muck
05-28-05, 10:42 AM
Some Early American History.
Since Americans learn little American history in schools, it's here to learn on
the internet. (It's interesting how things change throughout history. My
mother was French-Canadian and Native-American, Mohawk. Yet, I was brought up
to love the United States.)
Memorial Day was set up to remember the sacrifices of the United States
military. The French and Indian War(s) ended about 20 years, before the
Declaration of Independence was signed. Personally, I think the men and women,
who built this memorial to a hero of the French and Indian Wars should have
picked a different day to dedicate it. Especially, since Maj. Robert Rogers
fought for the British against America's first military men and women.
Jack
The French and Indian War
http://home.earthlink.net/~sussex_nj_history/id3.html
******
Vets Criticize Timing of Statue's Unveiling
http://news.yahoo.com/news?tmpl=story&u=/ap/20050528/ap_on_re_us/memorial_day_fi\
ghter
By CHRIS CAROLA, Associated Press Writer Sat May 28, 6:58 AM ET
FORT EDWARD, N.Y. - Maj. Robert Rogers, the frontiersman whose 18th century
manual on guerrilla warfare has become a blueprint for Army Ranger fighting
tactics, is getting what some consider a long-overdue honor: a statue in his
memory. But some veterans believe unveiling the monument on Memorial Day is
insensitive because Rogers was loyal to England during the Revolutionary War.
"I think it's a travesty that we would think about honoring a person, especially
someone who fought against us, on that day," said Bob Bearor, who served in the
Army's 101st Airborne Division in the 1960s. "It's a sacred day. ... Let's honor
our dead who died for our country."
The life-size bronze statue is scheduled to be unveiled during a ceremony on
Rogers Island in the Hudson River, 40 miles north of Albany. The island served
as the base camp for Rogers' Rangers during the late 1750s, when the British and
French fought for control of North America.
The statue will stand near the site where Rogers penned "Rules of Discipline," a
common sense guideline for battling the French and their Indian allies in the
North American wilderness in 1757. Also known as Rogers' "Standing Orders," the
rules have been boiled down over the years from 28 to 19 and are still used to
train soldiers at the Army Ranger School at Fort Benning, Ga.
Rule No. 1 of Rogers' manual, popularized and paraphrased in the novel, "The
Northwest Passage," is, "Don't forget nothing." Another rule, No. 15, is "Don't
sleep beyond dawn. Dawn's when the French and Indians attack."
Although some veterans say they have no qualms with the Rogers statue, Bearor
and others say they are upset over a local developer's plans to unveil the
statue Monday, when the nation honors its war dead.
Bearor says Rogers, a New Hampshire-born frontiersman who led his Rogers'
Rangers on guerrilla raids for the British during the French and Indian War,
turned against his fellow Americans in the Revolutionary War.
But organizers of the May 30 event defend the timing, saying that holding it on
the holiday allows the greatest number of local dignitaries and the public to
attend.
The local newspaper, the Post-Star of Glens Falls, has editorialized against the
Memorial Day ceremony, but some veterans aren't so vexed. "I don't see any
problem," said Harold Murray, commander of the Veterans of Foreign Wars post in
Glens Falls. "That's going quite a ways back in history."
Richard Fuller is caretaker of the private portion of Rogers Island where the
statue will stand. The property is owned by retired construction executive Frank
Nastasi of Syosset. Both men are veterans and neither believes that holding the
event on Memorial Day shows disrespect for America's war dead, Fuller said.
But the head of a group of former and active-duty Rangers argues the although
tribute may be well-intended, it is problematic.
"Memorial Day? They're not thinking that through," said retired Army Capt. Steve
Maguire, president of the U.S. Army Ranger Association. "It just seems like I
would try a different day."
Although he doesn't deny Rogers' military legacy, Bearor, a French and Indian
War re-enactor and author of several books on the conflict, questions holding a
Memorial Day tribute to a man who George Washington didn't trust.
Fearing Rogers was a British spy, Washington turned down his request to join the
Continental Army at the outset of the American Revolution. Rogers went on to
raise a company of loyalist rangers, but failed to have the impact he had in the
previous war. A heavy drinker, he died a pauper in England in 1795 and lies
buried somewhere beneath the streets of London.
"Even the English don't look at him as a hero," Bearor said. "They buried him in
an unmarked grave."
Controversy aside, a tribute to Rogers is long overdue, said Stephen Brumwell, a
British author whose latest book, "White Devil," details the most famous exploit
of Rogers' Rangers: the 1759 revenge raid on an Abenaki Indian village in
Quebec. The raid that inspired the 1826 novel "The Last of the Mohicans," by
James Fenimore Cooper.
"He earned his statue the hard way," Brumwell said in a telephone interview from
his home in the Netherlands. "While others were sitting out the French and
Indian War in Boston and New York, he was leading patrols into enemy territory,
often in the very depths of winter."
http://news.yahoo.com/news?tmpl=story&u=/ap/20050528/ap_on_re_us/memorial_day_fi\
ghter
Since Americans learn little American history in schools, it's here to learn on
the internet. (It's interesting how things change throughout history. My
mother was French-Canadian and Native-American, Mohawk. Yet, I was brought up
to love the United States.)
Memorial Day was set up to remember the sacrifices of the United States
military. The French and Indian War(s) ended about 20 years, before the
Declaration of Independence was signed. Personally, I think the men and women,
who built this memorial to a hero of the French and Indian Wars should have
picked a different day to dedicate it. Especially, since Maj. Robert Rogers
fought for the British against America's first military men and women.
Jack
The French and Indian War
http://home.earthlink.net/~sussex_nj_history/id3.html
******
Vets Criticize Timing of Statue's Unveiling
http://news.yahoo.com/news?tmpl=story&u=/ap/20050528/ap_on_re_us/memorial_day_fi\
ghter
By CHRIS CAROLA, Associated Press Writer Sat May 28, 6:58 AM ET
FORT EDWARD, N.Y. - Maj. Robert Rogers, the frontiersman whose 18th century
manual on guerrilla warfare has become a blueprint for Army Ranger fighting
tactics, is getting what some consider a long-overdue honor: a statue in his
memory. But some veterans believe unveiling the monument on Memorial Day is
insensitive because Rogers was loyal to England during the Revolutionary War.
"I think it's a travesty that we would think about honoring a person, especially
someone who fought against us, on that day," said Bob Bearor, who served in the
Army's 101st Airborne Division in the 1960s. "It's a sacred day. ... Let's honor
our dead who died for our country."
The life-size bronze statue is scheduled to be unveiled during a ceremony on
Rogers Island in the Hudson River, 40 miles north of Albany. The island served
as the base camp for Rogers' Rangers during the late 1750s, when the British and
French fought for control of North America.
The statue will stand near the site where Rogers penned "Rules of Discipline," a
common sense guideline for battling the French and their Indian allies in the
North American wilderness in 1757. Also known as Rogers' "Standing Orders," the
rules have been boiled down over the years from 28 to 19 and are still used to
train soldiers at the Army Ranger School at Fort Benning, Ga.
Rule No. 1 of Rogers' manual, popularized and paraphrased in the novel, "The
Northwest Passage," is, "Don't forget nothing." Another rule, No. 15, is "Don't
sleep beyond dawn. Dawn's when the French and Indians attack."
Although some veterans say they have no qualms with the Rogers statue, Bearor
and others say they are upset over a local developer's plans to unveil the
statue Monday, when the nation honors its war dead.
Bearor says Rogers, a New Hampshire-born frontiersman who led his Rogers'
Rangers on guerrilla raids for the British during the French and Indian War,
turned against his fellow Americans in the Revolutionary War.
But organizers of the May 30 event defend the timing, saying that holding it on
the holiday allows the greatest number of local dignitaries and the public to
attend.
The local newspaper, the Post-Star of Glens Falls, has editorialized against the
Memorial Day ceremony, but some veterans aren't so vexed. "I don't see any
problem," said Harold Murray, commander of the Veterans of Foreign Wars post in
Glens Falls. "That's going quite a ways back in history."
Richard Fuller is caretaker of the private portion of Rogers Island where the
statue will stand. The property is owned by retired construction executive Frank
Nastasi of Syosset. Both men are veterans and neither believes that holding the
event on Memorial Day shows disrespect for America's war dead, Fuller said.
But the head of a group of former and active-duty Rangers argues the although
tribute may be well-intended, it is problematic.
"Memorial Day? They're not thinking that through," said retired Army Capt. Steve
Maguire, president of the U.S. Army Ranger Association. "It just seems like I
would try a different day."
Although he doesn't deny Rogers' military legacy, Bearor, a French and Indian
War re-enactor and author of several books on the conflict, questions holding a
Memorial Day tribute to a man who George Washington didn't trust.
Fearing Rogers was a British spy, Washington turned down his request to join the
Continental Army at the outset of the American Revolution. Rogers went on to
raise a company of loyalist rangers, but failed to have the impact he had in the
previous war. A heavy drinker, he died a pauper in England in 1795 and lies
buried somewhere beneath the streets of London.
"Even the English don't look at him as a hero," Bearor said. "They buried him in
an unmarked grave."
Controversy aside, a tribute to Rogers is long overdue, said Stephen Brumwell, a
British author whose latest book, "White Devil," details the most famous exploit
of Rogers' Rangers: the 1759 revenge raid on an Abenaki Indian village in
Quebec. The raid that inspired the 1826 novel "The Last of the Mohicans," by
James Fenimore Cooper.
"He earned his statue the hard way," Brumwell said in a telephone interview from
his home in the Netherlands. "While others were sitting out the French and
Indian War in Boston and New York, he was leading patrols into enemy territory,
often in the very depths of winter."
http://news.yahoo.com/news?tmpl=story&u=/ap/20050528/ap_on_re_us/memorial_day_fi\
ghter