Knowlton's Rangers are considered the United States of America's first organized intelligence service organization, as well as the first American Ranger unit formed after America declared its independence from the United Kingdom.[9] The date "1776" on the modern U.S. Army's intelligence service seal refers to the formation of Knowlton's Rangers.
The father of American ranging is Colonel Benjamin Church (c. 1639–1718).[6] He was the captain of the first Ranger force in America (1676).[6]: 33 Church was commissioned by the Governor of the Plymouth Colony Josiah Winslow to form the first ranger company for King Philip's War. He later employed the company to raid Acadia during King William's War and Queen Anne's War.
Benjamin Church designed his force primarily to emulate Native American patterns of war. Toward this end, Church endeavored to learn to fight like Native Americans from Native Americans.[6]: 35 Americans became rangers exclusively under the tutelage of the Native American allies. (Until the end of the colonial period, rangers depended on Native Americans as both allies and teachers.)[6]: 34–35
Church developed a special full-time unit mixing white colonists selected for frontier skills with friendly Native Americans to carry out offensive strikes against hostile Native Americans in terrain where normal militia units were ineffective. His memoirs Entertaining Passages relating to Philip's War is considered the first American military manual, which was published in 1716.
Do they use grrrr 222