Captain Alexander Fraser of the 34th Regiment, a veteran of the French and Indian War, commanded what became known as the Company of Select Marksmen during the Burgoyne campaign in 1777.
The French and Indian War (1754–1763) pitted the colonies of British America against those of New France, each side supported by military units from the parent country and by American Indian allies. At the start of the war, the French colonies had a population of roughly 60,000 settlers, compared with 2 million in the British colonies. The outnumbered French particularly depended on the Indians.
The Saratoga campaign in 1777 was an attempt by the British high command for North America to gain military control of the strategically important Hudson River valley during the American Revolutionary War. It ended in the surrender of the British army, which historian Edmund Morgan argues, "was a great turning point of the war, because it won for Americans the foreign assistance which was the last element needed for victory."
The Marksmen, sometimes known as Rangers, were to consist of two good men from each company of the regiments then in Canada (9th, 20th, 21st, 24th, 31st, 34th, 47th, 53rd and 62nd) excluding the 8th (or King's) Regiment. This company, acting as scouts and light infantry under Capt Fraser did much good work participating in the battles of Hubbardton, Bennington and Saratoga. Capt Fraser either escaped or was one of four British officers to be given passports from Saratoga with General Burgoyne's papers, returning to Fort Ticonderoga and Quebec with news of the defeat. Alexander Fraser continued fighting and raiding throughout the American Revolutionary War and afterwards eventually becoming the commanding officer of the 45th (or Nottinghamshire) Regiment in 1795.
The Battle of Hubbardton was an engagement in the Saratoga campaign of the American Revolutionary War fought in the village of Hubbardton, Vermont. Vermont was then a disputed territory sometimes called the New Hampshire Grants, claimed by New York, New Hampshire, and the newly organized and not yet recognized but de facto independent government of Vermont. On the morning of July 7, 1777, British forces, under General Simon Fraser, caught up with the American rear guard of the forces retreating after the withdrawal from Fort Ticonderoga. It was the only battle in Vermont during the revolution.
The Battle of Bennington was a battle of the American Revolutionary War, part of the Saratoga campaign, that took place on August 16, 1777, in Walloomsac, New York, about 10 miles (16 km) from its namesake Bennington, Vermont. A rebel force of 2,000 men, primarily New Hampshire and Massachusetts militiamen, led by General John Stark, and reinforced by Vermont militiamen led by Colonel Seth Warner and members of the Green Mountain Boys, decisively defeated a detachment of General John Burgoyne's army led by Lieutenant Colonel Friedrich Baum, and supported by additional men under Lieutenant Colonel Heinrich von Breymann.
Fort Ticonderoga, formerly Fort Carillon, is a large 18th-century star fort built by the French at a narrows near the south end of Lake Champlain, in northern New York, in the United States. It was constructed by Canadian-born French military engineer Michel Chartier de Lotbinière, Marquis de Lotbinière between October 1755 and 1757, during the action in the "North American theater" of the Seven Years' War, often referred to in the US as the French and Indian War. The fort was of strategic importance during the 18th-century colonial conflicts between Great Britain and France, and again played an important role during the American Revolutionary War.
The Revolutionary War re-enactment unit 'Company of Select Marksmen' portray members of the 34th and other member units with their women, children and native allies.
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The Battles of Saratoga marked the climax of the Saratoga campaign, giving a decisive victory to the Americans over the British in the American Revolutionary War. British General John Burgoyne led a large invasion army southward from Canada in the Champlain Valley, hoping to meet a similar British force marching northward from New York City and another British force marching eastward from Lake Ontario; the southern and western forces never arrived, and Burgoyne was surrounded by American forces in upstate New York. He fought two small battles to break out which took place 18 days apart on the same ground, 9 miles (14 km) south of Saratoga, New York. They both failed.
General John Burgoyne was a British army officer, dramatist and politician who sat in the House of Commons from 1761 to 1792. He first saw action during the Seven Years' War when he participated in several battles, most notably during the Portugal Campaign of 1762.
Daniel Morgan was an American pioneer, soldier, and politician from Virginia. One of the most gifted battlefield tacticians of the American Revolutionary War (1775–1783), he later commanded troops during the suppression of the Whiskey Rebellion (1791–1794).
General James Inglis Hamilton was a Scottish soldier. He enlisted in the British Army in 1755 and commanded several regiments. He was the only colonel of the 113th Regiment of Foot. During the Seven Years' War (1756–1763), Hamilton fought in the Siege of Fort St Philip, the Raid on St Malo, and the Capture of Belle Île.
Simon Fraser was a British general during the American War of Independence who was killed in the Battle of Bemis Heights during the Saratoga Campaign by Timothy Murphy, an American rifleman.
Ebenezer Learned was a brigadier general in the American Continental Army during the Revolutionary War.
Barrimore Matthew "Barry" St. Leger was a British army officer. St. Leger was active in the Saratoga Campaign, commanding an invasion force that unsuccessfully besieged Fort Stanwix. St. Leger remained on the frontier for the duration of the war; after its conclusion, he served briefly as commander of British forces in Quebec.
The 1777 Siege of Fort Ticonderoga occurred between 2 and 6 July 1777 at Fort Ticonderoga, near the southern end of Lake Champlain in the state of New York. Lieutenant General John Burgoyne's 8,000-man army occupied high ground above the fort, and nearly surrounded the defenses. These movements precipitated the occupying Continental Army, an under-strength force of 3,000 under the command of General Arthur St. Clair, to withdraw from Ticonderoga and the surrounding defenses. Some gunfire was exchanged, and there were some casualties, but there was no formal siege and no pitched battle. Burgoyne's army occupied Fort Ticonderoga and Mount Independence, the extensive fortifications on the Vermont side of the lake, without opposition on 6 July. Advance units pursued the retreating Americans.
Timothy Murphy (1751–1818) was a rifleman in the American Revolutionary War. At the Battle of Bemis Heights on October 7, 1777, Murphy is reputed to have shot and killed Sir Francis Clerke and General Simon Fraser. Murphy's life is the subject of John Brick's 1953 novel, The Rifleman.
The 2nd New Hampshire Regiment was formed in early May 1775, as the second of three Continental Army regiments raised by the state of New Hampshire during the American Revolutionary War. Its first commander was Colonel Enoch Poor, with Joseph Cilley as major. Many of the men who served in the unit hailed from southeastern New Hampshire and western Maine. During the first part of its service, the regiment took part in the siege of Boston, and there is a link below in the reference section to the orderly book of an officer in the unit during that time.
Simonds' Regiment of Militia also known as the 2nd Berkshire County Regiment was raised in Berkshire County, Massachusetts during the American Revolutionary War. The Regiment was at Fort Ticonderoga during the winter of 1776-1777. Simonds' Regiment was called up in the summer of 1777 during the Saratoga Campaign fighting at the Battle of Bennington with General John Stark's Brigade of New Hampshire Militia. Many volunteers also joined the regiment at this time including William Easton, and the "Fighting Parson," Thomas Allen. Simonds' Regiment attacked Friedrich Baum's redoubt from the south during the battle as Stickney's, Hale's and Hobart's attacked form the east and Nichols' attacked from the west. The regiment would continue on to the Battle of Bemis Heights and the surrender of British General John Burgoyne's army. The regiment would also be called up in response to Carleton's Raid and the Royalton Raid of 1780.
The 55th Regiment of Foot was a British Army infantry regiment, raised in 1755. After 1782 it had a county designation added, becoming known as the 55th (Westmorland) Regiment of Foot. Under the Childers Reforms it amalgamated with the 34th (Cumberland) Regiment of Foot to form the Border Regiment in 1881.
The 34th Regiment of Foot was an infantry regiment of the British Army, raised in 1702. Under the Childers Reforms it amalgamated with the 55th (Westmorland) Regiment of Foot to form the Border Regiment in 1881.
The Maryland and Virginia Rifle Regiment, most commonly known as Rawlings' Regiment in period documents, was organized in June 1776 as a specialized light infantry unit of riflemen in the Continental Army during the American Revolutionary War. The American rifle units complemented the predominant, musket-equipped, line infantry forces of the war with their long-range marksmanship capability and were typically deployed with the line infantry as forward skirmishers and flanking elements. Scouting, escort, and outpost duties were also routine. The rifle units' battle formation was not nearly as structured as that of the line infantry units, which employed short-range massed firing in ordered linear formations. The riflemen could therefore respond with more adaptability to changing battle conditions.
Adams' Rangers, also known as Adams’ Company of Rangers, were a British Loyalist local volunteer corps and independent military company raised to support the British Army during the American Revolutionary war. Led by Dr. Samuel Adams of Arlington, New Hampshire Grants, the Rangers made their most significant contribution to the British war effort by serving with the ill-fated Burgoyne Expedition in the Saratoga campaign of 1777.
The 71st Regiment of Foot was a regiment of infantry raised in 1775, during the American Revolutionary War and unofficially known as Fraser's Highlanders. It was disbanded in 1786.
McAlpin's Corps, also known as McAlpin's Corps of Royalists and the American Volunteers, referred to either of two loyalist units in the British Army, in British Canada, commanded by Major Daniel McAlpin, during the American Revolutionary War. In most instances, the name described the American Volunteers, a corps of American Loyalists, who served in the 1777 Burgoyne Expedition, of the Saratoga Campaign. The term was also used, at times, to refer to a 'battalion' put under the command of McAlpin, in 1779, formed from the remnants of General Burgoyne's several loyalist corps, including the "American Volunteers", the King's Loyal Americans, the Queen's Loyal Rangers, and Adams' Rangers.
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