This title examines the development of the Colonial Rangers in this period, and shows how they were taught to survive in the woods, to fight hand-to-hand, to scalp a fallen foe, and to fight across all types of terrain and in all weather conditions. Based on previously unpublished source material, it paints a vivid picture of the life, appearance and experiences of an American colonial ranger in the northern colonies. Covering the battle at Lovewell's Pond in 1725, a watershed event in New England's frontier history, through to King George's War (1740-1748), the rangers were prepared for the...

"With photographs from the Phil Collins collection."

Mandred Wood may have caught a glint off the Bowie knife that sank into his belly-but probably not. On the afternoon of November 11, 1837, he had exchanged "harsh epithets" with David James Jones, a hero of the Texas Revolution. When words failed, Jones closed the argument with his blade. Such affrays were common in Houston, the fledgling capital of the Republic of Texas. This one, however, was singular. Wood was a gentleman and Jones a member of a disruptive gang of vagrants that the upper crust denounced as the "rowdy loafers." Jones went to jail; Wood went to his grave. In the weeks that...