Butler ' s Rangers Butler ' s Rangers ( 1777 – 1784 ) was a British provincial regiment composed of Loyalist s ( or " Tories " ) in the American Revolutionary War , raised by Loyalist John Butler . Most members of the regiment were Loyalists from upstate New York . Among the regiment were former black slaves , the total number of black soldiers in Butler ' s Rangers is unknown , with estimates ranging from two to " more than a dozen " . While some blacks served in other units and as sapper s in the Engineer Corps and in the Royal Artillery , Sir William Howe banned the enlistment of blacks and ordered the disbanding of existing black regiments . The Rangers were accused of participating in — or at least failing to prevent — the Wyoming Valley massacre of July 1778 and the Cherry Valley massacre of November 1778 of white settlers ( including some Loyalists ) by Joseph Brant ' s Iroquois . These actions earned the Rangers a reputation for exceptional savagery . They fought principally in western New York and Pennsylvania , but ranged as far west as Ohio and Michigan and as far south as Virginia . Their winter quarters were constructed on the west bank of the Niagara River in what is now the town of Niagara - on - the - Lake , Ontario . Although the building that houses " The Lincoln and Welland Regiment Museum " in that community is traditionally known as " Butler ' s Barracks " , it is not the original barracks and never housed Butler ' s Rangers . It was built in the years following the War of 1812 to house the Indian department and received the name because Butler had been a Deputy Superintendent in that department . Background . Like similar guerilla regiments that fought for the British during the Revolution , like the Royal Yorkers or Jessup ’ s Loyal Rangers , Butler ’ s Rangers were made up of American loyalist refugees who had fled to Canada following the outbreak of the American Revolution . John Butler himself was a French and Indian War veteran - turned landowner with a 26 , 000 acre estate near Caughnawaga in the Mohawk Valley . However , at the outbreak of the war , Bulter abandoned these holdings and fled to Canada in the company of other Revolutionary figures such as Joseph Brant . There , he served as a deputy to Guy Johnson , himself a loyalist from the Mohawk Valley who led mixed anti - Republican First Nations and loyalist militias . Butler distinguished himself at the Battle of Oriskany on August 6 , 1777 . As a result , he was commissioned a lieutenant colonel and allowed to raise his own regiment . This group would come to be known as Butler ’ s Rangers . Organization . The regimental company commanders of Butler ' s Rangers , 1777 – 1784 , were : Uniform . There is disagreement as to what the Ranger uniform looked like . Variation A Their uniforms consisted of a green woolen coat faced white and a white woolen waistcoat . Their pant garment was gaitered trousers made from Russia sheeting , a hemp product . Their hats were round hats , useful in shielding their faces from the sun . When in garrison or on parade , they could bring up the leaves of that hat to form a cocked hat . Their belting was black . Variation B Dark green coats faced with scarlet and lined with the same , a waistcoat of green cloth , and Buckskin Indian leggings reaching from the ankle to the waist . . . their caps were almost skull caps of black jacket leather or turned up felt with a black cockade on the left side . Their belts were of buff leather and crossed at the breast where they were held in place by a brass plate marked in the same manner and with the same words as the cap plate . Weapons . They primarily used both the Long - Land and Short - Land forms of the Brown Bess musket . A mix of other firearms may have been used but would have created a supply issue due to calibre variations . After war . Butler ' s Rangers were disbanded in June 1784 , and its veterans given land grants in the Niagara region of Ontario as a reward for their services to the British crown . In 1788 , the Nassau militia was formed with John Butler as its commander , filling its ranks with the demobilized officers and men of Butler ' s Rangers . In the early 1790s , the county was changed to Lincoln and the name of the militia changed to Lincoln Militia by 1793 . It was the Lincoln Militia who fought in the War of 1812 ( 1812 – 1815 ) . This regiment exists today as The Lincoln and Welland Regiment , a primary reserve regiment of the Canadian Forces based out of St . Catharines , Ontario .