page_title: Benjamin Church (ranger)
section_title: Legacy
hierarchical_section_title: Benjamin Church (ranger) / Legacy
caption_attribution_description: English: Benjamin Church grave in Little Compton, Rhode Island, USA.
context_page_description: Benjamin Church was an English colonist in North America. He was a military leader of the historic predecessor of the United States Army Rangers, captain of the first Ranger force in America. Church was commissioned by Josiah Winslow, the Governor of the Plymouth Colony, to form the first ranger company for King Philip's War. He later commanded the company to raid Acadia during King William's and Queen Anne's wars in the early 1700s, as French and English hostilities played out in North America. The two powers were competing for control in colonial territories. He was promoted to major and ended his service at the rank of colonel, as noted on his gravestone.
  Church designed his forces to emulate Indian practices of warfare. Toward this end, he worked to adopt Indian techniques of small, flexible forces that used the woods and ground for cover, rather than mounting frontal attacks in military formation. English colonists developed as rangers under the tutelage of their Native American allies.
context_section_description: Church kept notes on his tactics and operations in 1675-1676. His work was eventually published in 1716 as Entertaining Passages relating to Philip's War.  Church was the great-grandfather of Dr. Benjamin Church, the first "Surgeon General" (though that title came later) of the Continental Army. Dr. Church, thought to have been a staunch Whig, was later arrested by General George Washington as a suspected spy for British General Thomas Gage.
  Rogers Rangers and Gorham's Rangers were militia developed according to the tradition begun by Church.
  In 1992, in honor of his innovative tactical methods, Church was inducted into the U.S. Army Ranger Hall of Fame. A bronze Ranger Tab was affixed to his gravestone to mark this.
  The Rhode Island Society of Colonial Wars placed a plaque near Colonel Church's grave in honor of his leadership and bravery during King Philip's War.
caption: Benjamin Church grave in Little Compton Common in Rhode Island
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