COL. RODGERS
Son of mountain man Jefferson Rodgers, but having never met his father until adulthood, Benjamin Rodgers was raised by his mother until she died of Tuberculosis when he was 13 years of age. Benjamin made ends meet by carving out gold scraps from mines long abandoned from the gold rush, where he claimed his first kill in the tunnels of Dalwe Heights, bludgeoning a marauding bandit with his pickaxe and then strangling him with his bare hands.
At 23, he joined the Union Army to fight in the Civil War, where he quickly climbed rank and became a cavalry officer, commanding a fierce unit of marauders who raided Confederate-friendly towns, cutting off supply lines.
After the war, he eagerly conscripted himself into the U.S. Military as a regulator of the frontier, leading a brigade of Rough Riders into the untamed West. It was during this time that he and his Rough Riders encountered a band of post-Confederate holdouts at Maneto Creek. It is said that Benjamin’s bloodlust was so insatiable at the battle of Maneto Creek that his slaughter of the malnourished rebels left the water blood red, inspiring the locals to rename the area “Blood Creek,” site of “the Blood Creek Massacre.”
While the actions at Blood Creek also earned Benjamin the nickname “Righteous” the word was not meant as a compliment and word soon traveled back to Washington where Federal brass stripped him of his command. This action convinced Rodgers that society was not yet prepared for civility and was much more savage, reckless and ungrateful than it cared to admit.
Convinced the land would need to be tamed to make way for a true pure society and still charismatically commanding the faith of many of his men, the rogue colonel took full advantage of a nation distracted by international conflicts in South America, recruiting several loyalists to ride with him West, to wreak havoc on the "savages," native-borne and immigrant alike.
Of course, such a campaign would not be cheap. It would require a war chest of provisions and gold, resources Rodgers has convinced himself society owes him to render his services for the greater good.
Col. Benjamin "Righteous" Rodgers
Jericho Decker served with Rodgers through the entirety of the War of Southern Insurrection, first encountering the Col. while providing fire support for Rodgers’ cunning tactical advance at the battle of Shiloh. Rodgers’ bravery and skill on the battlefield earned the admiration of Decker.
When Rodgers brutally slaughtered retreating Confederates at Antietam, after General McClellan ordered the ceasefire, Decker credited the act as the decisive move to end the war, “as a surgeon with a hacksaw would a limb too far gone.” Decker's words would become the famous inspiration for Rodgers' reputation as “the Hacksaw of Sharpsburg,”
Jericho doesn’t question Rodgers’ actions or motivations anymore, having seen the Col. come out on the right side of too many histories. When Rodgers’ made the call for his own private army, Jericho Decker was first in line to saddle his horse.