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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 18th and early 19th
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 18th
century.
So, while some things can be
inferred from Rogers’ rules or from the surviving journals of other rangers and
woodsman of the late 18th 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.
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Adapted from The Moose Book, Samuel Merrill, page 112.
The Moose and Modern Rangers
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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
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announce new articles on Facebook at Eric Reynolds, on Instagram at
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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...
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An example of back trail security, as practiced by American surveyors during the late 18th 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 18th
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 18th
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.
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An example of back trail security, as practiced by American frontiersman during the late 18th 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
McDonald,
John; Biographical Sketches of General Nathaniel Massie, [published for
the author by E. Morgan and Son, Cincinnati, OH, 1838], page 44 to 45, https://books.google.com/books?id=58EX2BVrvGEC&pg=PA44&dq=%22General+Nathaniel+Massie%22+%22came+a+man,+called+the+spy%22+1838&hl=en&newbks=1&newbks_redir=0&sa=X&ved=2ahUKEwimsLKh0rn1AhWQJ0QIHSGAC3AQ6AF6BAgEEAI#v=onepage&q=%22General%20Nathaniel%20Massie%22%20%22came%20a%20man%2C%20called%20the%20spy%22%201838&f=false,
accessed January 17, 2022
Merrill, Samuel; The Moose Book,
[E.P Dutton and Co., New York, 1916], page 110 to 113, Reprinted in http://www23.us.archive.org/details/cu31924012424531,
accessed February 17, 2012
Richardson,
John, M. D.; Fauna Boreali-Americana; or the Zoology of the Northern Parts
of British America, [John Murray, London, 1829], page 234, Reprinted in http://books.google.com/books?id=5pcOAQAAMAAJ&pg=PA234&dq=%22a+habit+which+the+moose-deer+has+of+making+%22&hl=en&sa=X&ei=MpY-T-rNEMb64QT5mciPAg&redir_esc=y#v=onepage&q=%22a%20habit%20which%20the%20moose-deer%20has%20of%20making%20%22&f=false,
accessed February 17, 2012
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
Wikimedia, “A color
mezzotint of a representation of American colonial ranger Robert Rogers”, 1776,
by Johann Martin Will, https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:RobertRogers.jpeg,
accessed January 6, 2022
Wikimedia, “Indians
ambush British at Battle of the Monongahela”, by Henry Davenport Northrop, from
Our greater country; being a standard history of the United States, [National
Pub Co., Philadelphia, PA, 1901], https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Indians_ambush_British_at_Battle_of_the_Monongahela.jpg,
accessed January 17, 2022
Wikimedia, “U.S. Army
Rangers LRRP team leader and radiotelephone operator, Vietnam, 1968”, by
Icemanwcs, https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Long-range_patrolling.jpg,
accessed January 17, 2022
Wulff, Matt; Robert
Rogers’ Rules for the Ranging Service, an Analysis, [Heritage Books,
Westminster MD, 2007], pages 175 to 179 and 187 to 190
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