Danks ' Rangers Danks ' Rangers was a ranger unit raised in colonial North America and led by Captain Benoni Danks ( ca . 1716 - 1776 ) . It was modeled on and often served alongside of the better known Gorham ' s Rangers . The unit was recruited in early 1756 , during the early stages of the Seven Years ' War / French and Indian War , from among men serving in two then - disbanding New England provincial battalions stationed in Nova Scotia . Raised to help protect the British garrison on the Isthmus of Chignecto and secure the area after the siege of Fort Beauséjour , their principle foes were Acadians resisting removal from the region and Mi ' kmaq Indians resisting British authority . Their primary area of operations was the northwestern portion of Nova Scotia and the north and eastern parts of what would later become New Brunswick . The unit averaged a little over one hundred men for much of its existence , although it seems to have been augmented to 125 for the attack on Havana in 1762 . The company often operated in tandem with Gorham ' s Rangers , based out of Halifax , Nova Scotia , and after 1761 , the two companies were combined into a Nova Scotia ranging corps , led by Major Joseph Gorham . Composition & Activities . In addition to Yankee s from New England , the unit contained Scots and Irish immigrants as well , and a half - dozen Native Americans from New England . The company performed reconnaissance duties and frontier guerrilla warfare . They not only played an important role in the Acadian Removals ( 1755 - 1760 ) , but they took part in a number of important campaigns during the war , particularly the landing at Louisburg in 1758 , and the Siege of Quebec in 1759 . The unit suffered heavy casualties as a result of repeated skirmishing with Canadian militia and allied Indians around the edges of the Quebec siege and , for a time , after Danks was seriously wounded , the unit was absorbed into the ranger company of Captain Moses Hazen . As part of the combined Nova Scotia ranger corps , Danks and his company took part in the Siege of Havana in 1762 , where , according to Israel Putnam , Danks sold his commission in the rangers at Havana on 23 Sept . 1762 to Andrew Watson , who commanded the company for the next few months until the unit was disbanded after half its men had succumbed to tropical diseases . The survivors were drafted into British infantry regiments at Havana whose ranks were equally depleted by illness . Scalping Controversy . The unit was loathed by the Mi ' kmaq who lived near Fort Cumberland , the units ' main base of operation , and they also suffered from a poor reputation among the early British settlers to the region — apparently because of their reputation for cruelty and for their scalping of enemy combatants and non - combatants alike , regardless of ethnicity . The following account of Danks and his company comes from the notes compiled by Arthur G . Doughty , the editor of the journals of John Knox , an Irish officer in the regulars who was stationed at Fort Cumberland in 1759 and often assigned to accompany Danks ' unit on missions : Doughty says of Danks , " He appears to have been one of the most daring officers in the service , and particularly energetic in attacking the Indians , " but goes on to say that the company " were not over scrupulous in the matter of taking scalps . " He makes this claim as there is evidence that while they were given ( so - called ) permission by British authorities to scalp Indians , they were accused of scalping Acadians and Canadians as well . His source for this accusation is a letter written in 1791 by an early Nova Scotia settler , the Rev . Hugh Graham . In it , Graham has the following to say about the activities of Danks ' company during the dark days of the Expulsion of the Acadians : " A Party of the Rangers , a Regiment chiefly employed in scouring the Country of the deluded French who had unfortunately fallen under the Bann of British Policy , came upon 4 French Men , who had with all possible Caution ventur ' d out from their Skulking Retreats to pick up some of their straggling Cattle or hidden Treasure . The solitary few , the pitiable four had just sat down , weary & faint , on the Bank [ of ] a Stream in order to refresh themselves with some Food and Rest , when this Party of the Rangers surprizd & apprehended them . And as there was a Bounty on Indian Scalps ( a Blot on Britain ' s Escutcheon ) the Soldiers soon made the supplicating Signal , the Officers turn ' d their Backs and the French were instantly shot and scalp ' d . A Similar Instance happened about the same time . A Party of the Rangers brought in one day 25 Scalps pretending that they were Indian . And the Commanding Officer at the Fort then Col . Wilmot , afterwards Governor Wilmot ( a poor Tool ) , gave Orders that the Bounty should be paid them . Capt . Houston who had at that time the Charge of the Military Chest objected [ to ] such Proceedings both in the Letter & Spirit of them . The Col . told him ' That According to Law the French were all out of the French , that the Bounty on Indian scalps was according to Law , and that tho ' the Law might in some Instances be strain ' d a little yet there was a Necessity for winking at such things . ' Upon which Huston in Obedience to Orders paid down , telling them that the Curse of God should ever attend such guilty Deeds . " Doughty further observed that " these Rangers almost without Exception clos ' d their days in Wretchedness and particularly a Captain Danks , who ever rode to the Extreme of his Commission in every barbarous Proceeding . In the Cumberland Insurrection [ during the American Revolution ] he was suspected to be " Jack on both Sides of the Bush " left Cumberland ( that place ) in a small Jigger bound for Windsor , was taken ill on the Passage , thrown into the hold among the ballast was taken out at Windsor half dead , and had little better than the burial of a Dog . He liv ' d under a general Dislike & died without one to regret his Death . " While there is a chance Graham ' s moralizing account is embellished or merely tall tales told of a more barbaric time , as it was written more than thirty years after the events it discusses by a religious figure , a recent article by historian Brian D . Carroll suggests the Mi ' kmaq targeted rangers from Danks ' company specifically for violent retribution . And Carroll further quotes Knox himself recording regular British troops having to defend an Acadian woman from members of the company during the Petitcodiac River Campaign in 1758 . Company ' s Personnel . The sources for the names of the company ' s personnel below are two muster rolls , one ( incomplete ) from 1758 , and another ( complete ) from 1761 . Both are in the American Antiquarian Society in Worcester Massachusetts ( the French and Indian War and Massachusetts Collections , respectively ) . Another source was a list of sick rangers and deserters from the company in the same collections .