Frontier Partisans

The Adventurers, Rangers and Scouts Who Fought the Battles of Empire

The finest fighter in the woods — a French-Ottawa badass bests Rogers’ Rangers

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Rogers’ Rangers by Glenn Kapheim glennkapheimart.com

Major Robert Rogers is the godfather of American partisan warfare. Though he wasn’t the first frontier leader to adopt Indian methods to create effective ranging units, his exploits in the French and Indian War of 1755-1763 established the template for Anglo-American partisan operations that extends to the present day.

His operational principles are encoded in modern U.S. Army Ranger doctrine and his deeds have been recorded in books and on film.

I won’t say that Rogers doesn’t deserve the credit he gets, but I will argue that he got the benefit of winner’s press. There was another partisan in the North American woods that was even better than he was — and proved it by besting the Ranger in wilderness combat.

Charles de Langlade

Charles Michel de Langlade was a badass. The métis son of a French trader and an Ottawa woman, it was as if he was born to take the war trail in the service of both of his peoples. That trail was dark and brutal, marked by atrocity and counter atrocity. Langlade first came to notice with a piece of gangsterism that any Mafioso or cartel boss would recognize.

An Ohio Valley Miami chieftain variously known as La Demoiselle or Old Britain had gotten too friendly with British traders, rivals to the French in the lucrative fur trade. Langlade, a young militia cadet, made Old Britain an offer he couldn’t refuse: Trade with me and my French brethren. Old Britain not only refused, he insulted the young métis and threw him out of Pickawillany village. Big mistake.

Langlade returned north and told an Ottawa friend of his named Pontiac about the insult. In June 1752, the pair led 250 Ottawa and Chippewa warriors back down to Picawillany where they destroyed the village. Old Britain was executed — and his killers boiled him in a pot and ate him. His followers decided to return  their trade to the French.

When an aggressive young Virginia militia colonel named George Washington inadvertently touched off the world war Americans know as the French and Indian War, Langlade cheerfully encouraged his Ottawa friends to join the fray on behalf of the French, traveling hundreds of miles for the prospect of scalps, loot and glory. They got a surfeit of all three on July 9, 1755, when Langlade helped organize the ambush that destroyed General Edward Braddock’s army in the woods near Fort Duquesne (now Pittsburg, PA). It was a beautiful ambush — and a disastrous defeat for the British, costing nearly 500 killed and nearly 400 wounded. The French and Indians lost probably less than 30 killed.

So, by 1757, Langlade was a seasoned partisan ranger, a deadly forest warrior. And he was about to go mano-a-mano with Rogers, who was driving the French nuts with raid along Lake George and Lake Champlain.

Lake George — a beautiful battleground.

 

The lakes that mark the boundary between the New England colonies and New York were the theater of operations in which the American “ranging way of war” was forged. Rogers and his ranging companies traversed the lake by whale boat and canoe and on skates in the winter, harrying the French, ambushing patrols and supply columns and providing some of the offensive spirit needed to cheer up the British and Americans still in a funk over their less-than-impressive start to the war.

Rogers led one such raid  in January 1757, capturing several supply sleighs on Lake Champlain, along with a few prisoners. The commander of Fort Carillon (eventually Ticonderoga) dispatched Langlade to pursue the Rangers at the head of a party of 90 Indians and Canadians and 110 French regulars.

Rogers’ 74 Rangers, with seven prisoners in tow, were busting ass through snow over broken ground in the ever-shortening daylight of a northeastern winter afternoon. Langlade picked up the trail and swung out around Rogers, throwing up a horseshoe-shaped ambush at the top of a ravine where Rogers’ men struggled to climb on their snowshoes.

As the Rangers crested the ravine, a point-blank volley from musket and fusil blasted into them, leaving several Rangers turning the snow into bloody slush.

According to historian John F. Ross:

Langlade himself may have fired on Rogers, who took a ball across the temple; it ripped his hat off but left him standing. As Langlade watched, the big man staggered like a great wounded elk, blood running down his face, bellowing orders to his men to rally on the far side of the creek.

That evening there was a hell of a firefight as Rogers’ company held off Langlade’s efforts to flank them. After nightfall, Rogers took advantage of the cover of darkness to slip away, apparently inadvertently leaving three of the most seriously wounded behind to face the tender mercies of the Ottawa.

By force of will and the profound leadership qualities that made him who he was, Rogers got the bulk of his command back to Fort William Henry at the foot of Lake George. Still, he’d lost 14 killed, six wounded (including himself) and seven missing.

That seems to be the only time the two frontier partisans met in direct confrontation. Both continued to raid. Langlade might have turned the tide against General James Wolfe’s army at Quebec, but cautious regular army officers denied support for an ambush that could have doomed Wolfe to the same fate as Braddock.

As it was, Langlade fought in the decisive battle at the Plains of Abraham. After the French defeat, he moved to what is now Green Bay, Wisconsin, where he remained active in the fur trade. He led western Indians allied to the British in the Revolutionary War, but never with the flare and success he showed against Rogers.

He died in 1801, the veteran by his own estimation of 99 fights and battles.

Rogers went on to great fame; Langlade is now mostly forgotten. Such are the whims of history.

The coureur des bois were perhaps the best of the earlier frontier partisan warriors in North America.

Comments

  3. JimC says

    Hey, Le Loup — I’ve been lurking around your blog for a long time. Scouting, you know.

    You do great work. I’ve linked to you.

    Reply

  4. The Last Frontier says

    Great site! I’m sure I’ll enjoy spending time here. Thanks to Le Loup for posting a link on his site. Otherwise I might not have found this one. I now have you linked on mine, as well.
    Best wishes,
    Jenny in Alaska

    Reply

  6. steve braun says

    Just found you blog. Langlade is/was the MAN. I have found a book about him on google books, “The Bravest of the Brave”. I’m going to ask frontier artist Andrew Knez(sp) about doing a picture of him.

    Reply

  7. Bea Richard (Langlade) says

    Thanks for the bit on Langlade. My grandmother was a Langlade and I grew up on stories of him and other family members.

    Reply

    • Nancy says

      My grandfather was a Langlade.Where do you live? Our last name has changes to Longlade since around 1955.I am trying to fill in the family tree.Maybe you could help me.My father was Alcime Langlade( but spelled Longlade when he past away).

      Reply

  8. Rob Langlade says

    Nancy and Bea, Charles was my great great great great great great grandfather. Feel free to contact me as my family might be able to fill in the gaps for you (especially re: the name change). You can write to me at rob@langlade.ca if you’d like.

    Thanks for the great blog Jim.

    Reply

  9. Steven Fern says

    Gee, Langlade’s 250 men ambush Rogers’ 73, an advantage of almost 3-1/2 to one. So far, so good, it’s war. But Langlade loses 110 men, 44%, while Rogers with a force one-third the size loses 20 or 21, the reports varied. Worst case, Roger lost 27%. Another way, the ambushers took more than five times the casualties of their “victims”. And, Rogers got away. Langlade got his behind whipped, good preparation for the Plains of Abraham. This wasn’t even a pyrrhic victory.

    Reply

  10. putnamvt says

    ditto, good synopsis Steven Fern, this episode was Rogers in his prime, but perhaps due a lack of discipline on the Rangers part who broke ranks and chased after scalps and into a deadly counter-ambush, French and Indians under Langy almost annihilated Rogers command in March of 1759.

    Reply

  11. Jason says

    I have a question, I have read almost all there is for Rogers Rangers and while a lot of the above I recgonize I recall in both War on the Run, and the trilogy written by Burt Garfield Loescher that has every major battle the rangers engaged in, there was a guy named Langy De La Marine (forgive me if spelling is wrong) but this guy was the Frenche’s version of “Rogers” and sounds a LOT like the Langlade guy, except in both of my sources he died after an engagement with the rangers (I want to say it was after the battle of snow shoes that Langy got shot and fell off an Ice piece of ice flowing on a river and he died.

    Reply

  13. Deborah says

    I’ve read several versions of the destruction of the Pickawillany village where Langlade ripped the still beating heart from Unemakemi aka Old Britain and devoured at least part of it while the chief was in his death throes. This was followed by dismembering Old Britain, a trader named Kennedy and two of the Pickawillany defenders, boiling and eating them half raw so the attackers could absorb their strength. Like ritual torture, this was ritual cannibalism.

    Reply

  14. Mike Z says

    Stopped by the Neville Museum in Green Bay yesterday primarily to revisit their Langlade artifacts- his hunting sword and British officers coat.

    Really enjoy your blog. Your adventures with your daughter and family make me smile.

    Reply

    • Allan Lacosse says

      The British coat is a replica. His real coat is in their vault. As his Great Grandson. I’ve had many discussions with the Neville Museum about my Great Grandfather. It’s to bad he does not have a grave stone.

      Reply

  15. David Hottenstine says

    My sister traced our liniage back to Langlade, my great X5 Grandfather. She found out by researching records in the Green Bay Library.

    Reply

  16. Laura says

    Thank you for your blog post. Charles de Langlade is my great (x7) grandfather. For those with other stories, please share. My children are finally interested in family history.

    Reply

  17. Stephen Frank says

    I think to compare them, you would need Rogers to be on the ambush as well. He did escape a trap no matter the loss.

    Reply

  18. Augustine Greenwood says

    Love to see de Langlade get some love! He’s a part of so many people’s heritages. My 8th-great-grandfather, one part of a large and interwoven story of the Voyageurs. Many of my other ancestors bought land from him with money made from trapping and trading in Canada. So many good family stories have been passed down.
    For instance, a Métis ancestor of mine who once worked with the North West Company, Joseph Boisvert, brought his wife and children on a particular trapping expedition. The expedition commander writes that at one point, Joseph, the canoe he led, and his family vanished for several days. Perplexed, they continued on, only to find him waiting downstream; he’d gone to meet up with his wife’s tribe. They were not all warriors like Langlade, but they certainly knew the land!

    Reply

    • Mitchell says

      Hi Augustine he’s actually my 8th grandfather as well :D. I’ve been tracing my family tree as of recent and now I’m curious how far down the tree in relation you and I go :).

      Reply

  19. Syd Hill says

    I am a metis related too Charles Vassuer and Marguerite Longlade with proven Metis Family lines at least 4. I am interested in gaining access to other people who are related to Charles de Langlade with proven lines. Marguerite Langlade lived on Drummond Island 1802 and was born there.
    The mystery I am having is who is her parents. It is a riddle. There were three women on Drummond Island that had the Name Marguerite Langlade. Two were sisters and mine was a cousin to them. The two sisters were baptized by the same priest. The priest accidently baptized them with the same name. So the older of the 2 became a spinster. Once baptized they would not change the name. In the article on the voyagers of Drummond island written in 1902, under the part written on Charles Vassuer it his wife was a cousin to the two sisters ( whose father was Charles De Langlade Jr) and was a near relative to Charles de Langlade. I am led to believe her father was Charles De Langlade Sr by information from the Riel Institute

    Reply

    • Mitchell says

      Hi Syd I may have more information for you being a direct descendant and still carrying the Vasseur (Vessair) name. The name became Anglicized in some cases to fit in with English colonialists. The earliest written information I have is from Charles grand daughter (my 6th great grand mother).

      Reply

      • Dalton Fluke says

        Hi Mitchell, my 3x Great Grandfather was Charles Vasseur and ended up in Penatanguishine. Be so interested in any family history you have my family line was Charles -> Charles ->Alfred->Irene Vasseur.

        Reply

        • Al&Jan M says

          Many same names, unfortunately Charles …Alfred de Langlad, fought in 99 battles in his lifetime, died in his sleep according to Guinness world book of records, and many spouses. My family traces liniage and many same names.

          Reply

  20. Thomas Louis(ignau) says

    Hello, I recently found out that Charles Langlade is my 4X great grandfather thru his daughter Agatha who was married to my 3x great grandfather Francis Louisignau. Recently visited Francis’s grave on Mackinac Island. In 1950, my grandfather (who also was Francis Louisignau) shortened our last name to Louis.
    Also spent time at the Ojibwa Cultural Center just north of the Mackinac Bridge in St. Ignace. Very well done museum built on the original mission of Father James Marquette who is buried on site. The Story Teller, Richard Lewis, is a knowledgeable & humble man who I may be related to 4 or 5x generational cousins. Visit this area & spend some time there if you have opportunity.
    Summer is beautiful friendly weather as opposed to January. 🙂

    Reply

    • JimC says

      Thanks for stopping by the campfire Thomas. Powerful heritage. I would love to visit that part of the country. Closest I’m getting right now is rural Michigan for a few days for business.

      Reply

    • Byron C Goodchild says

      Gee we are really close, Agatha was my gr.x3 grandfathers sister…..his name was Pierre Longlade.cool

      Reply

  21. Hugh Centerville says

    Rogers got himself into another controversial situation down around Fort Anne in ’57 or ’58. He was leading a large patrol and thinking there were no French and Indians around, he had a shooting contest between himself and one of the British officers. There were French and Indians nearby, a lot of them, they heard the shooting and went to it. They ambushed Rogers, Rogers lost quite a few men but got out and was treated pretty good in the press for his heroic actions, never mind his carelessness was what brought on the battle. Not sure but I think Marin might have been on the other side.

    Reply

    • JimC says

      Welcome to the campfire Hugh. I’ve taken a bit of heat over the years from people who are deeply invested in viewing Rogers as some kind of super-operator. The record just doesn’t support that. He was doubtless brave and capable, and had some successes, and some failures. The incident you describe is simply careless, as you note. The man had a very mixed record, including in his most famous exploit, the St. Francis Raid.

      Reply

  22. Kevin Hock says

    This is a fascinating article that further supplemented the book “Bravest of the Brave, Capt. Charles Michael DeLanglade”. I discovered in late 2018 he was my great grandfather x7. Having served in two branches of the military and retiring as a Captain, it was particularly interesting to discover the following year year that the Neville Museum in Green Bay has some of his personal items, including a pistol and the British Uniform he was bestowed in 1776, the very thing that George Washington had hoped to earn while serving the British as a young colonial officer.

    Reply

  23. Tiffany says

    Thank you for this article, it’s so hard to find info about Charles. Im a relation of his through his relative Margeurite Langlade (born abt 1802 on Drummond Island) who married Charles Vasseur/Vassair (born abt 1804 location?), they are my 4th great grandparents and im trying to find out if Margeurite is a granddaughter of the Captain or a great grandaughter, theres an article about the Drummond Island Voyagers that states Margeurite was a very near relative of Captain Langlade and a cousin to the Langlades of Penetanguishene but nothing states her parents names. This is a longshot but if anyone knows about Margeurite or his relations from the Penetanguishene area id love to learn more, as I understand it Margeurite did not live there for long and lived & died in Ontonagon, Michigan but her children with Charles Vasseur/Vassair did raise families there. And thank you again, I found this while searching for his family tree and it’s a really cool story.

    Reply

  24. Al&Jan M says

    All your info supports my lineage omg. From my side Charles de Langlade is registered in the Guinness world book of records as fighting in 99 battles and dieing in his sleep, stoies pasted down suggest he was a career fighter, with the French Indian and British as hired, my ancestry folows many names and locations you have mentioned. Yes a unique individual. To bad the recordings were sketchy back then. But we can say we have a history. FYI my grandpa’s parentage traces back to Switzerland

    Reply

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