I keep thinking that I have read this book before, but if so I am glad I read it again. Descriptions of his battles, tactics and personal life read alot like Rogers was a military savant, brilliant at leading small groups of rangers in battles, but hopeless in getting straight answers from his British bosses, or even getting paid by the British. He was pretty successful at making enemies, such as Gage, who worked very hard to screw up his military career and finances. Here was a true American hero in the French & Indian War who was considered a traitor by the Americans in the Revolution and who ended up in debtor's prison, not once but several times. A truly tragic figure. ...and, as usual, crappy maps. ( )

great historical reading about one of early America's true heros ( )

I need to read more into Robert Rogers before I can gage how accurate the book is in telling Rogers's story. Ross's writing style certainly has some flare, making the highlights of Rogers's career sound amazing... or I suppose "epic". The main flaw of the book I fought is the problem most biographies face: the book mainly speaks positively about its protagonist and tends to overlook areas that casts him in a negative light. I would like more focus on Rogers's time in England and service in the American Revolution. Much of Roger's life after the French and Indian is covered too quickly; it felt like it was added on at the last minute to complete the book and get published. ( )

I'll admit that I didn't like this book as much as I thought I would. To a degree this is about lackadaisical editing and a somewhat overwrought writing style. In the first case this was brought out by a run-on paragraph which essentially conflates the battles of Monongahela and Fontenoy, to the point that one wonders how Gen. Braddock managed to get 15,000 men to western Pennsylvania to lose. In the second there are times where I had to wryly think of Mark Twain's famous literary dismantling of James Fenimore Cooper.

A deeper problem is probably that Ross is too in love with his subject as the prototype of the modern special operations leader, and Rogers had to have charisma to convince men to follow him on desperate mission after mission. That said, this is also a man who came within a hair of being branded as a rogue for his counterfeiting activities, a man who really didn't do right by his wife, and on the whole had more than a little of the confidence man about his nature. To the point, Robert Rogers was mostly on his own side and that nature probably had something to do with the hard end the man came to, and which Ross chooses to spend little time dwelling on. ( )

Satisfying, but not great biography of Robert Rogers. Rogers was a solider in the French-Indian War and a master in guerilla warfighting. Was the first English speaker to beat the French and Indians at their own style of warfare.

His later life was depressing and a disappointment.