French and Indian War: French regulars, Canadien militia and Indigenous forces ambushed Rogers' Rangers forces in the Battle on Snowshoes.

The French and Indian War, 1754 to 1763, was a conflict in North America between Great Britain and France, along with their respective Native American allies. Historians generally consider it part of the global conflict 1756 to 1763 Seven Years' War, although in the United States it is often viewed as a singular conflict unassociated with any larger European war.

A regular army is the official army of a state or country, contrasting with irregular forces, such as volunteer irregular militias, private armies, mercenaries, etc. A regular army usually has the following:

• a standing army, the permanent force of the regular army that is maintained under arms during peacetime.
• a military reserve force that can be mobilized when needed to expand the effectiveness of the regular army by complementing the standing army.

French Canadians, referred to as Canadiens mainly before the nineteenth century, are an ethnic group descended from French colonists first arriving in France's colony of Canada in 1608. The vast majority of French Canadians live in the province of Quebec.

Indigenous peoples in Canada are the Indigenous peoples within the boundaries of Canada. They comprise the First Nations, Inuit, and Métis, representing roughly 5.0% of the total Canadian population. There are over 600 recognized First Nations governments or bands with distinctive cultures, languages, art, and music.

Rogers' Rangers was a company of soldiers from the Province of New Hampshire raised by Major Robert Rogers and attached to the British Army during the French and Indian War. The unit was quickly adopted into the New England Colonies army as an independent ranger company. Rogers was inspired by colonial Frontiersman Ranger groups across North America and the teachings of unconventional warfare from Rangers such as Benjamin Church. Rogers trained and commanded his own rapidly deployable light infantry force, which was tasked mainly with reconnaissance and conducting special operations against distant targets. Their tactics were built on earlier Colonial precedents and were codified for the first time by Rogers as his 28 "Rules of Ranging". The tactics proved remarkably effective, and the initial company was expanded into a ranging corps of more than a dozen companies containing as many as 1,200–1,400 men at its peak. The ranger corps became the chief scouting arm of British Crown forces by the late 1750s. The British forces in America valued Rogers' Rangers for their ability to gather intelligence about the enemy. They were disbanded in 1761.