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 | |
| 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. 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. 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 Acadians resisting removal from the region and Mi'kmaq Indians resisting British authority. 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. 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.
In addition to Yankees from New England, the unit contained Scots and Irish immigrants as well, and a half-dozen Native Americans from New England. The company performed reconnaissance duties and frontier guerrilla warfare. They not only played an important role in the Acadian Removals (1755-1760), but they took part in a number of important campaigns during the war, particularly the landing at Louisburg in 1758, and the Siege of Quebec in 1759. The unit suffered heavy casualties as a result of repeated skirmishing with Canadian militia and allied Indians around the edges of the Quebec siege and, for a time, after Danks was seriously wounded, the unit was absorbed into the ranger company of Captain Moses Hazen. As part of the combined Nova Scotia ranger corps, Danks and his company took part in the Siege of Havana in 1762, where, according to Israel Putnam, Danks sold his commission in the rangers at Havana on 23 Sept. 1762 to Andrew Watson, who commanded the company for the next few months until the unit was disbanded after half its men had succumbed to tropical diseases. The survivors were drafted into British infantry regiments at Havana whose ranks were equally depleted by illness.
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Wikipedia