“After the defeat of General Braddock’s forces at the Battle of the Monongahela in 1755, the Pennsylvania frontier was left wide open to attacks from French and Native American raiding parties. The Pennsylvania Provincial Government, with the Supply Act of 1755, began to construct a series of defensive forts, blockhouses, and fortified outposts along the frontier in an effort to stop these attacks. It soon became very apparent that while these fortifications did some good, most of the time the enemy would simply bypass the stronger posts, and instead concentrate their attacks against the weaker isolated farms and homesteads. In order to help plug these gaps in the line, volunteer companies of Rangers were raised to patrol the frontier between the fortifications, searching for sign of enemy raiders in the area, and to raise the alarm throughout the countryside if any were discovered. In this print a small group of Rangers has come across the tracks of an enemy war party along the edge of a creek. Suddenly the Ranger Captain raises his hand and points to a large cloud of smoke starting to rise in the distant sky, no doubt from the cabin or barn of another unfortunate victim of the war.”
