Rogers’ Standing Orders
Installation Management Command headquarters has decreed that its seven history positions be abolished. Therefore this is my final history column. I would like to dedicate it to all those families who have loved ones serving in the armed forces of the United States around the world for in the words of the 17th century English poet, John Milton, “They also serve who only stand and wait.”
Maj. Robert Rogers (1731-95) was a brilliant frontier scout and small unit leader. He drew up a list of rules for warfare while fighting the French and Indians on the American Frontier in 1756 that became known as Rogers Standing Orders for Warfare. These rules are even more relevant today than they were at the time they were written. In the 20th century, Kenneth Roberts wrote the book “Northwest Passage” about Rogers’ famous raid on the Indian village of Saint Francis, which became the motion picture “Northwest Passage,” starring Spencer Tracy as Rogers.
Standing Orders – Major Robert Rogers – 1756
1. Don’t forget nothing.
2. Have your musket clean as a whistle, hatchet scoured, sixty rounds powder and ball, and be ready to march at a minute’s warning.
3. When you’re on the march, act the way you would if you was sneaking up on a deer. See the enemy first.
4. Tell the truth about what you see and what you do. There is an army depending on us for correct information. You can lie all you please when you tell other folks about the Rangers, but don’t ever lie to a Ranger or officer.
5. Don’t ever take a chance you don’t have to.
6. When we’re on the march, we march single file, far enough apart so one shot can’t go through two men.
7. If we strike swamps, or soft ground, we spread out abreast, so it’s hard to track us.
8. When we march, we keep moving till dark, so as to give the enemy the least possible chance at us.
9. When we camp, half the party stays awake while the other half sleeps.
10. If we take prisoners, we keep them separate till we have had time to examine them, so they can’t cook up a story between them.
11.Don’t ever march home the same way. Take a different route so you won’t be ambushed.
12. No matter whether we travel in big parties or little ones, each party has to keep a scout 20 yards ahead, 20 yards on each flank, and 20 yards in the rear so the main body can’t be surprised and wiped out.
13. Every night you will be told where to meet if surrounded by a superior force.
14. Don’t sit down to eat without posting sentries.
15. Don’t sleep beyond dawn. Dawn is when the French and Indians attack.
16. Don’t cross a river by a regular ford.
17. If somebody’s trailing you, make a circle, come back onto your own tracks, and ambush the folks that aim to ambush you.
18. Don’t stand up when the enemy’s coming against you. Kneel down, lie down, hide behind a tree.
19. Let the enemy come till he’s almost close enough to touch, then let him have it and jump out and finish him up with your hatchet.