The Top Ten Wilderness Survival Skills...Number Nine©

 

 

This is the ninth in a series of eleven articles on the top ten wilderness survival skills, things you should know before you go into the wilderness.  To read the previous article go HERE – Author’s Note

 

The Number Nine, Top Ten Wilderness Survival Skill: Rope, Knots and How to Tie Them

 

The number nine, top ten wilderness survival skill on my list is, knowing how to tie knots.

 

If you don’t have any rope or string and you can’t tie knots in a wilderness survival situation, you are going to have a hard time building a shelter, hanging up a bear-bag, or even putting up a clothesline.  

 

Do you have any...rope?

 

Shelter supplies that I keep in the back pocket of my survival vest or survival PFD, 1) paracord, 18 feet (5.5 meters); 2) a knit hat, clothes are portable shelter; and 3) two heavy duty contractor grade trash bags, all of which weigh 12 ounces (340 grams).  For more on the survival supplies I carry read “A Survival Kit, Your Ace in the Hole ©”, HERE.  Photograph by the Author.

Rope or string of any type is difficult to find or make for yourself in the wilderness and that is why you should always carry some.  Personally, I always wear a BanadanaMan Emergency Bracelet, which contains 174 inches (442 cm) of string on my wrist when I am out in the wilderness, and I always keep 18 feet of paracord in the back pocket of my survival vest or survival PFD.  Both will make building an emergency shelter much, much easier.

 

But first, some words about rope...

 

An excerpt from Survival, FM 3-05.70 (FM 21-76), page G-3.

Also, before we start talking about tying knots, we need to talk about things like loops, bights, the running-end of a rope.

 

A bight is a simple bend of rope, which does not cross itself, while a loop is formed by crossing the running end over or under the standing end to form a ring or circle in the rope.  The running end of the rope is the free end of the rope, this is the part of the rope you are using to tie the knot.  The standing end of the rope is the rest of the rope beyond the running end and the working end is the part of the rope that is attached to the thing that is being rigged or hauled.  A pig tail is the part of the running end of the rope that is left over after tying a knot and it shouldn’t be more than 4 inches (10 cm) long, to conserve rope and prevent interference.  A turn in a rope is a loop around something like a tree or a branch, with the running end continuing in the opposite direction to the standing end, while a round turn continues to circle and exits in the same direction as the standing end¹.

 

Knots, stress points and rope failure...

 

The Camper’s Knot Tying Card Game, by Marco Products

While we are talking about knots, did you know that a knot in a rope will put stress on a rope and can cause it to break?

 

Well, it can!  When you tie a knot in a rope it immediately loses between 25% to 60% of its original strength, since the knot causes a stress point where the rope fibers on the outside of the of the knot are stretched more and the strands on the inside of the knot are stretched less and might even be compressed.  The combination of these stresses can cause a rope to fail and break at the knot.

 

Ten Essential Knots and how to tie them...

 

An excerpt from Survival, FM 3-05.70 (FM 21-76), page G-3.

Everyone knows how to tie an overhand knot, it is an important knot that is often used as a finishing knot, but can you tie a sheet bend, a taut-line, or an alpine butterfly knot?

 

People always tell me that they just can’t tie knots, but what the problem really is though, is a lack of practice.  If you want to be good at knots, make up your mind to learn the ten essential knots, and then practice, practice, practice!

 

The six basic knots...

 

There are six basic knots that are considered must know wilderness knots, the square knot, the sheet bend, the taut-line hitch, two half hitches, the lark’s head, and the bowline.

 

An excerpt from Knots and How to Tie Them, by the Boy Scouts of America, page 10.

The square knot or reef knot is one of the most easily remembered of knots, and when it is used as a binding knot to tie a parcel together or to knot together a neckerchief or cravat, it can’t be beat.  However, when it is used as a bending knot to tie together two different sizes of ropes or to tie together a rope that is stiffer or more slippery than the other one, it will come apart.  So, beware!

 

An excerpt from Knots and How to Tie Them, by the Boy Scouts of America, page 11.

The sheet bend is a true bending knot and can be used to tie together two ropes of different sizes or stiffnesses, and in form, according to The Ashley Book of Knots, it is the same as the weaver’s knot, and is also known as the simple bend, the bend, the ordinary or common bend, or, to distinguish it from the double sheet bend, the single bend.

 

An excerpt from Knots and How to Tie Them, by the Boy Scouts of America, page 16.

Taut-line hitches are a knot that I use whenever I put up tents, tarps, or clotheslines, it is one of my go-to knots!

 

A good use of taut-line hitches, a tarp set up along the shore of Rock Lake, Algonquin Provincial Park, August 2019.  Photograph by the Author.

 

 

An excerpt from Knots and How to Tie Them, by the Boy Scouts of America, page 18.

The bowline is also called the bowling or bolin knot² and is identical in form to the sheet-bend, but instead of joining two different ropes, it joins the free end of the rope to itself, making a loop.

 

An excerpt from Knots and How to Tie Them, by the Boy Scouts of America, page 19.

Imagine you are up to your waist in the water or in a bog and someone throws you a rope.  You grab the rope, and tie a bowline around your waist, because you know the knot won’t slip and you can be pulled back to solid ground!   To watch a video on how to tie a bowline around your waist, one-handed, go HERE.

 

An excerpt from Knots and How to Tie Them, by the Boy Scouts of America, page 13.

 

Two half hitches are my other favorite knot, I frequently use it to tie a canoe’s painter to a dock post if I am using a civilized landing.  In fact, as mentioned in The Ashley Book of Knots, during the era of sailing ships it was frequently used to tie a ship to a wharf, and as sailors used to say, “Two half hitches will never slip”, by Admiral Luce, and “Two half hitches saved a Queen's Ship”, by Anonymous³.

 

The lark’s head knot, from Knotting and Splicing Ropes and Cordage, by Paul N. Hasluck, page 47.

The lark’s head is also known as the cow hitch, the lanyard hitch, the dead-eye hitch, the stake hitch, or the ring hitch; and when it is tied in a bight or a loop of a continuous rope circle it is called a strap or bale sling hitch⁴.  This is another of my favorite knots and I use it to hang things by their lanyard or when I am putting up a tarp and I want to make a “magic grommet”⁵, to secure the edges of a tarp to a ridgeline.

 

How to use a lark’s head to make a “magic grommet”, photograph by the Author.

The four advanced knots...

 

However, there are four other knots that are also considered must know, advanced, wilderness knots: the clove hitch, the double-sheet bend, the timber hitch, and the alpine butterfly.

 

An excerpt from Knots and How to Tie Them, by the Boy Scouts of America, page 14.

According to The Ashley Book of Knots, “There is no such thing as a good general utility knot, although ashore the CLOVE HITCH comes very near to filling the office of a general utility hitch”.  The clove hitch is easily remembered and can be quickly tied.

 

An excerpt from Knots and How to Tie Them, by the Boy Scouts of America, page 11.

The double sheet bend is also known as the double weaver’s knot and just like the sheet bend is used to secure two ropes or strings.  The double sheet bend is not any stronger than the sheet bend, but it is more secure.

 

An excerpt from Knots and How to Tie Them, by the Boy Scouts of America, page 14.

The timber hitch is also called the countryman’s or lumberman’s knot and is an old knot.  According to The Ashley Book of Knots, it was mentioned in the 1625 Manuscript on Rigging, in in Denis Diderot’s 1762, Encyclopedia, and in David Steel’s 1794, Elements and Practice of Rigging and Seamanship. 

 

The turns around the rope should always be “dogged”, wrapped, or turned, with the lay or twist of the rope.  Three turns around the rope are usually enough⁶.

 

An excerpt from Knots and How to Tie Them, by the Boy Scouts of America, page 20.

The alpine butterfly knot is also called the butterfly loop, the lineman's loop, or the butterfly knot and used to form a fixed loop in the middle of a rope.  It can be used to make loops for handholds or footholds and is used by rock climbers to make loops in a rope for a carabiner.  It can also be used to isolate a worn section of rope

 

One Essential Lashing...

 

An excerpt from Knots and How to Tie Them, by the Boy Scouts of America, page 30.

Everyone that journeys through the wilderness should learn how to tie a tripod lashing, because with this lashing you can make a lean-to or a teepee shelter, a tripod to hang a pot over the fire on, or many other handy things.

 

Don’t forget to come back next week and read “Ten Essentials of Winter Camping ©”, where we will talk about how to camp in the winter wilderness and stay warm and safe.

 

I hope that you continue to enjoy The Woodsman’s Journal Online and look for me on YouTube at BandanaMan Productions for other related videos, HERE.  Don’t forget to follow me on both The Woodsman’s Journal Online, HERE, and subscribe to BandanaMan Productions on YouTube.  If you have questions, as always, feel free to leave a comment on either site.  I announce new articles on Facebook at Eric Reynolds, on Instagram at bandanamanaproductions, and on VK at Eric Reynolds, so watch for me.

 

That is all for now, and as always, until next time, Happy Trails!

 

 

Notes

 

¹ Other rope and knot terms are as follows:

 

• Dressing the knot.  The orientation of all knot parts so that they are properly aligned, straightened, or bundled.  Neglecting this can result in an additional 50 percent reduction in knot strength. This term is sometimes used for setting the knot which involves tightening all parts of the knot, so they bind on one another and make the knot operational.  A loosely tied knot can easily deform under strain and change, becoming a slipknot or worse, untying.

 

• Fraps.  A means of tightening the lashings by looping the rope perpendicularly around the wraps that hold the spars or sticks together.

 

• Lashings.  A means of using wraps and fraps to tie two or three spars or sticks together to form solid corners or to construct tripods.  Lashings begin and end with clove hitches. 

 

• Lay.  The lay of the rope is the same as the twist of the rope.

 

• Whipping.  Any method of preventing the end of a rope from untwisting or becoming unwound.  It is done by wrapping the end tightly with a small cord, tape, or other means. It should be done on both sides of an anticipated cut in a rope, before cutting the rope in two.  This prevents the rope from immediately untwisting.

 

• Wraps.  Simple wraps of rope around two poles or sticks (square lashing) or three poles or sticks (tripod lashing).  Wraps begin and end with clove hitches and get tighter with fraps. All together, they form a lashing.

 

From Survival, FM 3-05.70 (FM 21-76), by the Headquarters, Department of the Army, page G-1 to G-2

 

² The Ashley Book of Knots, by Clifford W. Ashley, page 186.

 

³ Ibid., page 303.

 

⁴ Ibid., page 11, 290 and 305.

 

⁵ I don’t know where I first heard this called a “magic grommet”, probably from another Birchbark Expeditions guide, but the name stuck with me.

 

⁶ The Ashley Book of Knots, by Clifford W. Ashley, page 290 and 599.

 

Sources

 

Ashley, Clifford W.; The Ashley Book of Knots, [Geoffrey Budworth, Kent, England, 1993], https://www.liendoanaulac.org/space/references/training/Ashley_Book_Knots.pdf, accessed January 25, 2022

 

Boy Scouts of America, Knots and How to Tie Them, [2002]

 

Hasluck, Paul N.; Knotting and Splicing Ropes and Cordage, [David McKay, Publisher, Philadelphia, PA, 1912], page 44 to 46, https://books.googleusercontent.com/books/content?req=AKW5QadbkrmBx1Gbt4sXfsubEY1Yuq59o5ydbt5SVplV3e8TM4myCFqis5bVfvEV0s-OvwU5BGbaRJcUGrxnzC7Asu1o6uXg62MvTbBQ_6QYOYckKpGoiqHzbVyoAU66wZ0JnfA4CFwlarClPIOfsXJtL241YGwdSq8QP4JVmlXseXQKcnUBebmDlnQU5GLULW42r9WlDMqAZ0679kpgvlvS8sYEFqoXRgHj9hdJuBHcvLagnY8TexhtJKTcbVSsNQEx1uaBeUiT0hMs0kb-cMldIr69Q0lNyu0XQduelZjK7KRd7eNivL0, accessed January 27, 2022

 

Headquarters, Department of the Army, Survival, FM 3-05.70 (FM 21-76), [Washington, D.C., May 2002], page G-3, https://irp.fas.org/doddir/army/fm3-05-70.pdf, accessed January 24, 2022

 

Marco Products, The Camper’s Knot Tying Card Game, [USA, 1986]

 

 

How to tie a bowline around your waist, one-handed

Moose, Hunting, and the Origins of Robert Rogers’ Rule XXI and XXIII©

 

 

A bull moose, feeding at the mouth of the Galipo River as it enters Pen Lake, Algonquin Provincial Park, summer of 2014, courtesy of Steve Burgeson.

This is an article that I originally started writing in late 2012, recently I dusted it off and finished it off!  I hope you enjoy it – Author’s Note.

 

I believe that Native Americans, Colonial Rangers and Frontiersmen of the late 18^th and early 19^th centuries used, and todays modern Rangers and Special Forces continue to use a defensive tactic that was originally learned from the North American moose, alces alces!

 

Robert Rogers’ “Rules for the Ranging Service”, were a collection of 28 maxims on how to scout and patrol in the wilderness, gather information and prisoners, and pursue raiders through North American wilds of the Old Northwest Frontier, during the French and Indian War¹.  These rules were designed to fight “la petite guerre”, or the small war.  But did you ever wonder what the origins of these rules were?

 

An example of “la petit guerre” which was engraved by Henry Davenport Northrop in 1901, and titled “Indians ambush British at Battle of the Monongahela”, from Wikimedia, HERE.

Robert Rogers wrote his 28 rules for rangers in 1757, and I believe that two of them, numbers 21 and 23, had their origin in a habit of the North American moose and that the Colonial American hunters and Rangers learned of this habit and how to defeat it from Native Americans hunters².

 

...a habit which the moose has...

 

An excerpt from Fauna Boreali-Americana; or the Zoology of the Northern Parts of British America, 1829, by John Richardson M. D., page 234

“So, just what is this unique habit that the moose has”, you ask.  Good question.  The moose is a very wary animal that is difficult to hunt, and which has both a superior sense of smell and hearing, which compensates for its rather poor eyesight.

 

Adapted by the Author, from The Moose Book, Samuel Merrill, page 111.

To frustrate predators, the moose developed a unique defensive maneuver.  Before lying down to rest a moose will circle back and come to rest near its original tracks.  This allows the moose to hear or smell any predator following its trail, giving the moose an early warning, and allowing it to escape its pursuers.

 

This tendency of the moose would have been well known to the Native American hunters, who hunted the moose throughout the woods of the old Northwest Frontier, and over the centuries they would have found ways to defeat it. 

 

Hunting a moose with the wind.  An excerpt from The Moose Book, Samuel Merrill, page 112.

 

If the tracks are several hours old the hunter can follow directly on the moose’s trail.  However, when the tracks are fresh, instead of following directly on the moose’s tracks, which might then alert the moose to its pursuer, the hunter would make a series of semi-circular loops downwind (moving with the wind) away from the trail and returning to it at intervals.  If, when the hunter loops back to where he expects the trail to be and does not find any sign of the trail, then he knows that he is either ahead of the moose or that it has doubled back to watch its own trail.  At this point, the hunter makes a series of smaller loops or semi-circles upwind (moving against the wind), back in the direction from which he has come, until he finds the moose³.

 

Hunting a moose against the wind.  An excerpt from The Moose Book, Samuel Merrill, page 111.

 

If the moose’s trail leads upwind and the trail is three to four hours old, it is safe to follow rapidly on its trail.  However, when the tracks are fresh, then the hunter would make a series of zigzags while moving against the wind, only returning to the moose’s trail at intervals, all the while keeping a close watch out for the moose.  The purpose of this is to keep from moving past the moose if it has made one of its customary loops back downwind to watch its back-trail and ending upwind of it⁴.  Being upwind of the moose would allow it to smell the hunter and the now alerted moose would then run away.

 

The Moose and Robert Rogers’ “Rules for the Ranging Service”, number XXI and XXIII

 

“A color mezzotint of a representation of American colonial ranger Robert Rogers”, 1776, by Johann Martin Will, from Wikimedia, HERE.

It should be remembered that when reading and analyzing Robert Rogers’ “Rules for the Ranging Service”, that while Rogers included many details in his rules, he also left much out.  According to John R. Cuneo, the author of Robert Rogers of the Rangers, “there were details implicit in the rules which the British regulars would not know”.  Mr. Cuneo suggested that the British regulars of 1757, and by extension modern readers today, would not have been familiar with many woodcraft details, such as how to hide your tracks or track your enemy's, what signals should be used in the woods, or how to use trees and bushes for concealment, however these things would have been common knowledge to a woodsman of the time.  Unfortunately, the “Rules for the Ranging Service” were, by necessity, brief guides on to how to scout in the wilderness of the late 18^th century.

 

So, while some things can be inferred from Rogers’ rules or from the surviving journals of other rangers and woodsman of the late 18^th century, and other things seem likely to have been practiced by Rogers, if he didn’t write it down, then it cannot be taken for an established fact.

 

XXI - If the enemy pursue your rear, take a circle until you come to your own tracks, and there form an ambush to receive them, and give them the first fire

 

Just as the moose circles back to observe its own back trail when laying down to rest, or when it might be pursued, Rogers’ rangers would have circled back onto their own back trail when alerted by their rear guards.  I believe that rangers following Rogers’ rule number 21 would have relied on the rear guard’s early warning so that they could circle back onto their own trail when pursued, imitating the well-known defensive habits of the moose, and prepare an ambush.  Robert Rogers knew of, and I believe that he used, rear guards for exactly this purpose when marching⁵, since he wrote in rule 23 of the importance of not being discovered by the enemy’s rear guards.  Also, I think that it is likely that the rangers also circled back to watch their own back trail when they needed to rest, although this is not specifically mentioned in any of Rogers’ rules.

 

Adapted by the Author, from The Moose Book, Samuel Merrill, page 111.

 

XXIII - When you pursue any party that has been near our forts or encampments, follow not directly in their tracks, lest they should be discovered by their rear-guards, who, at such a time, would be most alert; but endeavor, by a different route, to head and meet them in some narrow pass, or lay in ambush to receive them when and where they least expect it.

 

As Robert Rogers noted in rule 23, rangers had to beware when pursuing an enemy “lest they should be discovered by their rear-guards”.  It was expected that your adversary would have spies and rear guards watching their back trail and you had to have a way of getting past them to keep them from making good their escape or ambushing you.

 

It was vital to get ahead of the fleeing raiders and ambush them at a place of your choosing.  If the pursuing party followed too closely on their trail and attacked them from the rear, the raiders who would have been slowed by captives and plunder, would have either ambushed their pursuers or they would have killed their captives and dispersed with their plunder to make their way home separately in small groups.  To kill the raiders, regain the captives, and recapture any plunder, it was necessary to take them by surprise and defeat them before they had time kill their captives and disappear into the wilderness.

 

Most historians understand Robert Rogers’ rule 23 to mean using a ranger’s knowledge of the local terrain to take advantage of a different route to get ahead of the raiders and prepare an ambush for them along their path.  In fact, rule 23 clearly instructs rangers to use a different route and it is possible that Rogers simply intended nothing else.

 

However, I believe that the portion of rule 23 that states “...but endeavor, by a different route, to head and meet them in some narrow pass, or lay in ambush...”, might have some details missing and therefore be open to some interpretation.  Since Rogers’ rule 21 was likely modeled on the moose’s habit of looping back to observe its own back trail, it is possible that another explanation of Rogers’ rule 23 could be derived from the Native American’s moose hunting tactics, tactics that allowed them to get close enough to ever wary moose, to move in for the kill.

 

In this explanation, just as when hunting a moose, a patrol of rangers would follow rapidly and directly on the trail of the fleeing raiders while the tracks were old.  When the tracks became fresher and they might be spotted by the rear guards, they would have begun to make a series of semi-circular loops away from the trail, returning to it at intervals.  If, when the ranger patrol looped back to where they expected the trail to be and did not find any sign of the trail, then they would have known that they were either ahead of the raiders or that the raiders had doubled back to watch their own trail.  In this way they would have been able to shadow the raiders and yet get ahead of them to set up an ambush at a place that they knew the raiders would have to pass.  In this explanation the rangers would have been using both their knowledge of the local area and tried-and-true moose hunting methods to ambush and destroy their enemy.

 

Adapted from The Moose Book, Samuel Merrill, page 112.

 

The Moose and Modern Rangers

 

U.S. Army Rangers, a LRRP team leader and radiotelephone operator, Vietnam, 1968, by Icemanwcs, from Wikimedia, HERE.

And even today, just like the moose who loops back to observe his own back trail before laying down to rest, a habit which prevents hunters from following his tracks and catching him unawares, U.S. Army Rangers and LRRPs during the Vietnam War were instructed to “After Passing a Suitable RON [remain overnight] site ‘fish hook’, and move into your selected position so that you can observe your own trail”⁶.  This gave them an early warning of any pursuers following them while they rested and is almost identical to Robert Rogers’ rule 21. 

 

So, it seems likely that both past and even modern rangers and scouts owe a debt to the humble moose and its unique defensive habit.

 

From The Moose Book, by Samuel Merrill, page 184.

Don’t forget to come back next week and read “The Top Ten Wilderness Survival Skills...Number Nine©”, where we will talk about cordage, knots and the importance of being able to tie them.

 

I hope that you continue to enjoy The Woodsman’s Journal Online and look for me on YouTube at BandanaMan Productions for other related videos, HERE.  Don’t forget to follow me on both The Woodsman’s Journal Online, HERE, and subscribe to BandanaMan Productions on YouTube.  If you have questions, as always, feel free to leave a comment on either site.  I announce new articles on Facebook at Eric Reynolds, on Instagram at bandanamanaproductions, and on VK at Eric Reynolds, so watch for me.

 

That is all for now, and as always, until next time, Happy Trails!

 

 

Notes

 

¹ The French and Indian War, 1754 to 1763, was a remote theater of the greater Seven Years' War in Europe.  This war was between the British North American colonies on one side and the French colonies on the other, with each side being supported by various Native American tribes, for control of North American continent.

 

² The moose, alces alces, appeared in Europe during the Pleistocene, and by the end of that period had spread to North America.  The moose, or as it is known in Europe, the “elk”, became extinct in Great Britain by about 900 AD.  However English speakers, continued to call a moose, an elk, because they knew of a large deer that lived in the remote parts of Europe that it was called an elk: in fact, they called any large deer, an elk.  When English speaking colonists first came to North America and encountered the moose, they adopted the Native American word, “moos” for the animal that they might have heard of but had never seen before. 

 

So, since the English colonists only knew of the moose from stories, it is unlikely that they would have known about the tendency that the moose has of circling back onto its back-trail before resting and must have learned it from Native American hunters.

 

³ From The Moose Book, by Samuel Merrill, page 112 to 113

 

⁴ From The Moose Book, by Samuel Merrill, page 110 to 112

 

⁵ The Evidence for Rear Guards and Spies...

 

An example of back trail security, as practiced by American surveyors during the late 18^th century, from Biographical Sketches of General Nathaniel Massie, 1838, by John McDonald, pages 44-45.

We know Robert Rogers knew of rear guards since he wrote about the importance of not being discovered by the enemy’s rear guards in rule 23.  However, did he use them while marching?

 

Since, for most of the late 18^th and early 19th centuries, the Old Northwest Frontier was in a state of almost continuous guerilla warfare, it was common practice for Native American war-parties, Colonial Rangers, frontiersmen, and even early American surveyors to have a spy or rear guards watch their back trail, to give them an early warning of an enemy pursuing them, as they travelled through the wilderness.  In fact, according to Lyman C. Draper, as noted in The Life of Daniel Boone, the common term “traveling Indian file”, meant more than just walking in a single file.  He described it as traveling in a single file with everyone spaced eight to ten paces apart (20 to 25 feet, or 7 to 8 meters) and with one or two men in front on point, scouts out on each flank, and with one or two scouts lagging in the party’s rear to watch the back trail. 

 

The evidence in Rogers’ “Rules for the Ranging Service” is a bit spotty when it comes to the use of rear guards.  He mentions them in rule 23, when he states that the rangers had to be careful when pursuing fleeing raiders “...lest they should be discovered by their rear-guards...”.   Also, in rule 6, he mentions using rear guards, stating “...let proper guards be kept in the front and rear...”, although in this rule he is discussing marching with a large body of three or four hundred men.  However, in rules number 2 and 3, which both discuss how to march through the wilderness with a small party, he fails to mention rear guards, although Matt Wulff, writing in Robert Rogers’ Rules for the Ranging Service, believes that in the case of rule 3, one of the flank guards turned into a rear guard, when the patrol traveled through wetlands abreast.  It is possible that these two rules only applied to small patrols, who might not have had enough members to supply a rear guard. 

 

However, John R. Cuneo, the author of Robert Rogers of the Rangers, thought that there were woodcraft details that were omitted from Rogers’ “Rules for the Ranging Service” because, they were only intended as brief instructions on how to scout in the wilderness of the late 18^th century.  He felt that experienced woodsman, like many of those who joined Rogers’ Rangers, would have known of these woodcraft details, and therefore would not have needed them to be written down.  Maybe Rogers just assumed that you would know that one or two men, depending on the size of the patrol, should always be tasked with watching the back trail and being the rear guards.  Unfortunately, the record is not clear.

 

An example of back trail security, as practiced by American frontiersman during the late 18^th century, from Mirror of Olden Time Border Life, by Joseph Pritts, page 520.

 

⁶ From The B-52 Tips: Jungle Recon Tips of the Trade, “Remain Over Night Tips”, number 4, page 29.

 

 

Sources

 

Cuneo, John R.; Robert Rogers of the Rangers, [Richardson & Steirman, 1987], page 60

 

Draper, Lyman Copeland, LLD; Belue, Ted Franklin, Editor; The Life of Daniel Boone, [Stackpole Books, Mechanicsburg, PA, 1998], page 528

 

Howe, Henry; Historical Collections of Ohio; [published by Henry Howe, Cincinnati, OH, 1854], page 202, http://books.google.com/books?id=sYBuAAAAMAAJ&pg=PA202&dq=%22They+halted,+and+placed+sentinels+on+their+back+trail%22&hl=en&sa=X&ei=25k-T6HNI-OF4gTk7uitCA&redir_esc=y#v=onepage&q=%22They%20halted%2C%20and%20placed%20sentinels%20on%20their%20back%20trail%22&f=false, accessed February 17, 2012

 

Pritts, Joseph; Mirror of Olden Time Border Life: Embracing a History of the Discovery of America, page 519 to 521, https://books.google.com/books?id=-RhAAAAAYAAJ&pg=PA520&dq=%22here+mr.+linn+was+taken+violently+sick%22&hl=en&sa=X&ved=0ahUKEwj06I6YwIziAhUytlkKHYxFAQcQ6AEINjAC#v=onepage&q=%22here%20mr.%20linn%20was%20taken%20violently%20sick%22&f=false, accessed January 6, 2022

 

Project (B-52) Delta H.Q. Nha Trang, Republic of Viet Nam, The B-52 Tips: Jungle Recon Tips of the Trade, [Special Operations Press, 2012], page 29

 

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Todish, Timothy J. and Zaboly, Gary S.; The Annotated and Illustrated Journals of Major Robert Rogers, [Purple Mountain Press, Ltd., Fleischmanns, NY, 2002], page 72 to 78

 

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Wulff, Matt; Robert Rogers’ Rules for the Ranging Service, an Analysis, [Heritage Books, Westminster MD, 2007], pages 175 to 179 and 187 to 190