Robert Rogers, Ranger: The Rise and Fall of an American Icon

BOOK REVIEW: Robert Rogers, Ranger: The Rise and Fall of an American Icon by Martin Klotz. (Yardley, PA: Westholme Publishing, 2024). $32.50 hardcover.

In 1940, Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer movies released “Northwest Passage,” a rather loose adaptation of Kenneth Roberts’ book by the same name.[1] In it, well-liked and respected hero-figure Robert Rogers leads a skilled and disciplined corps of rangers on a raid deep into Quebec to destroy the Indian village of St. Francis, and then takes the corps west to search for the passage. This movie has provided the basis for what, if anything, most modern Americans know of Rogers and his rangers. However, history on the screen—be it movie, tv, or smartphone—is not necessarily accurate and the portrayal of Rogers and his corps in this movie can be classed as a role model for inaccuracy.

For those who wish to learn more about Robert Rogers, there are not a lot of biographies available, and most are rather dated. While a handful of editions of Rogers’ Journals have more recently been published, they do not offer a broad view of his life. In the first book-length biography of Rogers to be published since Gary Zaboly’s A True Ranger came out in 2004, Martin Klotz sets out to correct that situation.

Robert Rogers, Ranger is quite different than Zaboly’s work. Unlike the latter—a lengthy book (over 500 pages) intended to tell the story in minute detail—Mr. Klotz gives us a biography intended for a more general audience. His writing style makes for an easy read and, at 236 pages of text, a reader can finish the book rather quickly. There is a good index and the narrative is thoroughly documented with an abundance of endnotes.

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Mr. Klotz utilizes a chronological format for most of the book. The major exception is the chapter on Rogers’ marriage which outlines that arrangement over decades. The moving back and forth between characters, locations, and time periods makes the chapter a bit harder to follow than the others. Overall, however, the chapters flow together nicely and, being short (most around ten pages), the book can easily be set aside after short reading sessions.

There is little new information or interpretation in the book. Most events of Rogers’ life do not receive detailed attention but three topics are given extra consideration. The first is the above-mentioned marriage: there is the chapter but the author also touches on that relationship throughout the book.

The second is Rogers’ trial for treason and there is a chapter devoted to that event. Being a lawyer, Mr. Klotz’s rather detailed discussion of the trial’s procedures and legal steps is at a much more informed level than a reader might normally expect. His presentation is that much more instructive since he avoids dense legalese and explains finer points of the background and trial in layman’s language.

Rogers’ obsession with finding the mythical Northwest Passage also receives considerable attention by the author. Efforts at locating the Northwest Passage had been centered on a water passage but Rogers felt sure he could find it by moving overland from the Great Lakes region. He repeatedly attempted to satisfy this desire and government rejected his suggestions each time.[2] Mr. Klotz explains how, as with many aspects of his life, Rogers’ dreams dramatically exceeded his reach and his attempts to satisfy this particular urge contributed considerably to his downfall.

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As might be expected, the bulk of the book covers Rogers’ activity during the French and Indian War and the American Revolution. An overarching theme before, during, and following these experiences is Rogers’ inability to handle money, resulting in constant debt. Mr. Klotz effectively weaves together this characteristic with other personality traits to explain how someone that had considerable potential brought about his own demise.

There is one challenge with the book: the author extensively cites secondary sources—in particular, Gary Zaboly’s book. While Mr. Zaboly is a thorough researcher, he, like all researchers, bring to their work their concomitant prejudices and biases. Mr. Klotz also makes frequent use of Rogers’ Journals. It can be argued that the Journals are a primary source even though edited by other historians but, again, the editors will have their own biases, subconscious or deliberate.

Editing is not the major problem with the Journals, however: the problem is Robert Rogers himself. To his credit, Mr. Klotz spends several paragraphs describing how the use of Rogers’ writings bring with it its own difficulties. First, Rogers wrote the Journals years after the events and memory can easily be altered by time (and alcoholism in this case). Mr. Klotz writes that, worse than altered memory, “the Journals is a masterpiece of understated self-promotion.” The reader can only hope that since Mr. Klotz is obviously well aware of this component of Rogers’ personality—it is pointed out many times—he applied that knowledge to his choice of excerpts and verified Rogers’ writings with other sources.

Some biographers have praised Robert Rogers’ and Rogers Rangers. Like Rogers’ contemporaries, they believed the hype. In colonial America (and the subsequent United States), society needed native-born heroes (Rogers was from Methuen, Massachusetts) so, in spite of the faults and defeats of Rogers and his men, people put them up on a marble pedestal. Mr. Klotz converts that pedestal to wood and then burns it out from under them. And, he lets the reader know in the title that this is going to happen—“The Rise and Fall of an American Icon” (emphasis added). He outlines his plans in the preface and then moves into full attack mode in the discussion of Rogers’ early years: “To strength and athleticism, and perhaps because of them, one can add the traits of self-confidence and fearlessness, although in him these traits too easily veered into conceit and recklessness.”

Mr. Klotz does a fine job of discussing Rogers as a person. He gives him credit for his physical abilities and personal aptitude for scouting and intelligence gathering but, he also points out Rogers’ struggles. In some detail, the author discusses Rogers’ inability to handle money or deal with interpersonal relationships at any level including his marriage and military career. He also points out his deficiencies of command at any level which led to several major defeats in his military career and to his failure to achieve goals of advancement although constantly marketing himself. To a lesser extent but still with little positive to say, he discusses the problems evident in the conduct of Rogers Rangers as a military organization.

Because of this approach, Robert Rogers, Ranger might not be for fans of Rogers or Rogers Rangers. There simply is not much in this book that shines a positive light on those subjects. However, if said fans keep an open mind, they might well get a lot out of the book—readers wanting some insight into Robert Rogers certainly will.

[1] The screenplay so altered Roberts’ book that he refused to support the planned sequel.

[2] It is interesting to note that at the same time that government rejected Rogers’ proposals for westward exploration and mapping, Whitehall instituted the “General Survey of North America” based on a recommendation made by Samuel Holland, a surveyor and captain in the 60th Regiment. This project would map much of the coastline and some of the interior of Canada and other mainland colonies and came to an end only because of the start of the American Revolution.

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