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Joseph Allan Nevins ( 1890 – 1971) was an American historian and journalist, renowned for his extensive work on the history of the Civil War and his biographies of such figures as President Grover Cleveland, Hamilton Fish, Henry Ford, and John D. Rockefeller, as well as his public service.

Nevins wrote his first book, The Life of Robert Rogers (1914) while completing postgraduate studies at the University of Illinois.


Robert Rogers (1731 – 1795) was an American colonial frontiersman. Rogers served in the British army during both the French and Indian War and the American Revolution. During the French and Indian War Rogers raised and commanded the famous Rogers' Rangers trained for raiding and close combat behind enemy lines. During the Revolutionary War Rogers raised and commanded the Queen's Rangers.

After having first offered his services to George Washington during the Revolutionary War, only to be imprisoned, Rogers escaped and offered his services to the British. Nevins writes:

"Here Rogers was received with open arms. Not merely had Howe been assured of his ability and held previous communication with him, but to an army composed largely of men untrained in New World methods of fighting, unfamiliar with the enemy, and entirely uncertain of the ground over which it must pass, he seemed a valuable accession. He knew intimately the whole central region along the Hudson and toward Philadelphia in which Howe was to operate, and the temper and immediate resources of the Americans; and he had many Tory friends in the neighboring boroughs whom he could induce to enter the British army. In the first days of August, he was given the title of Lieutenant-Colonel, and empowered to muster a battalion of loyalists, to be called the "Queen's American Rangers.""