); in the raid on Richmond, Virginia with Benedict Arnold and in other raids in Virginia (1780–1). The unit surrendered at Yorktown and its rank and file were imprisoned at Winchester, Virginia. Earlier, on May 2, 1779, the regiment was taken into the American establishment as the 1st American Regiment and was later, on December 25, 1782, taken into the British establishment. In 1783, when the war was ended by the Treaty of Paris, the Queen's Rangers left New York for Nova Scotia, where it was disbanded. Many of the men from the unit formed Queensbury, New Brunswick on land grants. Post-war years After 1791, when Simcoe was named lieutenant governor of the newly created Upper Canada, the Queen's Rangers was revived to form the core of the defence forces. The leaders were mostly veterans of the American War of Independence. Although there was little military action during this period, the Rangers were instrumental in building Upper Canada through Simcoe's road building campaign. In 1795–6 they blazed the trail for Yonge Street, and then turned to Dundas Street and Kingston Road. They also built the original Fort York, where they were stationed. The Queen's Rangers were again disbanded in 1802 with most of the men joining the York Militia. During the