Brigadier General Henry Edward Fox Lieutenant Colonel John Bayard Lieutenant William Bird Major Samuel Bayard Captain John Coffin Captain John Howard The King's Orange Rangers, also known as the Corps of King's Orange Rangers, were a British Loyalist battalion, raised in 1776 to defend British interests in Orange County, Province of New York and generally in and around the New York colony, although they saw most of their service in the Province of Nova Scotia.

The Rangers had an undistinguished military record, through most of its existence, and saw very limited combat, mostly against Patriot privateers, but did play an important role in the defence of the colony of Nova Scotia in the later years of the American Revolution.

This sentence was overturned on a technicality by the Judge Advocate General,[5] but probably played a role in Bayard's subsequent difficulties in retaining his command.

In August, Col. Innes received a letter from Edward Winslow in which he wrote: I have in free conversation suggested my opinion to you that the Corps of King's Orange Rangers is at present in a position peculiarly alarming -- Feuds & dissensions among the Officers -- Mutinies and Desertions among the men ...

Or whether by any other means there is in officers and men a want of that confidence in him which is essential to order & discipline in a new Corps I know not -- but from the variety of unhappy events which have of late taken place, I apprehend one or the other.

I am sensible that on days of public parade -- such as Inspections and Musters -- there is not a provincial Corps in his Majesty's service more capable of distinguishing itself by a performance of military exercise & maneuvres sic than this -- nor is there a better body of men.

On January 27, 1780, their vessel was wrecked on Bophin Island, Galway; 56 men died on passage or were drowned, while the survivors made their way to Halifax by the middle of that year.

[13] As Liverpool began to outfit privateers of their own, Howard bought shares and agreed to have his men serve as marines on board.

[14] Perkins called out the militia, engineered the capture of Cole, and negotiated with Lane for the recovery of the fort and the release of the prisoners.

[15] Most of Howard's company was ordered back to Halifax in mid-1781, but owing to appeals by the town's leaders, a detachment of 20 men under Lt. McLeod remained for the duration.

In the spring of 1781, Major Samuel Bayard was ordered to take a detachment of Rangers overland from Halifax to Fort Hughes (Nova Scotia) to overawe local Planters who were planning to erect a Liberty Pole and thereby break with the King.

[17][18][19] There they fixed bayonets and "with bright weapons glittering, colours flying and drums beating, they marched up Church Street and back to Town Plot, where the barracks stood."

A few months before disbandment, Brigadier-General Henry Edward Fox expressed: ... the great satisfaction he has received in seeing the two provincial battalions of Royal N.S.