"Hannay had written some memorable historical essays...especially the History of the Queen's Rangers...the work won much praise for research and honest independence." The Gazette (Montreal), Oct. 8, 1910
Of the forty or more battalions of Loyalists which enlisted in the service of the Crown during the Revolutionary war, none has been so widely celebrated as the Queen's Rangers
The Queen's Rangers' notoriety, no doubt, is partly due to the fact that they found a historian in Lieut.-Col. Simcoe, their commanding officer, who wrote a book to chronicle their achievements, "A Journal of the Operations of the Queen's Rangers"; yet after making all allowance for this advantage, it must be admitted, without detriment to the other Loyalist corps, that the Queen's Rangers exceeded them all in length and variety of service.
What the famous Light Division was in Wellington's Peninsular Campaigns. the Queen's Rangers became to the British army in America; whenever there was an enterprise that demanded celerity and daring, the Queen's Rangers were selected for the service, if they happened to be at all near the place where it was to be performed. Their six years of active service in the war made them veterans, and their peculiar organization enabled them to accomplish feats which would have been quite beyond the power of an ordinary battalion of the line. There can be little doubt that during the last campaigns of the war the Queen's Rangers was the most efficient regiment in the British service in America.
In 1909, James Hannay (1842-1910) published "History of the Queen's Rangers" which was published as part of the Transactions of the Royal Society of Canada.
Two of the most famous officers in command of the Queen's Rangers are Robert Rogers and John Graves Simcoe. Regarding Simcoe, Hannay writes:
"John Graves Simcoe, who was a captain in the 40th Regiment of the line, was appointed to the Queen's Rangers with the rank of Major Commandant. It is sufficient to say here that he was a most active and vigilant officer and that in his hands the Rangers became, to use the words of an American historian of the war, 'a model of order, discipline and bravery.'"
Regarding Robert Rogers, Hannay writes:
"Robert Rogers, of New Hampshire, was commander of a corps known as Rogers' Rangers, which did good service prior to the fall of Quebec. When the Revolutionary troubles arose Rogers received a commission from the Crown as Colonel, and proceeded to enlist men to serve against the Revolutionary armies. This was the beginning of the Queen's Rangers, whom Rogers naturally enough named after his own old corps."
Of course, in AMC's hit television series: TURN: Washington's Spies" Robert Rogers, Simcoe, and the Queen's Rangers play a prominent role in countering the Culper Spy Ring.
About the author:
Hannay was president of the New Brunswick Historical Society, historian of the Loyalist Society, corresponding member of the Literary and Historical Society of Quebec, and of the Nova Scotia Historical Society; reporter of the New Brunswick Supreme Court; and associate editor of Telegraph, St. John, Montreal Herald, Brooklyn Eagle, and editor of Gazette, St. John; as well as the author of various books including:
History of Acadia
Captivity of John Gyles
A history of the War of 1812
The Life and Times of Sir Leonard Tilley
History of the Loyalists
