Burke ' s Rangers Burke ' s Rangers was a company of colonial volunteers organized and led by John Burke before and during the French and Indian War . Maj . Burke was widely noted for skill and daring in Indian warfare , and frequently served in campaigns against the Indians . Burke was initially commissioned as an Ensign by Governor William Shirley and subsequently commissioned a Lieutenant , then a Captain . Toward the close of the French and Indian war , in 1760 , he was commissioned a Major by Gov . Thomas Pownall . Background . At the close of " King Philip ' s War " the Massachusetts provincial government sought to defend its borders by settling groups of veterans on Indian lands . This was seen as an inexpensive deterrent to French aggression , a way to shore up English claims to contested ground , a good defensive strategy in the face of ongoing Indian resistance to British expansion , and a reward to the veterans of the war . Bernardston , Massachusetts , initially known as " Falls Fight Township " . was a frontier settlement created by and for the families of soldiers who had fought in King Phillips War specifically in the Battle of Turner ' s Falls a major engagement under Captain Turner in 1676 . Major John Burke was an early settler of the town , his father was one of the veterans granted land in " Falls Fight " . In November , 1734 , the following was presented to the General Court of Massachusetts The petition was granted and the proprietors of the new township began recruiting 60 families to settle in the town . John Burke , Samuel Connable , Lieut . Ebenezer Sheldon , and Deacon Sheldon , built the first four houses , in 1738 . They were of hewn logs , with port - holes in the walls for defence against the Indians . Pre - war Period in the Contested Borderlands . At his own expense , Burke built a stockade fort that stood " six rods on each side " ( 6 rods being about 100 feet ) . The stockade walls stood 12 feet high behind which the inhabitants in the vicinity repaired every night during the periods of intercultural frontier violence . The fort contained eight homes , protecting the settlement during attacks beginning in 1745 and later the French and Indian War . In 1746 an attack was made on this fort by members of the Wabanaki Confederacy who were attempting to drive out invading colonists . The stockade was located on their traditional lands . Although there were only two men in the fort besides Maj . Burke , the Indians were driven off . In 1747 , Eliakim Sheldon , son of Lieut . Ebenezer Sheldon , was shot while he was walking near his father ' s house , and about the same time a band of Indians attempted to destroy Deacon Elisha Sheldon ' s house on Huckle Hill , but were routed by Lieut . Ebenezer Sheldon , who appeared on the scene with aid just in time . Lieut . Sheldon was famous for his violent inclinations towards Native Americans , earning him the sobriquet the " Old Indian - Hunter " . Burke was commissioned an " Ensign of company of Volunteers raised for His Majestie ' s service for the defence of the western frontier " on March 1 , 1747 . He was commissioned by the Royal Governor of Mass . William Shirley who played a prominent role in the defense of the American colonies during the war . Burk ' s volunteers began playing a defensive role in the Deerfield - Falltown region . French and Indian War . Burke and his company played an active role in the war . During the French and Indian War of 1755 , the people of Falls Fight township suffered greatly as a result of the town being established on land still claimed by the Wabanaki Confederacy . Indians attacked the town . A number of settler families moved from the frontier community to the safety of larger colonial towns . The militia from the township , led by then Ensign Burke , was called to service . Creation of " Rangers " . Massachusetts began in to pursue a policy of raising and deploying its forces on an ongoing basis each year , without waiting for requests of defenseless towns and almost abandoned garrisons . Such was the course the colony pursued in the year 1757 . In addition to the colony ' s garrison troops , " one hundred men were employed on the eastern frontier , and forty - five under a captain and lieutenant , on the west side of Connecticut river , to Range the woods north of Falltown . " The latter company — known as Rangers — under the command of Capt . John Burk , were stationed at Hinsdale ' s fort , on the east bank of the Connecticut . Burke began recruiting his company in the winter of 1756 . The initial group of forty - five men included four Stockbridge Mahicans on its muster rolls — who were quickly reassigned to the British Army ' s ranger corps assigned to front line combat duty . Burke received his Captain ' s commission on March 30 , by which time he had seventy men enrolled in his company . They made frequent marches through the neighboring country for the purpose of discovering concealed Indians . Their course was sometimes along the main stream of West river , and again by its south or west branches . Not infrequently they ascended to the top of West river mountain , there to watch for the smoke of the enemy ' s camp fires . Orders were given to the Commissary General to provide these " rangers " with snow - shoes and moccasins , the better to enable them to perform their difficult tasks . In the winter of 1756 - 7 the Rangers under Burke was stationed at the fort at Hinsdale , Massachusetts . There were no enemy attacks on the fort until April 20 when a party of about 70 Indians and French appeared . They captured four men and brought them back to Canada . Only two of the four prisoners survived to return . Crown Point Expedition . On April 11 , 1755 Ephraim Williams of Deerfield sent a letter to John Burke offering him the position of Captain - Lieutenant in his regiment for the expedition against Crown Point . He desired that " only good men be enlisted " and asked that the names of the men selected be sent immediately . Marching north into French territory , in August 1755 the overall commander of the British forces , William Johnson , renamed Lac du Saint - Sacrement to Lake George in honour of his king . On 8 September 1755 , Johnson ' s forces held their ground in the Battle of Lake George . Johnson was wounded by a ball that was to remain in his hip or thigh for the rest of his life . Hendrick Theyanoguin , Johnson ' s Mohawk ally , was killed in the battle , and Baron Dieskau , the French commander , was captured . Among the inhabitants of Bernardston who joined Burke ' s Rangers were Caleb Chapin and his two sons , Joel and Hezekiah . They were with Col . Ephraim Williams at the Battle of Lake George in September 1755 , where Caleb Chapin was killed . He was wounded in the thick of battle while fighting by the side of his sons , and when he fell they sought to carry him away , but he commanded them to save themselves and leave him to die . They left him accordingly where he fell , and when , after the fight , they returned in search of him , they found him dead , with a tomahawk buried in his brain . This tomahawk is still preserved in the cabinet of the American Antiquarian Society at Worcester . Colonel Williams was killed in the battle as well , his body was hidden in the woods by the survivors to save it from desecration . The battle brought an end to the expedition against Crown Point , and the soldiers built Fort William Henry at Lake George to strengthen British defenses . Burke was at the surrender of Fort William Henry in August 1757 , his company part of Colonel Frye ' s provincial regiment . According to local lore , he survived the subsequent massacre with only his breeches and his silver watch . In 1758 , as Rogers ' Rangers expanded from a company to a corps of 1 , 500 men , many provincial soldiers , including some from Burke ' s company joined Roger ' s Rangers . In April of 1758 , Major Rogers commissioned a former corporal from Burke ' s company , Joseph Wait after he had fought with distinction in the Battle on Snowshoes in March . Wait later became a captain in the corps . Post war . Maj . John Burke , one of the first settlers in the Falls Fight township , and for many years an important man in the affairs of Bernardston , kept a tavern in 1763 in the centre of the town , just south of where Weatherhead ' s saw - mill stood . The sign which used to swing in front of Maj . Burk ' s tavern is still preserved among the curious relics owned by the Pocomptuck Valley Association at Deerfield , Mass .