John Graves Simcoe (1752 -1806) was first a British army officer who saw action in the American Revolutionary War, in the Siege of Boston. During the siege, he purchased a captaincy in the grenadier company of the 40th Regiment of Foot. In 1777, Simcoe was offered the command of the Queen's Rangers. Simcoe is a central villain in the 2014 AMC drama Turn, portrayed by Samuel Roukin. Simcoe wrote a book on his experiences with the Rangers, titled "A Journal of the Operations of the Queen's Rangers" from the end of the year 1777 to the conclusion of the late American War, which was published in 1787. THE military journal of Lt. Col. Simcoe, was printed by the author in 1787, for distribution among a few of his personal friends. The production has hitherto, it would seem, entirely escaped the attention of those who are curious in the history of our Revolutionary War. As a record of some interesting particulars and local occurrences of that memorable struggle, and as a well written documentary illustration of the times and the circumstances of the American Rebellion, it deserves circulation and favour. Simcoe's ambition invariably led him to aspire at command; and even when the army first landed at Staten Island he went to New York to request the command of the Queen's Rangers a provincial corps then newly raised, which he did not finally obtain until after the battle of Brandywine, in October, 1777. He knew that common opinion had imprinted on the partisan the most dishonourable stain, and associated the idea with that of dishonesty, rapine, and falsehood. Yet, on the other hand, he also knew that the command of a light corps had been considered as the best source of instruction, as a means of acquiring a habit of self-dependence for resources, and of prompt decision so peculiarly requisite in trusts of importance. The corps of Rangers claimed all the attention of the now Major-commandant Simcoe, and contributed greatly to lessen his paternal fortune, for though warmly alive to the interests of others, he was always inattentive to his own. The incidents, as recorded, were written out just after the war, while fresh in the memory and the note book of the author. In the narrative we get an interior view of the camp of the best of the royal partisan warriors, and receive an impression of the spirit of' the contest, the feelings of parties, and the state of the country and people, not so well imparted by any previous publication. Simcoe was a highly educated gentleman, and a brave and ingenuous soldier, enjoying the confidence of his superiors in command, the affection of his Rangers, and the respect of his American opponents. We perceive so much of interest to the inhabitants and natives of several parts of the country, that we do not doubt the book will be sought with eager curiosity, and it certainly will well repay a careful perusal. We can merely indicate, here, the neighborhoods of New York and Philadelphia, the grounds of New Jersey, North and South Carolina, and Virginia, and those quarters, generally, where the war was waged at different times, as the fields in which the operations of the corps were performed. We may mention that no account so full and circumstantial of the British campaign of 1781, in Virginia, including Arnold's doings, and Cornwallis's movements, assisted by Simcoe and Tarleton, has, till now, come before us in print. A large proportion of the volume is filled with the details of this concluding scene of the Revolution, finely illustrated by military maps from the author's clever drawings.

A history of the operations of a partisan corps, called the Queen's Rangers, commanded by Lieut. Col. J.G. Simcoe, during the war of the American revolution; illustrated by ten engraved plans of actions, &c., now first published with a memoir of the author and other additions

Winner of the Caughey Western History Prize Winner of the Robert G. Athearn Award Winner of the Lawrence W. Levine Award Winner of the TCU Texas Book Award Winner of the NACCS Tejas Foco Nonfiction Book Award Winner of the María Elena Martínez Prize Frederick Jackson Turner Award Finalist “A page-turner...Haunting...Bravely and convincingly urges us to think differently about Texas’s past.” —Texas Monthly Between 1910 and 1920, self-appointed protectors of the Texas–Mexico border—including members of the famed Texas Rangers—murdered hundreds of ethnic Mexicans living in Texas, many of whom were American citizens. Operating in remote rural areas, officers and vigilantes knew they could hang, shoot, burn, and beat victims to death without scrutiny. A culture of impunity prevailed. The abuses were so pervasive that in 1919 the Texas legislature investigated the charges and uncovered a clear pattern of state crime. Records of the proceedings were soon filed away as the Ranger myth flourished. A groundbreaking work of historical reconstruction, The Injustice Never Leaves You has upended Texas’s sense of its own history. A timely reminder of the dark side of American justice, it is a riveting story of race, power, and prejudice on the border. “It’s an apt moment for this book’s hard lessons...to go mainstream.” —Texas Observer “A reminder that government brutality on the border is nothing new.” —Los Angeles Review of Books

Founded by the Legendary Robert Rogers and Later Led by John Graves Simcoe, a Loyalist Unit that Fought Alongside the British Army Against the American Patriots Prior to the British attack on Long Island in August 1776, French and Indian War hero Robert Rogers organized a regiment to join the fight--but not on the side of his native New Hampshire. Named in honor of Queen Charlotte, the wife of King George III, Rogers's regiment recruited the bulk of its soldiers from the large number of Loyalist refugees on Staten Island who had fled from New York. Rogers's command of the unit was short-lived, however, after a humiliating defeat in late October by a surprise attack on his headquarters. Under new leadership, the unit played a decisive role and suffered heavy casualties at the battle of Brandywine that brought them their first favorable attention from the British high command. With this performance, and under the able leadership of John Graves Simcoe, the Queen's American Rangers--sometimes known as "Simcoe's Rangers"--were frequently assigned to serve alongside British regular troops in many battles, including Monmouth, Springfield, Charleston, and Yorktown. Receiving frequent high praise from Lieutenant General Sir Henry Clinton, the Commander in Chief of the British Army in America, the unit was placed on the American Establishment of the British Army in May 1779, a status conferred on provincial units that had performed valuable services during the war, and was renamed the 1st American Regiment. Before the end of the war, the rangers were fully incorporated into the British regular army, one of only four Loyalist units to be so honored. The Queen's American Rangers by historian Donald J. Gara is the first book-length account of this storied unit. Based on extensive primary source research, the book traces the complete movements, command changes, and battle performances of the rangers, from their first muster to their formal incorporation into the British Army and ultimate emigration to Canada on land grants conferred by a grateful British crown.

'The thrilling true account of a famous woodsman, scout & guerilla leader during the formative years of the American Nation' In the evocative pages of Rogers own journal we are taken through a landscape of dark untrodden forest where danger from hostile Indians and the French Army threaten every step. Famous exploits of guerilla warfare are graphically told, including battles and ambushes on America's lakes, the devastating 'Fight on Snowshoes' and the raid against the Abanakee's village at St, Francis, recounted across time by Rogers himself.

John Andre (1750 - 1780) was a British Army officer hanged as a spy by the Continental Army during the American Revolutionary War for assisting Benedict Arnold's attempted surrender of the fort at West Point, New York to the British. According to Tallmadge's account of the events, he and Andre conversed during the latter's captivity and transport. Andre wanted to know how he would be treated by Washington. Tallmadge, who had been a classmate of Nathan Hale while both were at Yale, described the capture of Hale. When Andre asked whether Tallmadge thought the situations similar, he replied "Yes, precisely similar, and similar shall be your fate"-a reference to Hale's hanging as a spy by the British. In 1779, Andre became Adjutant General of the British Army in America with the rank of major. In April of that year, he took charge of British secret intelligence. By the next year (1780), he had begun to plot with American General Benedict Arnold. The story of Andre is one of those episodes of history which are most widely known and longest remembered. There is a pleasant tinge of romance about the man himself, for he was young, handsome, and possessed of many accomplishments, clever, agreeable, popular and the hero of a love-affair which has crept into a corner of English literature with enough sentiment and controversy attached to it to interest curiosity, and perhaps to touch the heart of succeeding generations. About this youthful and gallant figure gather suddenly the inexorable conditions which shut him in as relentlessly as the hand of Fate leads Orestes or Hippolytus or (Edipus to the doom which has awaited them since the beginning of years. The favorite of his commanders, a trusted staffofficer, advancing easily along the road of promotion, beloved among his fellows, popular in Society, he passes suddenly out of the sunshine of a young prosperity into the darkness of a desperate enterprise, becomes the paymaster of treason, a disguised fugitive, a prisoner, a convicted spy, and dies at last by the hangman's hands. The contrast between his life filled with a soldier's work and relieved by idle hours of music and flowers, of pageants and verse-making, and his miserable end, is hardly sharper than that which separates the grim gallows by the Hudson from the monument to his memory in Westminster Abbey. Romance, desperate adventure, and dark tragedy are all there in the story of Andre. Andre was portrayed by Michael Wilding as an eloquent and dignified idealist in the 1955 Hollywood film The Scarlet Coat. He is portrayed by JJ Feild in the TV series Turn: Washington's Spies."