y website contains several references to "Rogers' Return" (including our canoe trip in 2000, our reenactments at Fort No. 4 in 2003 and again at Fort No. 4 in 2004, and probably elsewhere that I have forgotton). This is a very historical event, and we have been included in two TV productions about it: one by the BBC in England for the Ray Mears' "Extreme Survival" series, and again by the Travel Channel on one of their 'Count Down' episodes of historical mysteries. (More on those in the side-bar.) But some of you may not know what "Rogers' Return" really means.

More on Rogers' Rangers' Raid on St. Francis:

Rogers' Report, as told by Mante: the raid and the Rangers' suffering in their attempt to return

Rogers' Report, as told my Rogers himself, is extensive. To read his letter to Amherst and his own journal report, puchase his Journals, which are well worth reading.

How the Abenakis describe it.

Many people who ask about Rogers' Return understand when we say to them "Northwest Passage." This is in reference to the book of that name written by Kenneth Roberts, and a movie made in 1940 starring Spencer Tracy, Robert Young, and various others. "Oh yeah, I saw that movie/read that book." I haven't read the book, but I saw the movie and thought it was silly. Some of our rangers watch it regularly. All I can say is, thank goodness we don't wear THOSE uniforms.

So here is what it really is all about:

On September 13, 1759, Robert Rogers and 200 men left the British encampment at Crown Point, where Gen. Jeffrey Amherst was building a new fort. Their mission was to proceed northward to St. Francis, the home of the Abenaki Indians, also called Odanak on the St. Lawrence River in New France (Canada). There, they were to destroy the town, in part to avenge the treatment inflicted on British settlers by the Abenaki, and in part to avenge the treatment of Capt. Quintin Kennedy and his men, who had been carrying messages of peace but were nevertheless captured by the Abekai. In his book Montcalm and Wolfe, Francis Parkman describes the preceding events:

In his Journals, Rogers' write:

Rogers traveled up Lake Champlain and then via river to St. Francis, and arrived there on the 22nd with only 142 men, the rest having had to turn back due to various accidents and illnesses. When they arrived, most of the warriors were away, having left the village largely unprotected. Just before sunrise, his men attacked the village so quickly that the warriors did not have time to arm and defend themselves. The Rangers set fire to the village. Many Indians ran and were pursued, many were burned in their homes. Although Rogers' orders were not to harm the women and children, many were killed and wounded. The attack was over by 11am. The Rangers rounded up several surviving women and children but let most of them go, retaining two Indian boys and three girls. He also rescued 5 English who had been prisoners of the Indians, and probably other white captives as well.

The Abenaki men got word of the attack from a native who fled the village when the attack began, and were in immediate pursuit. The Rangers left the village moving quickly. Many had taken food with them, and because of the quick pace set to outrun the Abenaki braves, they had to throw most of their booty away.

Rumor and legend has it that the Rangers also took with them a very valuable silver madonna, which was in the village chapel. Legend says that the Rangers, in hot pursuit by the Abenakis, either hid the treasure or simply threw it out, but it has remained lost from history.

Rogers had left some boats on Lake Champlain for their escape, but these were found by the Indians, and thus Rogers' planned escape route was ruined. Rogers decided to go back south down the Connecticut River toward the Fort at No. 4, and sent word to Amherst that he would need provisions and asked the Gen. to send them to the Amonoosek River about 50 miles north of the Fort at No. 4. He made his way southward, and when provisions grew scarce he separated his men into smaller groups, so they were better able to find food.

Their travels to the Fort at No. 4 were harrowing, and many of his men died of starvation. Some were captured and brutally killed by the enemy pursuing them.  There was talk of cannibalism.

General Amherst had sent a Lieut. Stephens with supplies to an appointed location several days' trek north of the fort, but the lieutenant got scared when he heard a musket and didn't wait for them, and when he left, just two hours before they arrived, he took the rescue provisions with him! What he didn't know is that the musket he heard was Rogers sending a signal of his arrival.  Stephens was later court-martialed.

Rogers' men were unable to continue from the meeting point, and so he and three others made their way down the river on rafts. He told his men to wait and said he would return in 10 days. Rogers, with the injured Capt. Ogden, one unknown private soldier, and a captive Abenaki boy, made a raft from dry pine trees, floated down-river to Charlestown. They had to make a new raft along the way, but made it in time. They were there in time to send rescue and provisions northward to arrive on the 10th day, as promised. Some of his men had died of starvation by that time, but many were saved. Amongst those who lived were some of the Abenaki captives:

"Susanna Johnson, captured August 1754 and taken to St. Francis, states in her journal, 'In October Maj. Rogers returned from St. Francis. He had destroyed and killed most of the inhabitants. He brouth with him a young Indian prisoner, who stopped at my house, the moment he saw me he cried, here is my sister; it was my brother Sabatis, who formerly brought the cows for me, when I lived at my Indian masters.' He was without a single relation and Susanna felt his miseries.

"She recieved from one of Major Rogers' men a bundle of Mr. Johnson's papers, which had lain at St. Francis five years."

Barbara Johnson, Historian - Fort at No. 4, 25 October 2004

More soon...