132 ROYAL SOCIETY OF CANADA 



iSew Brunswick), with John Wilson, lieutenant, and Thomas Merritt, 

 cornet. In December of this year the strength of the Queen's Rangers 

 was eleven companies of infartry, numbering 478 rank and file, and 

 three troops of cavalry, numbering 117 rank and file — a grand total of 

 595, exclusive of commissioned officers. Early in December, 1780, a 

 fourth troop of cavalry was formed and placed under the command of 

 Captain Thomas J. Cook, wlio had been a lieutenant in the 17th 

 Dragoons. This troop was recruited in New York. William D. Lawler 

 became its lieutenant, and Samuel Clayton, the cornet. In April, 1781, 

 a troop of German Hussars, under the command of Lieutenant George 

 Albus, was attached to the Eangers, which then consisted of eleven com- 

 panies of infantry and five troops of cavalry. That year the Rangers 

 were engaged in active service in the So\ith, from the beginning of Janu- 

 ary until the surrender of ConiM'allis's army in the latter part of Octo- 

 ber. They were continually engaged and suffered heavy losses, yet their 

 strength on the 24th June, 1781, w^as 447 rank and file of infantry and 

 163 cavalry, or 610 in all, exclusive of Capt. Saunders' troop, which was 

 then at Charleston, S.C, and from wliich we have no returns. On the 

 24th August of the same year, the strength of the Rangers was of in- 

 fantry, 372 rank and file, and of cavalry 188, exclusive of Capt. Saun- 

 ders' troop and also of the German Hussars, which were still serving 

 with them. In the preceding two months the strength of the regiment 

 had been reduced by just 50 men, and the muster rolls show that 18 had 

 been killed, 34 were in hospital wounded, 20 were prisoners, and 14 had 

 deserted. The next two months saw the end of the active service of the 

 Queen's Rangers, for they were included in the surrender of the army of 

 Cornwallis al Yorktown, w-hich took p^nce on tlie lf)th October, 1781. 

 Their losses had in the meantime beer hea\7, no less than 30 liaving 

 been killed or died from the 24th Angn<^1 to the 24th October, and the 

 number of wounded and sick being very large. At the latter date the 

 infantry numbered 333 rank and file, and the cavalry, exclusive of Capt. 

 Saunders" troop and the Germans, 179, a grand total of 512. Some idea 

 of the waste of war may b"^ formed from the fact that the Queen's 

 Rangers in 1781, although they had more than 150 men added to their 

 number by enlistment and the return of men who had been imprisoned, 

 came out of that campaign nearly 100 w-eaker than they entered it. Their 

 losses, therefore, in 1781, must have been fully 250 men, of whom nearly 

 100 were killed or died of their wounds. 



On the 15th October, 1777, Major Weymss having retired from the 

 regiment, John Graves Simcoe, who was a captain in the 40tli Regiment 

 of the line, was appointed to the Queen's Rangers with the rank of' 



