Danks' Rangers

Danks' Rangers
Danks' Rangers
Active	1756–1762
Country	Great Britain
Allegiance	British Crown
Branch	British Army Ranger
Type	Reconnaissance, Counter-insurgency, and Light Infantry
Role	Reconnaissance, counter-insurgency, and light infantry operations
Size	One Company
Garrison/HQ	Fort Cumberland (1756–1762)
Engagements	French and Indian War Expulsion of the Acadians (1755-63); Louisbourg Expedition (1757); Cape Sable Campaign (1758); St. John River Campaign (1758-59); Petitcodiac River Campaign (1758); Siege of Louisbourg (1758); Battle of Quebec (1759); Battle of Havana (1762);
Commanders
Notable; commanders	Captain Benoni Danks

Danks' Rangers was a ranger unit raised in colonial North America and led by Captain Benoni Danks (ca. 1716-1776). It was modeled on and often served alongside of the better known Gorham's Rangers.^[1] The unit was recruited in early 1756, during the early stages of the Seven Years' War / French and Indian War, from among men serving in two then-disbanding New England provincial battalions stationed in Nova Scotia.^[2] Raised to help protect the British garrison on the Isthmus of Chignecto and secure the area after the siege of Fort Beauséjour, their principle foes were Acadian and Mi'kmaq Indians conducting a low-level insurgency against the British authorities in Nova Scotia. Their primary area of operations was the northwestern portion of Nova Scotia and the north and eastern parts of what would later become New Brunswick. The unit averaged a little over one hundred men for much of its existence, although it seems to have been augmented to 125 for the attack on Havana in 1762.^[3] The company often operated in tandem with Gorham's Rangers, based out of Halifax, Nova Scotia, and after 1761, the two companies were combined into a Nova Scotia ranging corps, led by Major Joseph Gorham.

^ Carroll, "Savages in the Service," pp. 409-413, 419-425
^ Charles Lawrence to Lord Loudoun, Halifax, n.d. [ca. Nov. 6, 1756], Loudoun Papers--North America, Huntington Library, San Marino, Calif.
^ Two muster rolls exist for the company, one from 1758 and the other from 1761, housed at the American Antiquarian Society. The breakdown of the company is also contained in numerous returns in the Loudoun and Abercromby Papers (Huntington Library) and in the Amherst Papers (War Office, British Archives)--they show that at full strength the unit had from 100 to 110 men, although due to casualties and illness its numbers ebbed to just 58 at one point.

[1] Carroll, "Savages in the Service," pp. 409-413, 419-425

[2] Charles Lawrence to Lord Loudoun, Halifax, n.d. [ca. Nov. 6, 1756], Loudoun Papers--North America, Huntington Library, San Marino, Calif.

[3] Two muster rolls exist for the company, one from 1758 and the other from 1761, housed at the American Antiquarian Society. The breakdown of the company is also contained in numerous returns in the Loudoun and Abercromby Papers (Huntington Library) and in the Amherst Papers (War Office, British Archives)--they show that at full strength the unit had from 100 to 110 men, although due to casualties and illness its numbers ebbed to just 58 at one point.

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