The Little Ice Age and the French and Indian War
During the eighteenth and most of the nineteenth centuries it was customary for armies during wartime to retire into winter camps, avoiding contact with the enemy other than through the occasional collision of patrols. During the 1754-63 conflict in North America known as the French and Indian War, this was the policy followed by the European Armies and most of their North American allies. The severity of the winters during that conflict, especially in New York, New England, and Canada, precluded the movements of large armies, especially along a major theatre of the war, the Hudson River Valley.
During the French and Indian War, fought during the Little Ice Age, the upper reaches of the Hudson River and the waterways of Lake George, Lake Champlain, the Richelieu, and other bodies of water in what is now upstate New York and Canada froze over routinely. Heavy snows blanketed the region in white from November until April, and sometimes May. Temperatures were brutally cold, often remaining well below freezing for weeks at a time. Unprotected skin froze quickly. Darkness came early, particularly in the deep woods of the region.
Attacks on British outposts and American settlements increased during the winter months in the first year of the war, led by French coureurs de bois (runners of the woods) and their Indian allies. In order to counter these attacks and keep apprised of the movements of the enemy the British needed a new type of soldier, and their American allies created one. They were called the Rangers, and their primary leader was Robert Rogers, a questionable character under indictment for forgery when the war began. Rogers wrote his famous “Rules of Ranging” which are still listed in the US Army’s Rangers Handbook. He invented a new kind of soldier and a new kind of warfare.
Rogers Rangers were trained in the art of moving through the deep snow on snowshoes, making them as mobile in the depth of winter as they were on a bright summer’s day. The Rangers fought two battles on snowshoes during the winters of the war. When they encountered frozen streams and lakes the Rangers strapped on ice skates and used the waterways to their advantage. Their winter apparel included woolen layers against the cold, under furs which covered them from skull to toes. Rogers was one of the first to recommend several layers of light clothing rather than just one of heavy material. The Rangers were mobile, fast, and deadly in combat, and by the end of the French and Indian War the only soldier in America more famous than Rogers was George Washington.
The Little Ice Age continued to plague military operations in North America during the Revolutionary War and to a lesser degree the war of 1812. In both of those wars, Ranging companies were established in which the soldiers were forced to cope with the movements of the enemy and the brutality of the climate. Rogers’ Rangers on patrol suffered immeasurably from the harshness of the elements, more so than other troops which remained in camp during the worst of the winter weather. They had to learn the lessons of survival during some of the worst winter weather in the history of the North American continent and they learned them well enough to pass them down to succeeding generations.