De Langis

Somewhat less famous than Robert Rogers is this man who was one of New France's most successful scouts. Referred to by Rogers as 'Longee'. His rank was ensign and he led many warparties around the Lake George area. Sadly drowned in a canoe accident during the defence of Montreal. Image is by Francis Back of Compagnies Franches de la Marine in campaign kit.
Read about Langis in Bob Bearor's 'Leading by Example' here

La Marine

One of my favourite books on the Seven Years War is this book by Gallup and Shaffer. It's written by reenactors and it concentrates on what the Yanks call 'material culture' - in other words the items used by the Compagnies franches de la Marine.

Winter scout photos

We're in the grip of a cold spell and of course at times like this thoughts run to Snowshoes and ice creepers and winter treks. If any of you have any photos of winter activities related to the period send them to me and I'll put them up. Have a look at this page of a 2002 recreation of the battle on Snowshoes. Image from John Jenkins Design 1/32 Battle on Snowshoes

Mousquets et Tomahawks

There's an interesting piece in French and English on their blog about future plans - seems like the English version of this game is slated for January/February - and they also give this blog a plug - thanks!

Robert Rogers' Rules for the Ranging Service: An Analysis By Matt Wulff

This recent book is up in substantial chunks on Google books if you want to read about Ranging Rules and so forth. What I've read seems well written and researched. The author has his own Ranger group which has a fine website so check them out too.

Not By Appointment - SYW templates

I like this blog - a very useful piece of work that encourages the reader to have a go - and there's quite a few North American types to look at.

Snowshoemen in King George's War

From a suggestion from a reader I thought I would post about Snowshoemen who were according to this section of the book 'The First Way of War' were the first type of Rangers - assembled ready to respond to incursions from Abenaki and the like when war erupted. Worth reading the section and you can read about the young Robert Rogers joining one of these 50-man companies which in their early life were primarily defensive in nature. See also this page on reenactor's Harmon's Snowshoemen. The page is being revised at the moment but worth a look when finished.