Queen's Rangers - American Revolutionary War

American Revolutionary War

When the American War of Independence broke out in 1775, about fifty Loyalist regiments were raised, including the Butler's Rangers, the King's Royal Regiment, and the Maryland and Pennsylvania Loyalists. Robert Rogers again raised a unit, this time in New York (mostly from Loyalists living in Westchester and Long Island), from western Connecticut, and with men from the Queen's Loyal Virginia Regiment. The new unit was named in honour of Queen Charlotte the wife of King George the Third. It first assembled on Staten Island in August 1776 and grew to 937 officers and men organized into eleven companies of about thirty men each and an additional five troops of cavalry. 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 1/29/1777. The regiment had suffered serious losses in a surprise attack on their outpost position at Mamaroneck, New York, on 10/22/1776. Eleven months later, on 9/11/1777, they distinguished themselves at the Battle of Brandwine suffering many casualties while attacking entenched American positions. They were then commanded by Major James Wemyss. On October 15, 1777, John Graves Simcoe was given command.

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 Pennsylvania campaign; served as rearguard during the British retreat to New York (1778); fought the Stockbridge Militia in The Bronx (1778); fought at Perth Amboy, New Jersey, where Simcoe was captured but freed in a prisoner exchange three months later (1779–80); 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.