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The Continental Marines
Regimental History
On November 10th, 1775 the Committee of Safety of the Second Continental Congress created the Continental Marines.
"Resolved, That two Battalions of Marines be raised, consisting of one Colonel, two Lieutenant Colonels, two Majors, and other officers as usual in other regiments; and that they consist of an equal number of privates with other battalions; that particular care be taken, that no persons be appointed to office, or inlisted into said Battalion, but such are good seamen, or so acquainted with maritime affairs as to be able to serve to advantage by sea when required: that they be inlisted and commissioned to serve for and during the present war between Great Britain and the colonies, unless dismissed by order of Congress: that they be distinguished by the names of the first and second battalion of American Marines, and that they be considered as part of the number which the continental Army before Boston is ordered to consist of."
Recruitment for the new regiment began soon after the resolution was passed. George Washington undertook the task at first, recruiting from his own army, but following a letter of his to Congress, it was decided on 20 November to suspend these battalions and replace them with two battalions raised independently of the army. On November 28, 1775, Congress issued the first commission as captain of Marines to Samuel Nicholas, a prominent Philadelphia tavern keeper. The task of raising Marines fell to Nicholas and the other 10 officers commissioned in late 1775. The monthly wage of a Marine private was set at 6 2/3 dollars. By early January 1776, the companies of Continental Marines, numbering around 230 officers and men, embarked on five of the eight ships of the fleet, ready for their first taste of war at sea.
Benjamin Franklin described a recruitment procession that he had seen in December 1775:
"I observed on one of the drums belonging to the Marines now raising, there was painted a Rattlesnake, with this modest motto under it, 'Don't tread on me.' As I know it is the custom to have some device on the arms of every country, I supposed this may have been intended for the arms of America...it occurred to me that the Rattlesnake is found in no other quarter of the world besides America and may, therefore have been chosen on that account to represent her."
In March 1776 the fleet left Philadelphia and rendezvoused north of New Providence Island in the Bahamas. The Marines went ashore with several seaman under the command of Captain Nicholas, and on 3 March they captured Fort Montagu in a battle as "bemused as it was bloodless". The next day they took Fort Nassau and arrested the British Governor. After loading the island's military stores (except the gunpowder) onto the ships, the fleet set sail on 17 March and quietly travelled northwards. However, on 6 April, they sighted the Glasgow, a 20 gun ship of the Royal Navy, accompanied by her tender. They entered into battle and after one and a half hours the Glasgow, outnumbered and outgunned, broke off and sailed for Rhode Island. With Marine Lieutenant John Fitzpatrick and six other Marines dead, the American fleet re-grouped and headed for New London, Connecticut.
Captain Nicholas returned to Philadelphia in June 1776. There he assumed the responsibility of raising four more Marine companies for the frigates then being built. He was promoted to Major, and Congress reports his and the other Marine promotions on June 25 as:
"The Marine Committee having recommended Captain Samuel Nichols, to be advanced to major of marines;
Andrew Porter, Joseph Hardy, Samuel Shaw, Benjamin Deane, and Robert Mullin, to be captains of marines
Daniel Henderson, David Love, Franklin Reed, and Peregrine Brown, to be first lieutenants of marines;
James M'Clure, William Gilmore, Abel Morgan, and Hugh Montgomery, to be second lieutenants of marines;
John Stewart to be captain; Thomas Pownal, first lieutenant, and Richard Harrison, second lieutenant, of marines, for the frigate building in Maryland."
On 29 August it also recommended "Alpheus Rice to be first lieutenant of marines, on board the brig Hampden, commanded by Hoysted Hacker, Esqr."
Although recruiting went slowly, Nicholas had at least four small ships detachments by autumn, which were put to work guarding both Continental and state vessels and stores while waiting for the frigates to sail. The most famous recruiting base was the Tun Tavern in Philadelphia, which became home to the company of Marines raised by its owner, Captain Robert Mullin. Mullin himself did not go to sea but did see action with the Corps during the Trenton and Princeton campaigns. His recruiting poster certainly makes life in the Marines sound an inviting prospect! (enlistment poster). To distinguish his company, they wore red facings on their uniform (see uniform and equipment for more details). Recruits to other companies within the Regiment were trained at Philadelphia before being transferred to their assigned ships.
To help with recruiting, Congress passed the following resolutions in November 1776:
"Resolved, That the rank of officers of marines be the same as officers of similar commissions in the land service:That the commanders, officers, seamen, and marines in the continental navy, be entitled to one half of merchantmen, transports, and store ships by them taken, from and after the first day of November, 1776, to be divided amongst them in the shares and proportions fixed by former resolutions of Congress:
That the commanders, officers, seamen and marines, in the continental navy, be entitled to the whole value of all ships and vessels of war belonging to the crown of Great Britain, by them made prize of, and all privateers authorized by his Britannic Majesty to war against these states, to be divided as aforesaid.
Congress took into consideration the report of the committee to whom that part of the part of the report of the Marine Committee relative to the pay and rank of the marine, was recommitted; Whereupon,
Resolved, That a bounty of 20 dollars be paid to the commanders, officers, and men of such continental ships or vessels of war, as shall make prize of any British ships or vessels of war, for every cannon mounted on board each prize, at the time of such capture, and 8 dollars per head for every man then on board and belonging to such prize:"
The pay of the Marines was also reviewed and the monthly wages for a private and NCO became the same as for the army, while a Captain earned 30 dollars per month, and a Lieutenant 20 dollars per month. Captains also received 4 dollars per week subsistence for living on shore when their ships were not fit for service. It was also resolved by Congress "That vessels, under ten guns, to be commanded by lieutenants:" This unfortunately could lead to a drop in pay, as in the case of Captain Abraham van Dyck, who, in 1780, was appointed to the Saratoga, with the pay and status of a Lieutenant.
In November, Pennsylvania became open to invasion as Washington's army collapsed in the face of British assaults on its positions along the Hudson River. Washington, his army in retreat across New Jersey, asked for the Philadelphia Associator Brigade, seamen from the Pennsylvania state navy, and Nicholas' four companies. For the first time Marines marched off to bolster an American Army. Leaving one company behind to guard the frigates, Captain Samuel Nicholas led the Marines from Philadelphia in early December to join Brigadier General John Cadwalader's brigade at Bristol, Pennsylvania, where they waited for the expected attack. The British instead went into winter quarters along the Jersey shore of the Delaware River. On Christmas night, Washington captured the Hessian garrison at Trenton without the help of Cadwalader's brigade whose way was blocked by ice. Crossing the river the following day, the Pennsylvania brigade marched into Trenton on 2 January as the Continental Army and British met at Assunpink Creek. After an indecisive skirmish, Washington withdrew a short distance and set up camp.
The next day, Cadwalader's brigade joined Washington's two-pronged attack on Princeton, supporting General Hugh Mercer's brigade of Continentals. Mercer's troops, however, ran into two well deployed British regiments and soon collapsed in the face of heavy, disciplined musketry. Cadwalader's brigade came to Mercer's aid, but it too was forced back. A Second Continental Division under John Sullivan converged on the battlefield, caught the British on an exposed flank, and took Princeton.
After the Trenton-Princeton campaign, Nicholas' battalion disintegrated. Reduced by transfers and desertions, the three Marine companies joined Washington's army in its winter quarters at Morristown and disappeared as a distinct unit. Thereafter, the responsibility for raising Marines fell to the individual Marine officers assigned to the various Continental ships without reference to a shore based organization. Throughout the rest of the year, the most notable accomplishments of the Marines centred on the defence of Fort Mifflin and the Delaware River operations of October and November 1777.
On January 10, 1778, Naval Captain James Willing left Fort Pitt with a small company of Marines on board the armed barge Rattletrap. Proceeding down the Mississippi and raiding or looting the posts and homes of British sympathisers along the way, the Marine unit arrived at New Orleans in March and reported to the American commercial agent. These Marines operated around New Orleans until 1779, at which time they returned north up the Mississippi under the command of Lieutenant Robert George who reported to General George Rogers Clark to participate in his campaign against hostile Indians. While Captain Willing and his company of Marines raided British settlements along the Mississippi, a force of 26 Marines and sailors under the command of Marine Captain John Trevett landed at New Providence in the Bahamas and again occupied its two forts. With the town captured, the newly adopted Stars and Stripes (authorized by Congress on June 14, 1777) was raised over a foreign fortification for the first time. In two days of occupation, Trevett's Marines and seamen took five vessels, liberated a group of American prisoners, spiked the guns of a major British garrison, and acquired valuable ordnance.
The Royal Navy intensified its presence around the American ports making it difficult for the American Navy to raid British vessels, and set its sights on European waters, but access to Britain was difficult until France allied with the Colonies after the American victory at Saratoga in 1777 , and allowed the Navy use of its ports. In April 1778, John Paul Jones sailed in the 20 gun sloop Ranger from Brest in France for the Irish Sea. His intention was to descend upon an English port, destroy its merchant shipping, and carry away a person of distinction to be held as a hostage for the release of American prisoners. Of the numerous seaports which dotted the inlets and coves, the Ranger's captain settled upon the port of Whitehaven.
At midnight on the 22nd, Jones ordered two boats lowered and 30 volunteer Marines and seamen over the side. The captain took command of one, while Marine Lieutenant Samuel Wallingford officered the other. The landing part burned a few colliers and fishing vessels, pillaged the local fort, and the following morning in a raid on St. Mary's Isle, stole Lord Selkirk's silver plate after failing to kidnap Selkirk himself, who was not at home. (see also uniform and equipment)
However the next day they encountered the sloop HMS Drake and Wallingford was killed, along with two others. The Drake was captured and put under a prize crew, and Jones returned to France. Shortly thereafter, the Ranger sailed for America while Jones remained in France to find another command.
Early in 1779, the British government ordered a portion of the Nova Scotia garrison south to seize a protected anchorage in what is now Maine from which the Royal Navy could effectively protect and supply convoys. Arriving at Penobscot Bay in June, the British expedition hastily established a base on Bagaduce Peninsula and garrisoned it with 600 troops. Alarmed, the Massachusetts government organized a force composed of Continental warships, state navy vessels, privateers, and 21 transports to carry the more than 1,000 militiamen. Among the expeditionary troops were three companies of Continental Marines, number approximately 300 men. Under the direction of Continental Navy Captain Dudley Saltonstall and Brigadier general Solomon Lovell, the Americans cautiously besieged the British position.
On 26 July, Continental and Massachusetts state Marines stormed Banks Island, on which the British had emplaced several cannon. The outnumbered British Marines withdrew. Two days later, the Americans launched their main effort against the British position on Bagaduce. In the forefront of the assault were Continental Marines who gained the heights and drove back the defenders, but at a loss of two of their ranking officers, Captain John Welsh and Lieutenant William Hamilton. Saltonstall's hesitation in engaging the British ships allowed the enemy to reorganize and continue their resistance. The fort was besieged but never taken.
After two weeks of skirmishes, abortive attacks, and command feuds, the American fleet was forced by the appearance of a large British relief squadron to retire up the Penobscot River. Near the fall line the Americans burned their ships and retreated southward through the Maine wilderness to Boston. The expedition had failed; Massachusetts had lost its entire fleet and was on the brink of financial ruin.
The Penobscot affair was only one of a series of disasters that reached their peak the following year at Charleston, South Carolina. Knowing the British would make a maximum effort to capture Charleston as a first step in their effort to pacify the southern colonies, four Continental ships under Captain Abraham Whipple were dispatched south from Massachusetts. Each vessel carried a full detachment of Marines. Shortly after their arrival, Marines and seamen prepared for battle by destroying navigational aids and those fortifications which might be of use to the enemy. The British fleet, however, penetrated Charleston's inner harbour and forced Whipple's ships up the Cooper River. The Marine detachments then joined the artillery batteries defending the city's seaward approaches. Their efforts were in vain. The British Army landed, marched around the city, crossed the Ashley River, and besieged Charleston from the rear. Five days after Fort Moultrie's small garrison surrendered, the beleaguered defenders of the South Carolina capital capitulated and 200 Marines from Whipple's squadron went into captivity.
For the Continental Marines the last three years of the War for Independence became a sequence of forlorn cruises. As British privateers and armed merchantmen increased in number, the few American ships still in service found it difficult to venture out in search of prizes. In 1780 Congress reported that:
"The Board take leave further to observe that there are but two Captains of Marines out of Employ, excepting such as are Prisoners, and about six Lieutenants, and where they are, or in what business engaged is altogether uncertain, none of them are here. It would be a great injury to the Service to have marines on board our ships without officers to Command them, until absent officers should be sought for and found, and when any of them should be found they may be either employed in private, or decline further public service."
In 1781, payments to the officers were recorded as:
"That there is due to the following persons, mentioned in a memorial from Capt. J. P. Jones, for services on board the Ariel, the sums of money to their names respectively annexed, viz.To William Nicholson, captain of marines, including his pay to the 25 August last, 392 36--90 dollars:
To Louis de la Valette, lieutenant of marines, to do. 289 36--90 dollars:That the facts are related in a Memorial of Major Samuel Nicholas of Marines are true, and therefore it is the opinion of this Committee that he is entitled to his pay unto the present time, and also that he be appointed to command the Marines on board the Ship America, and directed to repair immediately on that service, and that he be entitled to draw the share of prizes allotted to a Captain of Marines.
That there is due to Captain Joseph Hardy, of marines, late of the frigate Confederacy, being the balance of his account of pay, as stated at the pay-office, to the 3d of August, the sum of three hundred and thirty-seven dollars and sixty-eight ninetieths of a dollar:"
When the peace treaty with Britain finally was signed in 1783, only the Continental frigate Alliance was still in commission. The Marines were paid off and mustered out on 1st April 1783. A small Marine guard commanded by Lieutenant Thomas Elmwood stayed with the Alliance until Congress decided to sell the vessel. With the sale of the frigate, and the mustering out of Lieutenant Elwood, the Continental Navy and the Marines went out of existence. On 3 June 1783, Lieutenant Elmwood turned in the last of the Marine's equipment:
95 muskets, 13 without bayonets 29 pistols 111 cartouch Boxes 41 cutlasses 1 drum & drum Sticks 1 fife 1 drum Head 2 arms chest with Locks 2 great coats/grey 300 flints Expended:
1 musket, lost overboard 3 pistols, lost overboard 4 pair of pistols lost attempting to board the ship L'Orient in February 1782. 1 drum destroyed by Drummer, same time. 1 fife, lost by Fifer at same time. 7 cutlasses lost at same time. 3 locks, same time.
The Continental Marines had served
faithfully and well under difficult circumstances during the Revolution both
on land and at sea. They laid the foundation and established the precedence
for the Corps of Marines that would follow in their wake. On
July 11, 1798, President John Adams signed the bill entitled "An Act
for Establishing and Organizing a Marine Corps" which established a permanent
Marine Corps in America, today known as the United States Marine
Corps.
The story of the Continental Marines doesn't end there. Lieutenant
Samuel Wallingford's widow, Lydia, petitioned Congress on 15 March, 1787
for " half pay for seven years granted widows of officers killed in action
or for a share in the prize money." Her petition was passed on to the Board
of Treasury who reported on 18 April:
"That the Act of Congress of the 28th. November 1775 directs, That where any Officer or Seaman, shall be killed in the Service of the United States, the Widow shall receive a certain Sum, to be deducted from the net proceeds of the Prize Money, previous to its distribution, together with the Deceaseds Share of the Prize Money.
That by the Resolve of Congress of the 26th. of August 1776, Provision is made for such Officers and Seamen, as may lose a Limb or be otherwise disabled; but that it does not appear, that it has ever been extended to the Widows of such as were Killed in the Service of the United States.
That the Act of the 24th. August 1780 (on which the Memorialist appears to found her Claim) is confined to Officers in the Line of the Army of the United States.
Under the above circumstances the Board beg leave to Observe,
That the only compensation to which the Memorialist is entitled, in consequence of the Loss of her Husband in the Service of the United States, is Three hundred Dollars, as Established by the Act of Congress of the 28th. November 1785; but, as it appears from a Certificate of Supply Clap, and William Gardner, that they were appointed Agents for the Crew of the Ship Ranger, the Claim for the above compensation lays against the said Agents, and not against the United States.
With respect to the proportion of Bounty for Guns and Men to which the Husband of the Memorialist may be entitled, the Commissioner for the Marine Department is fully authorised to Settle the same on the proper Vouchers in support thereof being produced at his Office."
Seven years later, in 1794, Lydia was still trying to get the money from Congress, as can be seen by her petition of 26 December of that year:
"A petition of Lydia Cogswell, late widow of Samuel Wallingford, deceased, by Amos Cogswell, her attorney, was presented to the House and read, praying that she may receive the seven years' half-pay and other emoluments, due for the services of the deceased, as a Lieutenant of marines on board the ship Ranger, in the service of the United States, during the late war, to which she conceives herself justly entitled by resolutions of the late Congress."
Lydia still did not recieve the money, and three years later, on 16 February 1797, the House of Representatives reported:
"Mr. Dwight Foster, from the Committee of Claims, to whom was referred the petition of Lydia Cogswell, late widow of Samuel Wallingford, deceased, made a report; which was read and considered: Whereupon,Resolved, That it will not be proper to grant to the petitioner the seven years' half-pay and bounty, agreeably to the prayer of her petition."
Unfortunately, this seems to be the last mention of the matter, but it is safe to assume that almost 20 years after her husband's death, Lydia never received the compensation she believed she was entitled to.
