Lisa Saunders

First Ranger Benjamin Church Lisa Saunders

This second edition includes color images of the haunts and homes of Benjamin Church, considered the first American Army Ranger. Church believed it would take Indians, God and rum to win King Philip's War in New England (1675-1676). As the grandson of Mayflower passenger, Richard Warren, and the first white main to build in Little Compton, Rhode Island, Benjamin Church understood the value of his Native American friends and neighbors. Author Lisa Saunders retells Church's account of his fighting days alongside allied Native Americans as an epic poem and includes quotes from Benjamin Church. The book also contains more than 40 contemporary photographs including those of Benjamin Church's sword, grave, and his haunts and homes. See the locations for the Great Swamp Fight, mass grave at Smith's Garrison, Peas Field Fight, Church's capture of Anawan at "Anawan's Rock," where King Philip's head was mounted for 20 years in Plymouth, and where King Philip's War began at Myles Garrison in Swansea, Massachusetts. Images related to Captain George Denison of Stonington, Connecticut, are also included along with the approximate site of Canonchet's execution where he bravely declared, "I like it well. I shall die before my heart is soft, or I have said anything unworthy of myself."