Getting back on the Ranger trail, with Captain Sam Brady (as depicted by Don Troiani).
The input of Patrons and readers of Frontier Partisans is profoundly valuable to me. In recent weeks, I’ve received a couple of queries that served as bracing shots of truth; raising issues I really need to address — and fix.
These were not couched as criticisms, but they alerted me that I am putting the quality of my work at risk by diffusing it across too many sidetrails. One reader warned that he saw a danger, as he put it, that I sell my talents short through a lack of focus. Another asked me if I had set the Ranger Project (Spirited For That Work) aside.
Those two communiques have echoed in my head and heart for a month now. There are some reasons behind my perceptible wandering zero, but ultimately, they’re just what Steven Pressfield calls Resistance . I’m getting in my own way, or allowing life to get in my way.
I know that Spirited For That Work is where my focus must be. It may sound grandiose, but I envision it as a kind of Frontier Partisans magnum opus — because it encompasses all the themes that make up Frontier Partisans: The resonance of continuity & persistence of the ethos across a wide geography and three centuries; even edging into the realms of Fennario through an exploration of the Ranger as a fantasy archetype from Tolkien to Howard to George RR Martin.
Immersing myself fully in this work will be beneficial to me personally, and it will produce many a fine tale for the FP blog and for the podcast. I am wrapping the Mex Rev series, and I will give up the trail of the Sierra Madre Apaches. I realize that this is a bit messy, but I need to do this to get myself back on the target and fully engaged with what is shaping up to be a major effort.
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I’ve roughed out the Ranger Project as follows:
I. New England Genesis — The birth of the Ranging Way of War in King Philip’s War of 1676; Gorham and Harmon’s Rangers; Robert Rogers (French & Indian War).
II. La Petite Guerre — The simultaneous development of the Ranging Way of War among the French-Canadian Partisans — with a focus on Ensign Langy and Charles de Langlade.
III. The American Revolution — Daniel Morgan and his Riflemen as Rangers (including action in the Mohawk Valley); Butler’s Rangers (Loyalist); Southern Theater partisan warfare. The Ohio River Valley frontier with a particular focus on Captain Samuel Brady and his Rangers.
IV. The Borderlands — The Texas Rangers with particular focus on their role in the Mexican-American War
V. Modern Rangers — WWII; Vietnam (LRRPs); GWOT
VI. The Ranger as an archetype — particular focus on the influence of Tolkien’s Dunedain; also Howard (Beyond the Black River) and Martin’s depiction of Rangers in A Song of Ice and Fire (Game of Thrones).
This could read like a thesis or dissertation — but that ain’t what I’m after. There will be plenty of historical context provided, but the meat of the matter is true tales wrought as vividly as I am able.
Podcast episodes will be oriented around this tale-telling, and I am seriously considering adding a Youtube component.
And I will be pitching the work to publishers.
Quixotic Mainer says
Glad you’re going all the way to Green River on the Rangerin’ front. There’s few worthier topics!
Matthew says
You can’t achieve anything without focus and focus means sacrifice of attention and time. It’s a shame that you can’t do everything all at once.
I look forward to your work on Rangers.
JimC says
Thank you Matthew.
Travis Slusser says
I recall in the first chapter of “Dispatches” by Michael Herr, he describes a LRRP team member he met and his description is just… not sure of the word I’m looking for. He might as well have been describing Sam Brady. The ranger is truly a timeless archetype, and well worth the study. Thank you for taking such a nuanced, balanced and reality-based approach to history. You seem to treat people fairly, even ones who’ve been dead for 200+ years. It’s increasingly rare. I’m excited for this!
JimC says
Thank you Travis. You just made my day.
I’ll have to revisit Herr (read in college WAY too long ago) and track that down. He had a very vivid way of capturing a scene or a person.
John M Roberts says
I read Herr’s book about 7 years after leaving Vietnam myself. I was struck in that early passage by his description of the LRRP soldiers whose eyes looked like the bottom of an ocean. I saw eyes like that in Vietnam, but more of them on guys recently returned to the States. We throw around the term “thousand yard stare” and we just mean a sort of vacant look. The real thing is unforgettable.
JimC says
The eyes as the window of the soul may be a cliche, but it’s damn true.
lane batot says
Give up searching for the Sierra Madre Apaches?????? What? Really, though, that’s okay, ’cause I know ye’ll git back to it in time! Besides, that’s searching better done in the Winter anyway–too damn hot down there in the Summer! Nothing wrong with rambling all over the place, but you can only ramble in one location at a time! As for rangers–that term is not always the same in all cultures! Just reading about the Bush Rangers in Australia(in alignment with my Summer-long Aussie studies this year), and how some teamed up with Aborigines to fight British officialdom down under, back in the 1700’s! A tale I never knew about, ANYTHING involving conflict with the aborigines being so suppressed in Australian history, as well as white “renegades” joining up with them–but fascinating stuff! I always wondered how accurate a portrayal of such was in the splendid movie with Tom Selleck, “Quigley Down Under”, and sadly, such was par-for-the course, alas, with much less satisfying endings, generally(well, if you are pro-aborigine, that is)…… But probably a whole ‘nuther separate subject there……