Benjamin Church ( military officer ) Colonel Benjamin Church ( c . 1639 – January 17 , 1718 ) is considered the father of American ranging . He was the captain of the first Ranger force in America ( 1676 ) . 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 Williams War and Queen Anne ' s War . Church designed his force primarily to emulate Indian patterns of war . Toward this end , he endeavored to learn to fight like Indians from Indians . Americans became rangers exclusively under the tutelage of the Indian allies . ( Until the end of the colonial period , rangers depended on Indians as both allies and teachers . ) Church developed a special full - time unit mixing white colonists selected for frontier skills with friendly Indians to carry out offensive strikes against hostile Indians and French in terrain where normal militia units were ineffective . His memoirs " Entertaining Passages relating to Philip ' s War " were published in 1716 and are considered the first American military manual . Family . Born in Plymouth Colony in about 1639 , Church married Alice Southworth on December 26 , 1667 in Duxbury , Massachusetts . He resided for a time in Duxbury and later moved to Bristol . King Philip ' s War . Church was the principal aide to Governor Josiah Winslow of Plymouth Colony . Holding the rank of captain , he fought during King Philip ' s War ( 1675 – 1678 ) on the New England frontier against the Wampanoag , Nipmuck and Podunk tribes of Indians . He is best known for his actions during this time in commanding a company of men independent of the governor ' s direct command . Church ' s men were the first colonial force successful in raiding the Indians ' camps in forests and swamps . During previous decades , colonists were on the defense against the Natives , although relations were generally peaceful until 1675 . Church was eventually allowed to recruit Indians when traditional Army tactics of the times were unsuccessful . He persuaded many neutral or formerly hostile Indians to surrender and join his unit , where they operated skillfully as irregular troops . Some of these men had converted to Christianity in settlements before the war . These were known as Praying Indian s . After being organized by Church , these troops tracked Indians into the forests and swamps and conducted effective raids and ambushes on their camps . Great Swamp Fight . During the Great Swamp Fight , Church was wounded while playing a leading role in the battle in which an estimated 300 Narragansetts were killed . After the Great Swamp Fight , Benjamin Church and the others hoped to follow the Narragansetts to their villages . The natives had fled leaving Church and others stranded in enemy territory and without provisions . Their expedition had to fight for survival and eventually were forced to eat their horses rather than starve . The war soon ended after an operation by Church ' s company on August 12 , 1676 , when one of Church ' s Indian allies ( John Alderman ) killed the chieftain King Philip ( also known as Metacomet ) . Upon inspection of Philip ' s body , Church is quoted as saying " a doleful , great , naked , dirty beast . " Philip was then butchered in a manner standard with English punishment for treason , drawing and quartering . King William ' s War . During King William ' s War , Church led four New England raiding parties into Acadia ( which included most of Maine ) against the Acadians and Native Americans . On the first expedition into Acadia , on September 21 , 1689 , Major Benjamin Church and 250 troops defended a group of English settlers trying to establish themselves at Falmouth , Maine ( present - day Portland , Maine ) . Natives killed 21 of his men , however , he was successful and the natives retreated . Church then returned to Boston leaving the small group of English settlers unprotected . ( The following spring , May 1690 , over 400 French and native troops under the leadership of Castin returned to Falmouth and massacred all the British settlers in the Battle of Fort Loyal . When Church returned to the village later that summer he buried the dead . ) In Church ' s second expedition a year later on 11 September 1690 he arrived with 300 men at Casco Bay . His mission was to relieve the English Fort Pejpescot ( present day Brunswick , Maine ) , which had been taken by natives . He went up Androscoggin River to Fort Pejepscot . From there he went 40 miles up river to Livermore Falls , Maine and attacked a native village . Church ' s men shot 3 - 4 native men when they were retreating . Church discovered five English captives in the wigwams . Church butchered six or seven prisoners and took nine prisoners . A few days later , in retaliation , the natives attacked Church at Cape Elizabeth on Purpooduc Point , killing 7 of his men and wounding 24 others . On September 26 , Church returned to Portsmouth , New Hampshire . Church ' s third expedition during the war was in 1692 when he raided Penobscot ( present - day Indian Island , Maine ) with 450 men . Church and his men then went on to raid Taconock ( Winslow , Maine ) . Four years later , Church went on his forth expedition and carried out the Siege of Fort Nashwaak ( 1696 ) ( present day Fredericton , New Brunswick ) which was then Capital of Acadia , and the Raid on Chignecto ( 1696 ) in Acadia , now holding the rank of major . Despite weighing approximately 250 pounds , he led his troops personally in killing inhabitants of Chignecto , looting their household goods , burning their houses and slaughtering the livestock . Queen Anne ' s War . During Queen Anne ' s War , Church went on his fifth and final expedition into Acadia . In retaliation for the Deerfield Massacre , in 1704 Major Church raided Acadia in the Raid on Castine , Maine , Raid on St . Stephen , New Brunswick , Raid on Grand Pre , Raid on Pisiguit ( present day Falmouth and Windsor ) and the Raid on Chignecto . ( Church took a former prisoner of the Maliseet , John Gyles as his translator . ) Church took prisoners and claimed to have left only five houses standing in Acadia . One of the prominent Acadian prisoners he took in the Raid of Pisiguit ( 1704 ) was Noel Doiron . Legacy . He held public office as the first representative of Bristol at Plymouth between 1682 and 1684 . Church died at Little Compton , Rhode Island in 1718 and was buried in the Little Compton Common cemetery . Church kept notes on his tactics and operations in 1675 - 1676 which were eventually published in 1716 as " Entertaining Passages relating to Philip ' s War " . Colonel Church was the great - grandfather of Dr . Benjamin Church , the first " Surgeon General " ( though that title came later ) of the Continental Army . Dr . Church , previously thought to have been a staunch Whig , would be arrested by George Washington as a spy for General Thomas Gage . Famous Rangers such as Rogers Rangers and Gorham ' s Rangers would eventually follow in the tradition begun by Church . References . Secondary Sources Primary Sources Endnotes Links