Bruce Guthrie Photos: VA -- Quantico -- National Museum of the Marine Corps (pre-World War I)

VA -- Quantico -- National Museum of the Marine Corps (pre-World War I) -- Notes:

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Description of Subject Matter: AMERICAN REVOLUTION GALLERY

This is the first of six historical galleries. The Continental Congress authorized two battalions of Marines on 10 November 1775. According to legend, Captain Samuel Nicholas began recruiting men on that date at Philadelphia's Tun Tavern. Visitors follow the Marines from their beginnings during the American Revolution on through the long years of a country divided by Civil War. As Thomas Paine said, "Tyranny, like hell, is not easily conquered," but the first Marines did their part to win America's freedom from the British, usually from the fighting tops of ships. In early 1776, Nicholas led 234 Marines in their first amphibious landing in the Bahamas. This gallery portrays life aboard a fighting ship. Marines were not only expert riflemen, they were also good seamen, and they sailed to the "ends of the earth" fighting the enemies of the new republic. Weapons and tools of these first Marines, including muskets, swords, powder horns, and boarding axes, are displayed, along with art work and dioramas.

A series of crises on the high seas—resulting in ships lost to piracy—prompted President Thomas Jefferson to send the Marines to fight Barbary pirates off the northern coast of Africa in the early 19th century. Marine detachments sailed on new frigates, fighting at sea and on far away lands, including "the shores of Tripoli." During the War of 1812, U.S. Marines fought the British again, on the seas and closer to home. Navy ships with embarked Marines helped suppress the slave trade along the west coast of Africa and sailed to the far reaches of the Pacific and Antarctica on a series of global expeditions. Commandant Archibald Henderson led Marines against Seminole Indians in Florida in 1836 and set high standards of leadership and readiness for the Corps. In the 1840s, Marine detachments executed a series of landings on both coasts of Mexico and in California, during the Mexican War. Rare and dear artifacts of the Corps from these ea ...More...
Various Signs: Sgt. Maj. John Quick:
"Sergeant Quick... stood there amid the... whistling snarl of the bullets, and wig-wagged... without heeding anything but his business."
-- War correspondent Stephen Crane, author of The Red Badge of Courage
Sergeant John H. Quick's bravery saved the day for the Marines fighting at Cuzco Well. The 27-year-old West Virginian sent messages to the USS Dolphin by means of flag signals, called wig-wagging. He re-directed the ship's fire away from Marine lines and into the surrounding Spanish positions "while exposed to a heavy fire from the enemy," as his Medal of Honor citation reads. One of the most valiant noncommissioned officers in Marine Corps history, Quick further distinguished himself at Samar i the Philippines in 1901 and at Belleau Wood, France, during World War I. He received the Navy Cross for his actions in France in 1918.

Assault on Derna:
US newspapers widely praised the combat exploits of Lieutenant Presley O'Bannon's Marines and the supporting Navy gunboats in the allied assault on Derna, Tripoli, on 27 April 1805. The attack yielded a glimpse of future Navy-Marine hallmarks -- landing forces assaulting a hostile fort under the guns of the fleet.
Specific picture descriptions: Photos above with "i" icons next to the bracketed sequence numbers (e.g. "[1] ") are described as follows:
1. MCMPR1_130210_014.JPG: 1775-1865: Defending the New Republic: "Resolved, that two battalions of Marines be raised... so acquainted with maritime affairs as to be able to serve to advantage by sea." -- Continental Congress, 10 November 1775 The Marines created a presence early in the Revolutionary War to form an armed service patterned after the British Royal Marines. When 200 Continental Marines splashed ashore in the Bahamas, making the first combat landing in American history, the Declaration of Independence still lay three months in the future. Marines fought as sharpshooters on warships and led boarding parties onto British decks during the Revolution and the War of 1812. In 1805, Lt. Presley O'Bannon and his men wrestled a stronghold from Barbary pirates on "the shores of Tripoli." Marines joined in storming Chapultepec castle -- "the halls of Montezuma" outside Mexico City in 1847. When civil war fractured America in 1861, U.S. Marines fought former southern comrades who created the Confederate States Marine Corps. After 90 years of service, though never more than 4,000 strong, Marines had won distinction fighting their country's battles around the globe.
2. MCMPR1_130210_041.JPG: "... we mutually pledge to each other our Lives, our Fortunes, and our sacred Honor." "He has plundered our seas, ravaged our Coasts, burnt our towns, and destroyed the lives of our people."
3. MCMPR1_130210_046.JPG: Times That Try Men's Souls: "The Sun never shined on a cause of greater worth." -- Thomas Paine, Common Sense, 1776 The American colonists who revolted against British rule in 1775 challenged the strength of one of the mightiest empires in world history. Ill-equipped American militiamen and green volunteers faced a hard-bitten professional British army, augmented by hired soldiers from other European nations. The Royal Navy commanded the seas. "We the People of the United States, in Order to form a more perfect Union, establish Justice, insure domestic Tranquility, provide for the common defense, promote the general Welfare, and secure the Blessings of Liberty to ourselves and our Posterity, do ordain and establish this Constitution for the United States of America." -- Preamble, Constitution of the United States, 1787
4. MCMPR1_130210_052.JPG: "Tyranny, like hell, is not easily conquered..." -- Thomas Paine, The Crisis, 1776 A Maritime Nation: "Four or five frigates will do the business without any military force." -- British Prime Minister Lord North to the House of Commons, 1774 The American colonies of the 1770s drew their livelihood from the sea. Cities clustered on the coast -- Charleston, Savannah, Wilmington, and across New England -- suffered from naked vulnerability to the powerful Royal Navy. A generation of seasoned American seafarers provided a pool from which a struggling new nation drew sailors and Marines to launch an emergent naval service. Their achievements on land and sea proved instrumental to the eventual triumph of the patriot cause.
5. MCMPR1_130210_057.JPG: A Maritime Nation: "Four or five frigates will do the business without any military force." -- British Prime Minister Lord North to the House of Commons, 1774 The American colonies of the 1770s drew their livelihood from the sea. Cities clustered on the coast -- Charleston, Savannah, Wilmington, and across New England -- suffered from naked vulnerability to the powerful Royal Navy. A generation of seasoned American seafarers provided a pool from which a struggling new nation drew sailors and Marines to launch an emergent naval service. Their achievements on land and sea proved instrumental to the eventual triumph of the patriot cause.
6. MCMPR1_130210_063.JPG: Marines for the Fleet: "I had 11 different wounds, from my shoulder to my hip; some with buck-shot, others with the splinters of the... deck gun." -- Marine Captain Gilbert Saltonstall, USS Trumbull versus HMS Watt, 1 June 1780 "Landsmen" -- soldiers disposed toward sea service who formed armed boarding parties to serve on board ships -- had long been a tradition in maritime nations. These musket-welding sailors evolved into "Marines." The Continental Marines of the American Revolution, patterned after their British and Dutch forerunners, proved their mettle in sea battles that won a name for the fledgling American Navy. Despite heavy casualties, Marines staged two difficult amphibious assaults against British forces at Penobscot Bat, Maine.
7. MCMPR1_130210_069.JPG: Growth and Conflict: "... there shall be raised and organized a corps of marines..." -- US Congress, "An Act for the establishing and organizing a Marine Corps," 11 July 1798 Congress disbanded the Continental Navy and Marines after the American Revolution, but emerging threats to the nation's maritime trade prompted a quick restoration of both services. In 1798, Congress created the Navy Department and authorized a battalion to be called the Marine Corps. Public hostility toward a large standing army made seaborne light infantry a tolerable alternative. Within months, US Marines manned new frigates in an undeclared war against marauding French ships.
8. MCMPR1_130210_075.JPG: Born in the American Revolution: "We... appoint you to be Captain of Marines... in the service of the Thirteen United Colonies of North-America..." -- John Hancock Commission of Captain Samuel Nicholas, 1775 The Continental Congress authorized two battalions of Marines on 10 November 1775, the date traditionally celebrated as the Marine Corps' birthday. According to legend, Captain Samuel Nicholas began recruiting men at Philadelphia's Tun Tavern on that date. Although the term "commandant" would not be applied to the ranking officer of the Marine Corps until 1800, Nicholas is commonly regarded as the first Commandant of the Corps. In early 1776, Nicholas and his newly mustered Marines boarded hastily converted merchant ships, bound for the Bahamas, a British colony. On 3 March, he led 234 Marines and 50 sailors in the first US amphibious landing and raised the Grand Union flag -- the predecessor to the Stars and Stripes -- at Nassau. Lieutenant Jack Fitzpatrick and five other Marines died in a fight at sea during the return voyage, the first battle deaths in Marine Corps history. The first Leathernecks -- nicknamed that for the leather collars they wore -- fought in both naval and land campaigns. About 2,200 Continental Marines served during the American Revolution, and 50 died in battle. Any able-bodied man willing to volunteer was accepted, regardless of race. John Martin of Wilmington, Delaware, was the first Black Marine. Enlisting in 1775, he served on the brig Reprisal during several sea battles against the Royal Navy before doing down with his ship in the north Atlantic. Other African-American Marines fought in the Trenton-Princeton campaign under General George Washington.
9. MCMPR1_130210_086.JPG: Engraved Powder Horn: During the Colonial and Revolutionary periods, any soldier, hunter, or farmer who used a rifle or musket needed a powder horn. This scrimshawed horn depicts a Marine officer and is inscribed "August 20th AD ... made by H. Mack." It is the earliest piece of Marine Corps equipment known to exist.
10. MCMPR1_130210_119.JPG: Boarding Ax: The ax served as a weapon and as a tool for cutting away wreckage and rigging. Like other weapons wielded by Americans during the Revolutionary War, most axes came from captured British stores. Some, however, were made in America. The ax became obsolete for shipboard use in the 1880s.
11. MCMPR1_130210_131.JPG: On the Land and On The Sea: "Marines are as old as war at sea." -- Col. Robert D. Heinl, USMC, Soldiers of the Sea Athenian and Roman naval infantry ("marines") fought on warships more than 2,000 years ago. In 1775, as the Continental Congress created armed forces to gain independence, its members decided that the new American Navy would need a fighting force of trained riflemen adaptable to seagoing combat similar to the British and Dutch Marines. The resolution that created the Continental Marines on 10 November 1775 urged the recruitment of riflemen who were also "good seamen, or so acquainted with maritime affairs as to be able to serve to advantage by sea." Subsequent legislation authorized the US President to order Marines ashore to support the Army. "By Sea and By Land" -- adapted from the Royal Marines -- became an early motto of the US Marines until replaced in 1883 by Semper Fidelis.
12. MCMPR1_130210_137.JPG: Marine Life Aboard Ship: "We experienced a violent gale from the north, the seas running mountain high and breaking with awful fury o'er bows." -- Journal of Corporal Edward W. Taylor, USMC, Marine Detachment, USS United States, 23 June 1842 Marines and sailors serving on board Navy warships in the early 19th century experienced cramped quarters and hazardous seas. Enlisted men in "the Frigate Navy" slept in canvas hammocks slung between bulkhead hooks, swaying with every pitch and roll of the ship, and arose at reveille to secure ("trice up") their hammocks for the day. Men who died at sea were sewn up in their hammocks, wrapped in a flag, and committed to the deep.
13. MCMPR1_130210_147.JPG: Weaponry and Tactics: "For seagoing Marines, in the fighting tops or in boarding parties, and action was at fifty yards or less." -- Colonel F. Brooke Nihart, USMC (Ret.) The Marines fought their earliest battles with smooth-bore flintlock muskets, weapons that stood 6 feet high with fixed bayonet. Muskets were notoriously inaccurate at ranges greater than 100 yards, the projectiles often hooking like golf balls. Only a well-trained man could fire 3 shots a minute. Although civilian rifles were available, the newer weapons' greater accuracy failed to offset their fragility, longer reloading time, and lack of bayonets. Revolutionary War battles became bloody affairs. Opposing lines of troops often stood 50 yards apart, exchanging devastating musket volleys, then charging with their bayonets.
14. MCMPR1_130210_151.JPG: Barbary Wars: "We mean to rest the safety of our commerce on... our own strength and bravery in every sea." -- President Thomas Jefferson to the ruler of Tripoli, 21 May 1801 The northern coast of Africa, called the Barbary Coast, was notorious for its pirates from the 16th through the 19th centuries. Barbary pirates seized American ships repeatedly, commencing with the end of the Revolutionary War in 1783 and leading to a succession of crises during 1800-1805. After losing dozens of American ships and hundreds of enslaved sailors, President Thomas Jefferson faced a test of the infant nation's will. Instead of following the European practice of ransoming hostages -- even paying ransom in advance as tribute -- Jefferson dispatched a fleet of newly built frigates to the Mediterranean to protect U.S. merchant ships and, if possible, to rescue the hostages by force of arms. Marine detachments manned each warship and fought at sea and ashore.
15. MCMPR1_130210_164.JPG: Marines With Decatur: "The intrepid Decatur is a proverbial... for the good treatment of his men, as he is for his valor." -- Private William Ray, USMC, USS Philadelphia, 1808 Navy Captain Stephen Decatur distinguished himself during the Barbary Wars in a series of sea fights and as commander of the daring destruction of the captured USS Philadelphia in 1804. Marines who fought beside the dashing 25-year-old Decatur in his many ship-to-ship boarding brawls admired his courageous leadership. Decatur and many of the same ships, sailors, and Marines went on to greater distinction in the War of 1812. On the night of 16 February 1804, naval Lt Stephen Decatur led a raiding party, including a detachment of Marines, into Tripoli Harbor to destroy the captured USS Philadelphia, which was being used as a gun battery against the Americans.
16. MCMPR1_130210_169.JPG: Fighting the Barbary Corsairs: "People who handle dangerous weapons in War must expect wounds and Death." -- Commodore Edward Preble, USN, on enemy casualties sustained from the burning of the USS Philadelphia, 1804 The Navy's campaign against Barbary pirates incurred a major setback in 1803 when the USS Philadelphia ran aground in Tripoli Harbor and fell into enemy hands. For 19 moths, the frigate's crew, including 41 Marines, languished in dungeons, much to America's chagrin. A naval raiding party burned the captured ship, but rescuing the prisoners proved futile. In the end, it was diplomacy -- not force -- that freed the hostages and ended the war. This painting by Dennis Malone Carter depicts Lieutenant Stephen Decatur and Midshipman Thomas Macdonough in action during the boarding of a Tripolitan vessel on 3 August 1804. Decatur became a national hero and was subsequently promoted to the rank of captain.
17. MCMPR1_130210_178.JPG: On the Sea
18. MCMPR1_130210_183.JPG: To The Shores of Tripoli: "O'Bannon ... with his Marines... passes through a shower of Musketry... [and] planted the American Flag on its ramparts." -- Expedition leader William Eaton at Derna, Tripoli, 1805 In an epic adventure, William Eaton, US Naval agent to the Barbary States, led a column of Marines and soldiers of fortune across the deserts of North Africa to attack the Tripolitan stronghold of Derna in 1805. Lieutenant Presley O'Bannon led seven blue-and-scarlet-clad Marines on the 600-mile march. Four Marines fell in the wild charge into the city, but their valor roused the American nation, later leading to the inclusion of "to the shores of Tripoli" in the first stanza of The Marines' Hymn.
19. MCMPR1_130210_189.JPG: Derna Plaque: Inscribed in English and Arabic, this marble plaque marked the location of the fort in Derna, Libya, that was captured by U.S. Marines on 27 April 1805. It was placed there in the 1940s by the British. In 1989, the plaque was found partially buried and broken in the garden of the former American Embassy residence in Tripoli.
20. MCMPR1_130210_197.JPG: The War of 1812: "The personal liberties of our citizens... are essentially attacked, and war is the only means of redress." -- Senator John C. Calhoun, 10 December 1811 Three decades after winning the Revolutionary War, the United States went to war with England again in 1812, prompted by Royal Navy interference with American merchant ships, raids by British-allied Indians along the frontier, and ill-fated US expansionist greed for Canada. The US protested the British policy of boarding American ships to search for Royal Navy veterans or deserters, who were needed for Britain's costly war against France. The War of 1812 raged for three years. The crisis of the young country came when British expeditionary forces defeated US Marines, sailors, and militiamen at Bladensburg, Maryland, and burned Washington DC, but the invasion faltered when Baltimore's Fort McHenry withstood a nightlong fleet bombardment. Fighting on land and at sea, 46 Marines were killed during the war.
21. MCMPR1_130210_205.JPG: Last Stand at Bladensburg: British regulars stormed across the Anacostia River at Bladensburg on 24 August 1814, scattering American defenders and advancing on Washington. A small band of US Navy sailors and Marines commanded by Commodore Joshua Barney blocked their way. Firing heavy guns in broadsides, the naval force repulsed three British attacks before being overrun. Their spirited defense was a solitary bright spot in a bleak day that ended with the enemy's capture of the US capital.
22. MCMPR1_130210_233.JPG: War On Land: "Forty dollars! To Men of Courage, Enterprize & Patriotism. A rendezvous for the Marine service is now opened." -- Lieutenant Benjamin Hyde, USMC, recruiting advertisement, Baltimore Patriot, 1 June 1813 Marines fought bravely but futilely in the defense of Washington against the British invasion force in August 1814. The next month, 170 Leathernecks reinforced the Baltimore defenses during the Royal Navy's bombardment of Fort McHenry, the victory that inspired Francis Scott Key to write The Star-Spangled Banner. Elsewhere, Marines held the center of Andrew Jackson's line near New Orleans and played a key role in the American triumph there in January 1815. On 11-12 September 1812, a paramilitary force of Seminole Indians and escaped slaves recruited by the governor of Spanish East Florida ambushed Marines guarding a wagon train near St. Augustine, Florida.
23. MCMPR1_130210_237.JPG: War At Sea: "Should an opportunity be afforded for boarding the enemy, I will be the first man upon his deck." -- Lt. William S. Bush, USMC, killed aboard USS Constitution, 19 August 1812 The small but spirited US Navy gained prominent during the War of 1812, fighting ferocious engagements at sea and on the inland waters of Lake Erie in 1813 and Lake Champlain in 1814. Seagoing Marines contributed to the increased combat proficiency by firing lethally from the rigging and leaping from one ship to another. Marines fought and died in legendary ship-to-ship duels, including Constitution-Guerriere and Chesapeake-Shannon. Marines helped make a proud name for the Navy.
24. MCMPR1_130210_242.JPG: Global Expeditions: "Explore and survey the Southern Ocean." -- Navy Department instructions of Lieutenant Wilkes' Exploring Expedition, 1838 The US Navy provided ship, captain, and crew; the Marines provided a detachment of Leathernecks; the Navy Department issued expeditionary orders, and another flotilla of small ships would set sail for an incredible journey to the ends of the earth. The United States launched these small expeditions repeatedly in the first half of the 19th century, each one firing the imagination of a nation bent on exploration and adventure. Navy ships with embarked Marines helped suppress the slave trade along the east coast of Africa; fought pirates in the Caribbean, and Aegean Sea, and along the Indian Ocean coast of Sumatra; discovered the continent of Antarctica in the "Southern Ocean"; and engaged in sharp fighting with native Pacific Islanders. As one Wilkes Expedition sailor described fighting in Fiji, "The air around our heads was literally filled with clubs and spears."
25. MCMPR1_130210_248.JPG: Enforcing the Law at Sea; "There is not a Fisherman who is not a Pirate, and not a canoe that is not a Pirate Vessel in miniature." -- Lieutenant Matthew Perry, USN, report from Cuba, 1822 The US Navy and Marines waged an intermittent global war against piracy, beginning with the Barbary Wars in 1800 and extending for the next half-century. Counter-piracy naval operations commenced in the Mediterranean Sea, then centered on the Caribbean, and later extended to South America, the South Pacific, and East Asia. Boarding parties of sailors and Marines often engaged pirate ships in close-quarters fighting. A Navy-Marine landing party seized the pirate fortress of Fajardo, Puerto Rico, in 1824. Another US landing party overwhelmed a pirate stronghold in Quallah Battoo, Sumatra, in 1832. Slavery remained legal in the United States until abolished by the 13th Amendment to the Constitution in 1865, after the Civil War. Earlier, the 1842 Webster-Ashburton Treaty between the US and England led to Royal Navy cooperation with the American Navy to suppress the slave trade on Africa's west coast from 1843 to 1860. US Marines serving aboard Navy ships of the African Squadron helped capture 12 slave ships in 1860, leading to the release of 3,000 slaves.
26. MCMPR1_130210_254.JPG: American-Manufactured Blunderbuss Swivel Gun: Thomas French of Canton, MA, manufactured this flintlock, an example of early American craftsmanship from the days of fighting sail.
27. MCMPR1_130210_263.JPG: Model 1813 S. North Navy Pistol: The Model 1813 pistol was made by Simeon North of Middletown, CT, who was contracted to manufacture some 20,000 of the pistols. By 1815, very few had actually been delivered. The M1813 is chambered in .69 caliber and fired a 1-ounce lead ball.
28. MCMPR1_130210_271.JPG: The Archibald Henderson Era: "Gone to fight the Indians. Will be Back when the war is over. A. Henderson, Col. Comdt." -- Sign on the door of Marine Corps Headquarters, 1836, according to tradition Commandant Archibald Henderson may not have used those exact words as he left Washington to lead half the Corps against the Seminole and Creek Indians in Florida and Georgia, but the cryptic message was the measure of the man. Fiery and tenacious, Henderson molded the small 19th century Marine Corps into a professional force. As Commandant for a record 38 years, Henderson served 11 presidents. Taking firm command in 1820 of a Corps embarrassed by the court martial of the previous commandant, Henderson established high standards of leadership and readiness. His pioneering willingness to trust noncommissioned officers with high responsibilities created one of the most distinctive features of the Corps.
29. MCMPR1_130210_277.JPG: Leadership by Example: "Men, you had better think twice before you fire this piece at the Marines." -- Archibald Henderson to Washington rioters armed with a cannon, 1857 Coolness under fire typified Henderson's 52-year career as a Marine. In 1857, President James Buchanan appealed to the Commandant for Marines to quell an election-day riot in Washington. During the fighting, Henderson, age 74, placed his body against the muzzle of a cannon being aimed at the Marines, the collared the gunners. As Commandant, he vigorously inspected each post every year, heeding the complaints of his troops, and improving their bleak living conditions.
30. MCMPR1_130210_283.JPG: The Seminole War: "The detachment of Marines... has shown itself as prompt to defend its country on the land as on the water." -- Washington National Intelligencer, 2 June 1836 US armed forces, enforcing the heartless Indian Removal Act of 1830, fought a wretched war during 1835 to 1842, trying to evict elusive Seminoles and their allies, including escaped slaves, from the Florida Everglades. At the start, Commandant Archibald Henderson swiftly mobilized a Marine regiment from barracks along the east coast. More than half the 1,600-man Corps -- and the commandant -- fought in Florida. Henderson received a brevet promotion to brigadier general -- the first in Marine history -- for his role in the 1837 battle of Hatchee-Lustee, but the long war ended indecisively.
31. MCMPR1_130210_288.JPG: Land Campaigns: "The Marine... Corps has been earning a harvest of fame in Florida." -- Army and Navy Chronicle, 15 June 1837 The campaign to evict the Seminoles from Florida degenerated into an ugly war of ambushes, atrocities, and reprisals. On 21 November 1836, a mortal wound felled Lieutenant Andrew Ross, USMC, at the Battle of Wahoo Swamp, one of the war's few "stand-up" skirmishes. Most of the 50 Marines who died in Florida succumbed to disease, not hostile arrows or bullets. As years passed, yielding little progress, the war became increasingly unpopular with the American public.
32. MCMPR1_130210_294.JPG: Swamp Action: "Private [Jeremiah] Kingsburg [USMC] fell in his trail and died from sheer exhaustion." -- Lieutenant John T. McLaughlin, USN, official report, 26 May 1832 Mixed task groups of sailors, militia, and Marines deployed from small shallow-draft vessels -- patrol craft, revenue cutters, even canoes -- at dispersed points around both coasts of the Florida peninsula into the Everglades. Operations of the "Mosquito Fleet" exploited the flexibility of about 130 well-trained Marines and the mobility made possible by US Navy control of the navigable waters.
33. MCMPR1_130210_301.JPG: Fleet Expeditionary Operations: "The Marine Corps is the military arm of the Navy." -- Archibald Henderson to Navy Secretary Mahlon Dickerson, 1834 Archibald Henderson earned his spurs in 1815 as a captain in command of the Marines on board USS Constitution ("Old Ironsides") during her battle with HMS Cyane and HMS Levant, and he regarded fleet operations as the primary mission of his Corps. The Marines conducted more than 50 landings around the world during Henderson's years as commandant, including combat expeditions in California and Mexico in 1847 and against China's Pearl River forts in 1856.
34. MCMPR1_130210_306.JPG: Combat Readiness: "The attack on the Malays found the Marine Guard fully sufficient for the perilous duty." -- Archibald Henderson to Navy Secretary Levi Woodbury regarding the 1832 landing as Quallah Balloo Archibald Henderson's greatest legacy proved to be his iron-willed insistence on combat readiness. He set a standard for future Marines in 1836 by mobilizing a regiment of riflemen from a dozen naval stations, an improvised force that reported the duty in 10 days, armed and equipped for extended campaigning with the Army against the Creeks and Seminoles. This tradition of rapid deployment of ready forces in a national emergency became a hallmark of the Marines.
35. MCMPR1_130210_311.JPG: Pacific Expeditions: "The sea breeze setting in, we... are now heading south west for Cape Horn or as more anciently called, the Cape of Storms." -- Corporal Edward W. Taylor, USMC, 26 March 1844, USS United States A thrilled American public eagerly followed reports of distant expeditions by the US Navy across the uncharted Pacific in the first half of the 19th century. Marines in shipboard detachments shared the exhilaration of seeing Tahiti in the 1820s, participation in the discovery of Antarctica in the 1840s, and helping open reclusive Japan in the 1850s. As well-armed regulars, Marines showed the flag with gusto to exotic climes while protecting scientific parties, surveyors, and diplomatic missions. Colorful exploits in this arena generated widespread national pride and gave the Navy, and the associated Marines, popular recognition.
36. MCMPR1_130210_317.JPG: Mexican War Marine Corps Colors, circa 1847: This flag was reportedly carried by the Marine battalion attached to Gen. Winfield Scott's army in Mexico. The battalion was with Quitman's Division on the Tacubaya Road during the storming of Chapultepec and accompanied the Marines as they marched into Mexico City through the Belen Gate on 14 September 1847.
37. MCMPR1_130210_328.JPG: The Mexican War: "Gen'l Henderson stated that 6 companies of marines could be spared from the navy for land service." -- Diary of President James K. Polk, 13 May 1846 Mexico protested the American annexation of Texas amid concerns, soon realized, that unbridled US expansionism under the banner of "Manifest Destiny" would also overwhelm the sparsely populated and resource-rich territories of New Mexico and California. The US responded by rashly launching a two-year war with Mexico in May 1846. Marines and sailors landed repeatedly on both the Atlantic and Pacific coasts. A Marine battalion marched with General Winfield Scott's army in a grueling six-month campaign from Vera Cruz into the Mexican interior and played a prominent role in the dramatic fighting that captured Mexico City.
38. MCMPR1_130210_333.JPG: From the Halls of Montezuma: "The storming parties rushed down the road... Major Twiggs, of the marines, who commanded, fell dead." -- Major Roswell S. Ripley, US Army, Mexico City, September 1847 Major Levi Twiggs, USMC, a veteran of the War of 1812 and the Seminole campaigns, led a volunteer storming party into the face of daunting defenses on the outskirts of Mexico City on 13 September 1847. Twiggs died at the forefront of the decisive attack that captured Chapultepec castle, atop a commanding height -- "the halls of Montezuma" memorialized by Marines ever since. Thirteen of the 23 Marine officers present at Chapultepec received brevet promotions for bravery.
39. MCMPR1_130210_339.JPG: The Capture of Mexico City: General Winfield Scott's army, including its Marine battalion, attacked the Mexican capital on 13 September 1847, starting with an assault on Chapultepec castle, dominating the southwestern approaches. Fierce resistance by Mexican soldiers and young cadets from the castle's military academy slowed the American advance. Captain George Terrett impatiently led his few Marines in a direct assault on the San Cosme Gate, joined by Army Lieutenant US Grant's soldiers. Other Marines helped seize the castle. The city fell by nightfall.
40. MCMPR1_130210_360.JPG: Gulf of Mexico Expeditions: "The Marines [are] dispersed along the coast... a distance of nearly six hundred miles in extent." -- Commodore Matthew C. Perry, USN, Gulf Squadron, 4 July 1847 Marines and sailors under Commodore Matthew Perry executed a series of forcible landings along Mexico's east coast at Vera Cruz, Tampico, Alvarado, Tuxpan, and Frontera. "Land and storm!" yelled Perry over the roar of his guns at Tuxpan in 1847. These pioneering assaults from the sea foretold 20th century landings, but the Navy and Marine Corps would not make such adroit use of their joint mobility for another 50 years, despite ample opportunity during the Civil War.
41. MCMPR1_130210_364.JPG: California Expeditions: "They were about 600 men strong, all mounted on superb horses, and armed with carbines, pistols, and lances about eight feet in length and as keen as razors." -- Lieutenant Henry Watson, USMC, battle of San Gabriel, journal entry, 8 January 1847 Marines aboard the vessels of the Pacific Squadron landed on the California coast in the summer of 1846, raising the US flag over the lightly defended small towns of Monterey, San Francisco, San Diego, and Los Angeles in six weeks. Lieutenant Jacob Zeilin, the fleet Marine officer, distinguished himself in command of shipboard Marines who joined sailors and soldiers on subsequent inland expeditions against Californians loyal to Mexico in decisive fighting during 1846-47.
42. MCMPR1_130210_368.JPG: "The wind fairly howled in its violence." -- Midshipman William Reynolds, USN, Philippine Sea Wilkes Exploring Expedition: "When I was a boy of ten... Wilkes had discovered a new world and was another Columbus." -- Mark Twain Lieutenant Charles Wilkes, USN, led a six-vessel expedition that left New York in 1838, spent four years exploring the Pacific Ocean, and sailed 87,000 miles. Wilkes conducted scientific experiments and projected American interests on an immense circuit that discovered Antarctica and explored Fiji, Samoa, Tarawa, and the west coast of North America. The 31 Marines with the expedition, led by Quartermaster Sergeant Marion A. Stearns, skirmished often with hostile natives. USS Vincennes Expeditions: "In her many cruises, Vincennes explored Tarawa, Guam, and Okinawa a century before they became bloody beachheads in World War II." The 127-foot-long sloop of war Vincennes, with 18 guns, was built at the Brooklyn Navy Yard. She sailed around Cape Horn into the Pacific upon commissioning in August 1826 and returned by way of China, the Philippines, the Indian Ocean, and around the Cape of Good Hope. When Vincennes and her crew of 80 sailors and Marines returned to New York in June 1830 after a 4-year cruise, she became the first US Navy ship to circumnavigate the globe.
43. MCMPR1_130210_374.JPG: Perry Opens Japan: "The natives... notwithstanding the presence of the Marines under arms... evidently were pleasantly excited by the spectacle." -- An observer with Commodore Perry's flotilla, Okinawa, May 1853 Major Jacob Zeilin commanded 5 officer and 200 Marines -- almost 1/6 of the total strength of the Corps. The accompanied Commodore Matthew Perry's 7-ship expedition on its epic mission to Okinawa and Japan in 1853-54. Zeilin stepped ashore just before Perry, at the head of a crisply disciplined Marine detachment. Perry's show of force helped transform, in his words, " a singular and isolated people into the family of civilized nations without resort to bloodshed."
44. MCMPR1_130210_395.JPG: Continental Marines: "Our ship... engaged her side by side... as hot as possibly could be on both sides... My second Lieutenant fell dead close by my side." -- Captain Samuel Nicholas, Continental Marines, 1776 Marines were created for service with the fleet. In action they often fought with muskets from perches high in their ship's rigging known as "Fighting Tops." Small-arms fusillades sleeting across enemy decks picked off gunners and officers. When warships closed to boarding range, Marines scrambled down, fixed bayonets, and fought the British hand-to-hand. "My lieutenant was shot by a musket-ball through the head," reported Captain Nicholas, who became the Marines' first Commandant.
45. MCMPR1_130210_404.JPG: Dan Daly and the Chinese "Boxer": "My god! Do you mean he's real? I thought Dan Daly was somebody the Marines made up -- like Paul Bunyan." -- Young Marine replacement Marines fought to protect civilians through the famous "55 Days at Peking" during the 1900 Boxer Rebellion. A Chinese cult called "Boxers" murdered many foreigners, and the survivors sought shelter in the city's Legation Quarter. Dan Daly, a 26-year-old New Yorker, manned a rampart on the Tartar Wall alone through one decisive night, piling up expended cartridges and prostrate Boxers around his position. He received a Medal of Honor for his performance, and a second one in 1915 in Haiti.
46. MCMPR1_130210_409.JPG: 1866-1916: A Global Expeditionary Force: "The Marines have landed and the situation is well in hand." -- Correspondent Richard Harding Davis, Panama, 1885 American settlers overcame the nation's last frontiers by 1890. Public leaders turned their focus in overseas expansion to compete with other world powers. In the Spanish-American War of 1898, the US liberated Cuba and acquired from Spain a virtual "overnight empire" consisting of the Philippines, Guam, and Puerto Rico. Spurred by advocates of sea power like Theodore Roosevelt and Alfred Thayer Mahan, the US expanded its Navy and looked to the Marines to defend advance naval bases. The Marines in this period engaged in frequent expeditionary landings and sharp fighting. A series of dramatic events, well publicized by the press, raised public acclaim for the Leathernecks. These included the Marines' intervention in Panama, amphibious assaults at Guantanamo Bay, Cuba and Vera Cruz, Mexico, savage combat in the Philippines, and defense of the US Legation in Peking, China.
47. MCMPR1_130210_415.JPG: Salee River, Korea: "To Captain Tilton and his Marines belongs the honor of the first landing and last leaving the shore..." -- Commander Lewis A. Kimberly, USN, official report, 1871 Korean gunners opened fire from coastal forts near the Yellow Sea when Admiral John Rodgers' five US warships approach on 31 May 1871 to negotiate a treaty of friendly commerce. Rodgers, receiving no apology for the armed reception, launched a seaborne assault. A landing force of 105 Marines and 546 sailors, towed in 22 boats behind a naval vessel, went ashore on 10 June. They found a strong, determined Korean force occupying stone forts atop steep crests. Accurate gunfire support from the USS Monocacy aided the assault, which stormed up the slopes and overwhelmed the Korean positions in hand-to-hand fighting. Six enlisted Marines received the Medal of Honor for their bravery. US Marines would return to these same narrow channels and mudflats 79 years later to seize the port of Inchon in the Korean War.
48. MCMPR1_130210_427.JPG: A Global Expeditionary Force: 1866-1916
49. MCMPR1_130210_433.JPG: Technology: "It is a war of smokestacks as well as men." -- General George C. Marshall, US Army, 1941 The Industrial Revolution that swept the world in the late 19th and early 20th centuries produced dramatic changes in the efficiency and lethality of waging war. By 1914, most of the great powers possessed steam-propelled heavily armed ships, long-range submarines, tactical aircraft and seaplanes, primitive armored cars and troop-hauling trucks, automatic machine guns, rapid-firing heavy artillery, field radios, and mechanically-fused high-explosive anti-personnel mines.
50. MCMPR1_130210_440.JPG: Navalism: "Speak softly and carry a big stick." -- President Theodore Roosevelt, 1901 President Teddy Roosevelt, influenced by naval strategist Alfred Thayer Mahan, sought to demonstrate American power around the globe on the hulls of a modern navy -- his proverbial "Big Stick." In 1907, Roosevelt launched a powerful force of new battleships, "the Great White Fleet," on an epic 14-month voyage. The naval force, with Marines embarked, cruised 43,000 miles and visited six continents, mixing diplomacy with a show of America's new global reach.
51. MCMPR1_130210_445.JPG: Age of Expansion: "Diplomacy is utterly useless where there is no force behind it." -- Theodore Roosevelt, Assistant Secretary of the Navy, address to the Naval War Collect, 1897 As their west frontier disappeared, Americans looked with envy toward the overseas colonial empires possessed by European powers. The broadening of the national horizon spawned a new US Navy, enlarged and modernized. The smaller Marine Corps grew in proportion, surviving attempts by politicians and naval officers to curtail or abolish it. In time, the Marines developed new capabilities to help the fleet dominate the high seas. Traditional deployments as small shipboard detachments, often as few as a dozen men, gave way to larger Marine formations. The first Marine Corps regiments (typically 1,000 men) and brigades (1,500 or more) embarked for extended campaigns ashore in the Pacific and the Caribbean.
52. MCMPR1_130210_451.JPG: United States National Flag, 1867-1877: The 37-star flag, carried by Marines during the post-Civil War era, retained the eagle and shield design popular during the Mexican and Civil Wars. It was flown by Marines in Japan, Uruguay, Mexico, Korea, and Panama.
53. MCMPR1_130210_478.JPG: Hotchkiss Revolving Cannon: Invented by Benjamin Hotchkiss in 1871, this revolving-type machine cannon utilized a single fixed-breech lock and fired a 37mm bursting charge. While originally intended for naval use, the Hotchkiss was frequently mounted on any field carriage capable of handling its great weight. Hotchkiss guns were adopted and used by many, if not most, of the world's navies. This sample, serial number 568, was originally manufactured in 1880 by Hotchkiss & Company in St. Denis, France.
54. MCMPR1_130210_488.JPG: "Blasted Old Muzzle Fuzzles" "One man with a breech loader is equal to 12... armed as we are... with a blasted old Muzzle Fuzzle." -- Captain McLane Tilton, Asiatic Fleet Marine Officer, March, 1870 Captain TIlton complained that his men had to deploy to Asia armed with outdated, single-shot, muzzle-loading muskets ("muzzle fuzzles") against the breech-loading repeaters of their likely enemies. The luck of the severely under-funded Marines held. In their opposed landing against the Salee River forts in 1871, the Marines faced Koreans using truly ancient weapons -- matchlock rifles from the 16th century and a cannon dating from the 14th century.
55. MCMPR1_130210_498.JPG: The Marines' New Mission: "America was suddenly an imperial nation... and the Marines... had a lot of Uncle Sam's dirty work to do." -- Colonel Joseph H. Alexander America's new role as an imperial power required the marines to launch distant expeditions to protect friendly colonial governments against armed nationalists seeking independence. Competing imperial powers often heightened the risk to US troops by providing modern weapons to local insurgents to curry their loyalty. In 1914, President Woodrow Wilson based his decision to land Marines in Vera Cruz, Mexico, on the pending arrival in that port of a German steamer loaded with machine guns for anti-government Mexican rebels. For the Marines, "Uncle Sam's first work" often involved door-to-door combat in a heavily populated city like Vera Cruz or protracted counterinsurgency operations in Cuba or the Philippines. In 1907, the British Pulitzer Prize-winning author Rudyard Kipling described these unpopular deadly missions as "The Savage Wars of Peace." The Marines would later call them "Small Wars."
56. MCMPR1_130210_503.JPG: The Spanish-American War: "Remember the Maine!" -- American war slogan Cuba, part of the Spanish empire for almost 400 years, was fighting again for its independence in the late 1890s, a fight that many Americans supported. President William McKinley sent the battleship Maine to Cuban waters to protect American interests and offer assistance to some 8,000 American residents, where it exploded and sank on 15 February 1898, killing 260 Americans, including 28 Marines. Although never able to prove Spanish complicity, the US linked the events to Spanish atrocities in Cuba and declared war against Spain in April. Shipboard Marines manned batteries in naval victories that highlighted what a boastful American diplomat called "a splendid little war," which lasted only four months. A Marine battalion, embarked in a crowded troopship, gained national publicity as the first US fighting force ashore in Cuba, when it landed in Guantanamo Bay on 10 June 1898 and defeated Spanish regulars. The Marines then helped established a strategically located coaling station to support the US fleet, which needed fuel for its ships during the blockade of Cuba. Closer to Havana, future present Theodore Roosevelt led his Army "Rough Riders" to glory at San Juan Hill.
57. MCMPR1_130210_508.JPG: Dewey at Manila Bay: "If there had been 5,000 Marines under my command at Manila Bay, the city would have surrendered to me." -- Admiral George Dewey, 1909 On the other side of the world in another Spanish colony, the Philippines, Admiral George Dewey engaged and defeated the Spanish flotilla in Manila Bay on 1 May 1898. However, Dewey lacked a sufficient landing force to seize Manila immediately. The entire Corps numbered less than 5,000 in 1898, but his few Marines did secure Cavite naval base 8 miles from the city. America rallied Filipinos against the Spanish colonial government and captured the capital city in August, but the US prevented Filipino forces from entering Manila, an affront that sparked the protracted Philippine insurrection against the new American imperialists. It would take six months to deploy and establish sufficient Army forces to occupy the capital, a strategic delay that would be bemoaned by Dewey in his 1909 Congressional testimony. In December 1898, the Treaty of Paris gave the United States control of Cuba, the Philippines, Puerto Rico, and Guam.
58. MCMPR1_130210_518.JPG: Guantanamo Bay: "The enemy opened fire upon us and for an hour they kept it up.. They were scattered about the bush." -- Private Frank Keeler, letter home, 12 June 1898 In an early example of the value of sea-based expeditionary forces, a Marine battalion commanded by Civil War veteran Lieutenant Colonel Robert W. Huntington landed unopposed at Guantanamo Bay on 10 June 1898 to seize an advanced naval base in eastern Cuba. The 8,000 Spanish troops nearby rallied to resist American efforts to consolidate the position. Marines won a decisive fight on 14 June for control of Cuzco Well, the only reliable source of drinking water in the vicinity.
59. MCMPR1_130210_523.JPG: The Marines holding their Guantanamo beachhead acutely needed the fresh water at Cuzco Well, defended by the Spanish. The battle reprised the 1805 assault on Derna, Tripoli, with Marines attacking overland supported by offshore naval gunfire.
60. MCMPR1_130210_529.JPG: Cuzco Well: Two companies of Marines and about 60 Cuban guerrillas commanded by future commandant George Fielding Elliott fought Spanish regulars on 14 June 1898 for possession of Cuzco Well. The diorama captures the climax of the battle, with Sergeant John Quick signaling the naval gunfire ship Dolphin from an exposed ridge, as other Marines and their Cuban allies scrambled through thick underbrush in suffocating heat to renew their attack against the Spaniards.
61. MCMPR1_130210_543.JPG: Global Expeditions: "Where they are going isn't the Marines' concern. Their business is to be always ready to go." -- Harper's Weekly, 1912 In 1903, Captain GC Thorpe led his camel mounted Marines on a 300-mile journey through the Ethiopian wilderness in Africa to escort a diplomatic mission to Addis Ababa, the capital. The expedition succeeded in spite of its hazards, and it typified the variety of missions performed by Marines in the decades before World War I. In addition to their large scale operations in China and the Philippines, Marines suppressed a bloody uprising in Samoa in the South Pacific, arrested seal poachers in the Bering Sea, searched for survivors of a failed polar expedition in the Arctic Ocean, and provided the first troops on the ground at the catastrophic San Francisco earthquake of 1906. When small Caribbean nations like Panama, Cuba, Nicaragua, Haiti, and the Dominican Republic seemed unstable, the United States often ordered the Marines ashore to quell disorders and protect US citizens and interests.
62. MCMPR1_130210_548.JPG: 45-Star US National Color: This was the first flag raised at Guantanamo Bay, Cuba, by the Marines of LtCol Huntington's Battalion on 10 June 1898, and it accompanied them on their famous patrol to capture Cuzco Well on 14 June 1898.
63. MCMPR1_130210_559.JPG: Marine Life: Philippines, 1901: "Down mountain all day, find no trail. Cut our way with bayonets and balos. Rations running short." -- Diary of Pvt. Charles J. King, USMC, Samar, 31 December 1901 Morale plummeted among the Marines fighting Philippine guerrillas on Samar in the insurrection's fourth year. As the American public protested the brutal war, the marines struggled with Samar's incessant rain, jungle mountains, and implacable enemies. Enlisted Marines, paid about $15 per month, took comfort in small pleasures -- a dry tent, a mosquito net, a mug of coffee and chow -- after yet another exhausting patrol.
64. MCMPR1_130210_569.JPG: Philippine Insurrection: "When I came to the Philippines in 1899, I didn't think they'd keep me here till the sun had ceased to shine." -- Anonymous Marine Americans celebrated their acquisition of the Philippines in 1898 as a rightful prize for their victory over Spain, but the Filipinos saw only the exchange of one foreign imperialist to another. Soon, Filipino General Emilio Aguinaldo led a widespread insurrection for Philippine independence. Surprised and embarrassed, the United States sent soldiers and Marines to crush the rebellion. The war dragged on for years, becoming increasingly brutal in the islands and unpopular back home. The darkest hours occurred in mountainous Samar, where impatient Marines sought to avenge the insurgents' slaughter of the 9th Infantry by burning native ... [villages ???] ... declared the insurrection over when General Aguinaldo was captured in March 1902, but violence continued for many years.
65. MCMPR1_130210_574.JPG: Expeditionary Warfare: "If you want to fight! Join the Marines." -- Recruiting Poster, circa 1900 In 1900, the Corps still assigned Marine detachments to each cruiser and battleship of the fleet. Marine sea duty increasingly involved well-armed tactical units sailing to expeditionary wars. Since warships lacked space to embark larger units, the Marines asked the Navy to build troop transports with billeting spaces, deck booms, and cargo holds. The first transport designed for the Marines, the USS Henderson, was commissioned in 1916.
66. MCMPR1_130210_580.JPG: Evolution of the .45 Caliber Pistol: As a direct result of the Spanish-American War, American forces were stationed around the globe at the turn of the century, armed with their .38 caliber pistols. In the Philippines, they faced the Moros, Muslim warriors who inhabited the islands. Ferocious adversaries, the Moros continued their centuries-long struggle against Christianity by taking a holy oath against those they saw as infidels and invaders. A young woman, the wife of an American officers stationed in the Moro Province, told this story about what it meant to confront one of these warriors: "Last December, Moro attacked a captain, who fired six .38 caliber shots into him. The Moro didn't stop running for a second; he came right on, and cut the captain to pieces with his bolo and started on his way rejoicing, when a guard finally finished him with a .45 caliber bullet." The development of the .45 caliber pistol provided American forces with increased stopping power. Developed by John Browning in 1905 and adopted by the United States Ordnance Department in conjunction with the Colt-Browning automatic pistol of 1911, the .45 ACP pistol went on to serve faithfully through two world wars, Korea and Vietnam until finally replaced by the Beretta M9 pistol in 9mm caliber. Proven in combat all over the world and renowned for its lethality, the .45 caliber ACP is still used today by elite special operations forces and many law enforcement agencies.
67. MCMPR1_130210_596.JPG: The Boxer Rebellion: "The entire city [is] in the possession of a rioting, murdering mob." -- E.H. Conger, American Minister in Peking, report to U.S. Secretary of State, 15 June 1900 Marines landed in China in May 1900 to help protect western diplomats and their families from a deadly anti-foreign and anti-Christian uprising by the "Society of the Righteous Harmonious Fists," also known as the "Boxers." The international legations in Peking (Beijing) endured a harrowing 55-day siege, defended courageously by Marines and others. A large multinational relief columns battered its way into the city of Tientsin in July and then marched through hostile swarms of Chinese in a race to break the siege of Peking. Marines joined in scaling the walls of the diplomatic compound to ... beleaguered comrades. American newspapers highlighted Marine heroics during the epic siege and its relief. Built over many centuries to protect the northern Chinese city of Peking from invaders, the imposing "Tartar Wall" was 60 feet high, 40 feet wide, and provided a 25-mile barrier around the central governmental offices, including the foreign legations.
68. MCMPR1_130210_608.JPG: Defending the Peking Legation: "The excitement in the Chinese city was intense, and the shouting and cries of 'Kill! Kill!' continued until early morning." -- Captain John Twiggs Myers, USMC, Peking, China, 14 June 1900 The Boxer Rebellion culminated in Peking, where for eight weeks screaming throngs of Chinese besieged the international diplomatic community, which was confined in a hastily fortified walled compound known as the Legation Quarter. Among the foreigners, mostly Western, were 300 women and children. Alongside troops from 7 nations defending the walls of the Quarter, Captain John "Handsome Jack" Myers led US Marines at one crucial post, "the peg which holds the whole thing together," the British ambassador wrote. Said Medal of Honor recipient Private William C. Horton, "we stayed on top of that wall fighting off attacks."
69. MCMPR1_130210_613.JPG: Breaking the 55-day Siege: "Crack! A stream of blood trickled down his face. The sergeant pulled his hat down over the wound and walked right on." -- Lieutenant Smedley D. Butler, USMC, 1900 While the fleet Marines and other legation guards in Peking held on desperately against the Boxers, several nations dispatched troops to break the siege. The walled city of Tientsin blocked their advance. A Marine battalion helped storm Tientsin on 13-14 July. Another Marine battalion joined the column for the final march to Peking, enduring stifling heat and diehard Boxers all the way. Finally, on 15 August 1900, the multinational force rescued the Peking legations.
70. MCMPR1_130210_618.JPG: Well-armed, violently anti-foreigner Chinese nationals, organized as "The Society of Righteous and Harmonious Fists" (thus, the nickname "Boxers"), besieged the Marine-defended foreign legations within Peking's Tartar Wall for 55 days in 1900.
71. MCMPR1_130210_624.JPG: This Marine, a veteran of the Boxer Rebellion, was photographed sitting on a captured Chinese cannon. The Chinese attempted to keep the Marines manning the Tartar Wall under continuous artillery and rifle fire.
72. MCMPR1_130210_632.JPG: The Ordeal of Samar: "Stand, gentlemen, he served on Samar!" -- Traditional Marine toast whenever a Samar veteran entered the room The Marines on Samar defeated the insurgents in early 1902, but calamity occurred when a patrol exploring the interior became lost, an ordeal that took more lives than the battle. The 55-man patrol, bushwhacking through the wilderness, found its way blocked by sheer cliffs and torrential rivers. Native guides became mutinous, food ran out, and men began to straggle. Three weeks passed before the last survivors were rescued. By then, 10 Marines had died of starvation and exposure.
73. MCMPR1_130210_636.JPG: The Marines outflanked Moro insurgents from their cliff side fortress on the Sohoton River, but their subsequent march across mountainous Samar from Llorente to Basey left 10 men dead in the wilderness.
74. MCMPR1_130210_641.JPG: Maj. Littleton WT Waller: "I ordered the eleven men shot. I thought I was right... I believe the whole world knows that I am not a murderer." -- Major LWT Waller, during argument in his court-martial in the Philippines, 1902 Virginian "Tony" Waller was the classic Marine expeditionary warrior, a commander beloved by his troops, renowned for his bantam size and bristling moustache. In 40 years of service, Waller led exceptional campaigns in China, Panama, Cuba, Haiti, and Mexico -- a record marred only by his court-martial for executing 11 Filipinos in Samar on 20 January 1902. Waller believed that the Filipinos had conspired to murder his Marines. The court acquitted Waller, but the controversy prevented his selection for commandant of the Marine Corps in 1910.
75. MCMPR1_130210_651.JPG: Colt M1895 Machine Gun: Designed by John M Browning, the Model 1895 was the first "true" machine gun procured by the United States military. When fired, the operating lever of the weapon moved back and forth under the gun in a vertical arch. When mounted too close to the ground, the lever dug into the dirt, thus giving it the nickname, "potato digger." LtCol Robert Huntington's battalion of Marines used the Model 1895 during the Spanish American War. The battalion was in continuous action against Spanish forces at Guantanamo Bay, Cuba, from 11-14 June 1898. Originally chambered in either .30-40 or 6mm caliber, M1895 machine guns were rechambered in 1904 for the then standard M1903 ("30-03") cartridge. The weapon was then redesignated as the "Model of 1902." This example, serial number 345, bears all US Navy and arsenal "rework" markings.
76. MCMPR1_130210_657.JPG: Latin American Interventions: "At a critical moment a [guerrilla] could quickly shift his allegiance by turning his hatband inside out." -- Lieutenant Smedley Butler, Honduras, 1903 Political turmoil threatened several Latin American countries in the early years of the 20th century. The US government, unable to maintain regional stability by diplomacy, resorted to armed interventions by Marine landing parties to protect American interests, disarm insurgents, and train national police forces. Although usually short and one-sided, the campaigns proved frustrating for the Marines. Finding and identifying elusive guerrillas was often more difficult than fighting them. Military success rarely led to long-term political reform ... Marines would face the same trials at the same sites in future years.
77. MCMPR1_130210_662.JPG: Panama: "I took the Canal Zone and let Congress debate, and while the debate goes on, the Canal does also." -- President Theodore Roosevelt, 23 March 1911 America's strategic need for a canal across the narrow waist of Central America became evident during the Spanish-American War when the battleship Oregon took 66 days to steam 13,000 miles from California around Cape Horn to Key West, Florida. Roosevelt ordered the Marines ashore in late 1903 to support Panama's revolt against Colombia -- and to strengthen his bald-faced demand for a 6-mile-wide US swath across the isthmus. The US-built Panama Canal opened in 1914.
78. MCMPR1_130210_667.JPG: Cuba: "We will send ships and Marines as soon as possible for the protection of American life and property." -- President Theodore Roosevelt, 12 September 1906 The 1901 Platt Amendment authorized the President to intervene in Cuba as needed to preserve "stability." Cuba's constitutional government suffered the usual trials of a new democracy, including civil uprisings by armed and aggrieved rebels. When American mediation efforts failed in 1906, President Roosevelt sent 3,000 Marines ashore to keep peace, disarm the rebels, and supervise elections. The intervention was bloodless, but it lasted 16 years.
79. MCMPR1_130210_682.JPG: Nicaragua: "We aren't making war on you people. We don't even want to pick a quarrel... We are simply opening the railroad." -- Lieutenant EH Conger, to a bastile Managua crowd, August 1912 Marine detachments had landed in Nicaragua seven times before 1910. A revolution in 1912 sent them back ashore in greater strength, marking the beginning of extended involvement in Nicaraguan affairs. Operations centered on the rail line from Corinto to Managua and Granada. Marines used their light artillery and a spirited infantry charge to rout an 800-man rebel force fortified above the railroad on Coyotepe Hill on 4 October.
80. MCMPR1_130210_688.JPG: The fleet landed U.S. Marines on both coasts of Nicaragua during political upheavals in 1909-12 to protect American interests and safeguard the railroad line between Corinto and Granada.
81. MCMPR1_130210_692.JPG: Mexico: "It was a hot fight while it lasted." -- Major Albertus W. Catlin, Vera Cruz, 1914 Marines enhanced their "First to Fight" credo in 1914 when President Wilson ordered landings in Vera Cruz, Mexico, to punish insults against the American flag and to block German arms shipments. A brigade of Marines and sailors swarmed ashore on 21 April. Mexican irregulars and naval academy staff and cadets resisted fiercely, and many died. The President, shocked by the casualties, halted the American advance and invited mediation by Argentina, Brazil, and Chile.
82. MCMPR1_130210_697.JPG: Although the Marines landed unopposed at Vera Cruz, the bloody door-to-door fighting that ensued was an omen of future urban horrors the Marines would face at Bouresches (1918), Seoul (1950), Hue City (1968), and Fallujah (2004).
83. MCMPR1_130210_709.JPG: Haiti: "One hundred and twenty Marines were detailed to officer a force of twenty-six hundred Haitians." -- Major Smedley D. Butler, Haiti, 1915 When bloody revolutions brought Haiti to the verge of collapse in 1914, President Wilson sent Marines to restore order. Major Smedley Butler's men won a decisive victory by storming the thick walls of Fort Riviere, the rebel stronghold, in November 1915. The locally recruited Gendarmerie d'Haiti, trained and led by Marines, helped stabilize the strife-torn country, although incurring the wrath of those opposing the regime in power.
84. MCMPR1_130210_714.JPG: The Marines landed in Haiti and the Dominican Republic during 1914-16 to protect American interests, train national police forces, and fight pitched battles against insurgents at Fort Riviere, Las Trencheras, and Guayacanas.
85. MCMPR1_130210_720.JPG: Dominican Republic: "House by house, block by block, we combed Santo Domingo City clear to the beach. Not a shot was fired." -- Captain Frederick M. Wise, 4th Marine Regiment, 1916 Civil war in the Dominican Republic in 1916 prompted US intervention. Marines landed on 5 May and fought their way inland, transporting their supplies by mule carts and a commandeered railroad train. Colonel Joseph Pendleton's 5th Marine Regiment converged on the deserted capital, then captured Santiago, ending the rebellion for the moment. Recurring uprising kept the Marines on hand for the next decade, primarily training a national security force, the Guardia Nacional.
86. MCMPR1_130210_725.JPG: This 1916 illustration by Donald Dickson depicts Marines landing under fire at Santo Domingo. Marines would remain in the Dominican Republic until September 1924.
87. MCMPR1_130210_731.JPG: Early Combined Arms: The Marines augmented their traditional light infantry forces with infantry, armored vehicles, and aircraft to fight 20th century foes. For their first 125 years, the Marines operated as sea-based light infantry -- small landing parties of riflemen who splashed ashore under the protective guns of the fleet. By 1900, however, the new long-range high-velocity weapons available to potential enemies and the increasing use of Marines in extended combat operations ashore beyond the range of naval guns mandated greater firepower and mobility for the Leathernecks. Developing a combined arms landing force took years. The Marines had earned their "First to Fight" reputation by swiftly boarding ships while carrying little more than their rifles and toothbrushes. Trying to squeeze field guns, armored vehicles, and "aeroplanes" into the limited cargo space available in a typical warship proved frustrating. Yet, by 1916, the Marines had acquired the components of a primitive but deployable combined arms force of light artillery, tactical vehicles, and bi-planes.
88. MCMPR1_130210_760.JPG: Smooth-bore and Rifled Muskets: Into the mid-19th century, smooth-bore muskets were standard. Gunmakers had long experimented with cutting spiral grooves on the inside of the barrel, causing the projectile to spin upon leaving the muzzle, achieving greater range and better accuracy. By the late 1850s, cannons and small arms were being developed with grooves cut into their barrels. These weapons were classified as rifles. Rifling is described by the twist rate, the distance the bullet must travel to complete one full revolution. Spaces cut out of the barrel are called grooves; the ridges are lands.
89. MCMPR2_130210_001.JPG: 1775-1865: The Civil War
90. MCMPR2_130210_003.JPG: The Civil War: "A ship without Marines is no ship of war at all." -- Admiral David Dixon Porter, US Navy, 1864 When America's national tragedy wrenched the country apart, it also splintered the Marine Corps. Many veteran officers resigned to fight for the Confederacy. The marines who remained loyal to the Union performed valiantly at sea and ashore, but, at 3,300 officers and men, the Corps was very small when compared to naval strength and US Army enlistments. At least 620,000 Americans perished during the Civil War. Of the total, 148 were US Marines and about 50 were Confederate Marines. Fifteen US Marine noncommissioned officers and two privates received the newly created Medal of Honor for valorous behavior during the war. Eight were foreign-born (give from Ireland); ages ranged from 19 to 53; and all but three of the awards resulted from conspicuous bravery under fire during the Mobile Bay and Fort Fisher campaigns.
91. MCMPR2_130210_009.JPG: John Brown's Body: "Send all the available Marines at Head Quarters... to Harper's Ferry... which is endangered by a riotous outbreak." -- Secretary of the Navy Isaac Toucey to Colonel Commandant John Harris, 17 October 1859 John Brown, an abolitionist, hoped to trigger a slave uprising when he led 18 armed raiders into the Federal arsenal at Harpers Ferry, Virginia, on 16 October 1859 and seized local hostages. Responding to urgent orders, Colonel Harris dispatched 86 Marines by train from Washington under Lieutenant Israel Greene, USMC. Greene and Army Lieutenant JEB Stuart led a storming party into a fortified building, freeing 13 civilian hostages and killing or capturing the insurrectionists. John Brown, struck down by Greene's sword, was later executed, but his uprising inspired Northern antislavery support, widening the gulf between Yankees and Southerners.
92. MCMPR2_130210_015.JPG: Sledgehammer Used at Harpers Ferry: The heavy wooden doors of the Engine House proved difficult for the Marines to breach. Under the command of Col. Robert E. Lee, USA, and led by Lt. Israel Greene, USMC, three Marines wielding sledgehammers unsuccessfully attempted to break through the doors. A second group, armed with a ladder, created a small opening through which the Marines entered the building. This sledgehammer head if one of the three used by the Marines on 18 October 1859.
93. MCMPR2_130210_025.JPG: Marines at Harpers Ferry: In October 1859, the abolitionist John Brown sought to incite a slave uprising by seizing weapons and hostages from the Harpers Ferry arsenal. The rapid deployment of Lieutenant Israel Greene and his Marines from the Washington Barracks provided an immediate storming party. Charging the building under fire with a battering ram, the Marines cut down the defenders and rescued the hostages unharmed. Few Marine operations in the ensuring Civil War were as professionally executed.
94. MCMPR2_130210_073.JPG: First Marine Medal of Honor: "I cannot understand how any of you escaped alive." -- President Abraham Lincoln, inspecting the battle-damaged Galena A powerful Union naval force led by ironclads Monitor and Galena steamed up the James River toward Richmond, Virginia, on 11 May 1862, until halted by obstructions beneath Drewry's Bluff. Plunging fire from enemy guns atop the bluff battered Galena mercilessly. Confederate soldiers and Marines poured musketry into her ports. "Blood flowed on her decks like water," reported Corporal John F. Mackie, USMC, who rallied the stunned survivors and kept the ship's guns in action. The Confederate defense, which saved their capital, marked the war's most notable fight between opposing Marines. Corporal Mackie, a 26-year-old silversmith from New York City, received the Medal of Honor from President Abraham Lincoln, becoming the first US Marine to be awarded the nation's highest award for valor.
95. MCMPR2_130210_078.JPG: When Confederate fire raked Galena's deck on 11 May 1862, killing and wounding many Marines and sailors, Cpl John Mackie fearlessly maintained fire against the enemy. He became the first Marine to be awarded the Medal of Honor.
96. MCMPR2_130210_086.JPG: Based on a drawing by C Parsons, this engraving depicts the ironclad warships Monitor and Galena in action on the James River in Virginia. Both ships were commissioned to meet the threat of the Confederate ironclad CSS Virginia.
97. MCMPR2_130210_089.JPG: The USS Galena is depicted engaging Confederates at Fort Darling on Drewry's Bluff, VA, on 15 May 1862. The engagement was the most notable battle between US Marines and Confederate States Marines.
98. MCMPR2_130210_094.JPG: Galena's port side is seen in this photograph taken shortly after engaging the Confederate batteries at Drewry's Bluff. Raked by fire, she was badly damaged. Note the hole near the waterline.
99. MCMPR2_130210_099.JPG: The 950-ton ironclad Galena, commissioned in April 1862, was the second armored warship put into service by the US Navy. This engraving, published in Harper's Weekly in 1862, depicts Galena's gun deck.
100. MCMPR2_130210_103.JPG: The Galena was commissioned in April 1862. The second of three armored warships, she steamed up Virginia's James River as part of a drive to take the Confederate capital city of Richmond.
101. MCMPR2_130210_123.JPG: Confederate Marines: "The battalion of Marines in the battle of sailor's Creek... fought like tigers and against odds of at least ten to one." -- Captain Daniel B. Sanford, Phillips' Georgia Legion, Army of Northern Virginia Most Marines of Southern origin joined the Confederacy as their states seceded from the Union. Among them were several Marines who had distinguished themselves in the Mexican War, including one of former Commandant Archibald Henderson's sons. Lieutenant Israel Greene of Harpers Ferry renown became adjutant of the Confederate States Marine Corps. The Confederate Marines probably never mustered more than 600 men at any one time. They served aboard ships in the war's famed naval fights, defended the James River below Richmond, and made a desperate last stand as an infantry rear-guard at Sailor's Creek in Virginia just before General Robert E. Lee surrendered at Appomattox in April 1865.
102. MCMPR2_130210_127.JPG: Marine Weapons: Marines in the Civil War fought with firearms and edged weapons procured from the Army and Navy. Enlisted Marines gave good accounts of themselves with the reliable US Model 1861 Springfield .58 caliber rifled musket. Some seagoing Marines favored the .52 caliber Sharps breech-loading rifle, often coating the barrel with tin to reduce saltwater corrosion. Many Marine officers carried the Model 1851 .36 caliber Navy Colt revolver. During the Civil War, Marine officers gave up their traditional Mameluke swords and, along with the noncommissioned officers (NCOs), adopted the sturdier M1859 Army saber. When the officers reverted back to the Mamelukes in 1875, the NCOs retained the Army sword for their own. Both swords remain in the service today.
103. MCMPR2_130210_133.JPG: Lt. Alan Ramsey was with the Marine battalion at Bull Run and later commanded the Marine detachment aboard the USS Richmond. In November 1863, he traveled with President Abraham Lincoln to Gettysburg.
104. MCMPR2_130210_137.JPG: First Battle of Manassas: "We faced them on the left of the battery, and when about fifty yards from it, our men fell like hailstones." -- Private William Barrett, USMC, Manassas battlefield The first great battle of America's bloody Civil War also proved to be the only major land engagement fought by US Marines during that war. Major John Reynolds led a 350-man Marine battalion with the Union army southwest from Washington, DC, toward Manassas, Virginia, on 16 July 1861. Five days later, the Marines fought desperately near the crest of Henry House Hill, where TJ Jackson earned his renowned nickname of "Stonewall." When inexperienced Confederates finally overwhelmed inexperienced Northerners, the Marines joined a ragged retreat toward Washington. They left behind 44 casualties, nearly half of them becoming prisoners.
105. MCMPR2_130210_141.JPG: Maj. John Reynolds, a veteran of the Mexican War, commanded the Marine battalion during the First Battle of Manassas. Only Reynolds and three other officers had combat experience.
106. MCMPR2_130210_145.JPG: Jacob Zeilin: "Concluded to retire the marine officers who are past the legal age, and to bring in Zeilin as commandant of the Corps." -- Secretary of the Navy Gideon Welles, diary entry, 9 June 1864 When Commandant John Harris died in 1864, Major Jacob Zeilin stood 4th in seniority in the Corps. His stellar field record included combat leadership in the Mexican War; senior Marine with Commodore Perry during the 1853 expedition to Japan; and command of a rifle company at First Manassas, where he was wounded and left for dead. Unseemly feuding among the higher ranking officers gave Zeilin the chance to become the 7th commandant of the Marine Corps. He served in this post for 12 years.
107. MCMPR2_130210_151.JPG: Civil War Marines Corps Colors: Maj. John Reynolds' Marine Battalion reportedly carried this flag at the First Battle of Manassas, 21 July 1861. The battalion, comprised primarily of raw recruits with three weeks' service, suffered the same fate as the rest of the Federal army in their defeat by the Confederate Army.
108. MCMPR2_130210_158.JPG: Command and Communications: "If officers desire to have control over their commands, they must remain habitually with them, industriously attend to their instruction and comfort, and it battle lead them well." -- Lieutenant General Thomas J "Stonewall" Jackson, CSA, November 1861 During the Civil War, command and communications were carried out primarily through the personal presence of officers and noncommissioned officers. This required that they be immediately identifiable to the men under their command, using unique uniforms and distinctive badges of military rank. Due to a lack of standardized message formats, clarity was often lacking in either direct orders or instructional messages. Communications were especially difficult during land or sea battles, where noise frequently drowned out virtually every verbal order. Orders to maneuver units and individual Marines were limited to voice commands, gestures, and written messages distributed by couriers and prearranged signals using bugles, fifes and drums, and boarding or battle rattles. Longer range communications from battlefields and ships used signal flags, flares, torches, non-reflecting heliographs, and telegraphs. Rubber-coated twisted metal wire land lines, introduced in 1862, provided new means of point-to-point communications.
109. MCMPR2_130210_164.JPG: Non-commissioned Officers: "Andrew Miller, Sergeant of Marines, is recommended for coolness and good conduct as captain of a gun in.. actin in Mobile Bay." -- Medal of Honor nomination, submitted by Captain Thomas A. Jenkins, USN, commanding USS Richmond, 1864 The US Marine Corps survived the lackluster performance of many of its own Civil War-era officers, mainly on the strength of their noncommissioned officers (NCOs). Former commandant Archibald Henderson's insistence on professional training and high standards for NCOs produced young sergeants capable of assuming command of Marine detachments aboard smaller warships in the absence of officers. NCOs did not rate the customary privileges of lieutenants, but they led their detachments with disciplined authority and were fully accountable to the ships' commanding officers. Many served with distinction.
110. MCMPR2_130210_172.JPG: The Battle of New Orleans: "We have had one of the greatest Battles on record... It was one of the grandest sights ever witnessed." -- Private George Riddell, USMC, USS Clifton, letter home, 1 May 1862 Marines manning the ships of Captain David Farragut's fleet played a role in capturing New Orleans and seizing control of the mouth of the Mississippi River. On 24 April 1862, Farragut's warships dashed past powerful Confederate forts below the city, then fought off Southern gunboats in a short-range slugfest. Marine sergeants commanded detachments on board six men-of-war during the battle. Captain John L Broome, USMC, raised the Union flag over New Orleans.
111. MCMPR2_130210_177.JPG: USS Kearsarge versus CSS Alabama: "We had closed to about 500 yards when the ships were broadside to broadside and then it was give and take." -- Corporal Austin Quimby, USMC, USS Kearsarge, 19 June 1864 The USS Kearsarge, commissioned in 1862 with a complement of 163 sailors and 12 Marines, won the most memorable open-seas engagement of the Civil War. On 19 June 1864, Kearsarge cornered the infamous Confederate commerce raider Alabama, which had seized 65 ships around the world under Captain Raphael Semmes. Marines manning a forecastle pivot gun during the hour-long action about 10 miles off Cherbourg, France, helped to sink the famous rebel corsair.
112. MCMPR2_130210_183.JPG: Amphibious Warfare: "I found it quite impossible to get all my boats together... It was very dark near the fort, and there was great confusion." -- Captain Charles G. McCawley, USMC, Fort Sumter, 9 September 1863 The US Marines had launched hundreds of landing prior to the 1860s, yet the Army made most of the amphibious assaults against Confederate ports and rivers in the Civil War. The Marines, struggling to provide detachment to every major warship, rarely had the numbers to field a landing party. Bad luck prevailed. A Cape Hatteras storm sank the Marines' troopship en route to a South Carolina landing in 1861. Subsequent assaults against Forts Sumter and Fisher went badly. In fact, it would take the Marines 70 more years before they could acquire the capability to attack heavily fortified positions from the sea.
113. MCMPR2_130210_187.JPG: Amphibious Misfortunes: "On the 15th... about 11 o'clock, we landed, some with dry feet, some with wet feet, and some wet all over." -- Sergeant Richard Binder, UMC, Medal of Honor recipient, Fort Fisher, 1865 Marines made the first major strongly opposed amphibious landings in Corps history at Fort Sumter, South Carolina, on the night of 8-9 September 1863 and at Fort Fisher, North Carolina, on 14-15 January 1865. Although individual Marines displayed exemplary daring, both ill-conceived assaults failed badly and at high cost, leaving opposed landings in disrepute for decades to come. Four Marine noncommissioned officers and two privates received the Medal of Honor for valor at Fort Fisher.
114. MCMPR2_130210_193.JPG: The Battle of Mobile Bay: "How close the fighting was, when men could kill or wound each other through the port-holes of each vessel." -- Surgeon Daniel B. Conrad, Confederate States Navy, CSS Tennessee Admiral David Farragut sailed his squadron into Mobile Bay, Alabama, on 5 August 1864, fighting past Confederate defenses and plowing through minefields ("torpedoes" they were called). Marines under Captain Charles Heywood delivered hot fire from two guns on Farragut's flagship. Other Marines on the USS Lackawanna exchanged point-blank rifle and pistol fire with Confederate Marines on the ironclad ram Tennessee. Eight US Marine non-commissioned officers received the Medal of Honor in this Union victory.
115. MCMPR2_130210_198.JPG: Amphibious Artillery: "My men suffer from the musketry fire and the bricks, hand grenades and fireballs thrown from the parapet." -- Lieutenant Robert L. Meade, USMC, describing the night attack on Fort Sumter, September 1863 The Marines assaults Forts Sumter and Fischer with rifles and bayonets, inadequate weapons against fortifications. Fleet bombardment at Fort Fisher helped the landing force get ashore but had to cease as the troops neared the fort, leaving the attackers terribly exposed. The Marines hoped the Navy's small "boat howitzers" could solve future firepower gaps, but wrestling the wheeled weapons ashore from beached boats proved hazardous in high surf or enemy fire.
116. MCMPR2_130210_203.JPG: Marines and sailors advanced through heavy Confederate fire to the palisade at Fort Fisher. As they rounded the fenced fortification, a heavy volley of musket fire slammed into the Union troops.
117. MCMPR2_130210_207.JPG: 1775-1865: We, The Marines: First Post of the Marines: On 31 March 1801, Lieutenant Colonel Commandant William Burrows and President Thomas Jefferson spent "all... morning... looking for a proper place to fix the Marine Barracks on>" The chosen site, at the corner of 8th and I Streets in southeast Washington DC is today the oldest continuously occupied military post in the country. Enlisted Pay: Marines mustered as privates in 1775 and received $6.67 per month for their service. In 1798, a private's monthly pay sank to $6, remaining so for many decades. Corporals received $8 in 1798; sergeants were paid $9; and the major commandant earned $50. In 1843, with privates still drawing $6, the sergeant major of the Corps received $17 per month. Officers and Enlisted: 1775-1865: Modest strengths through the first 90 years scarcely forecast the large forces to come. Continental Marines numbers about 2,000 during the Revolution, but only 368 Marines stood to the colors in 1803. Thereafter, Corps strength fluctuated within a narrow range: 1812 -- 1,331 1820 -- 922 1836 -- 1,144 1965 -- 3,255
118. MCMPR2_130210_220.JPG: "I am still alive, what little is left of me, and that is not much." -- Sgt. Richard Binder, USMC, Medal of Honor, Fort Fisher, 1864
119. MCMPR2_130210_234.JPG: With Lincoln at Gettysburg: "In [Lincoln's] simple wisdom and eloquence, something had been said which would live forever." -- First Lieutenant Henry Clay Cochrane, USMC No Marines fought in the cataclysmic July 1863 battle at Gettysburg, Pennsylvania, but Lieutenant Henry Clay Cochrane, USMC, accompanied Abraham Lincoln to the site in November, as a member of the official party when they President delivered his renowned Gettysburg Address. Cochrane rode with Lincoln in the presidential railcar from Washington DC, to Gettysburg and sat near the podium as Lincoln delivered his remarks. The Marine Band, under Francis M. Scala, played aboard the President's train, in the procession that marched through town on 19 November, and during the ceremony to the cemetery.
120. MCMPR2_130210_240.JPG: "I am still alive, what little is left of me, and that is not much." -- Sgt. Richard Binder, USMC, Medal of Honor, Fort Fisher, 1864
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- 2006_VA_MCM_Pre: VA -- Quantico -- National Museum of the Marine Corps (pre-World War I) (3 photos from 2006)
- 2007_VA_MCM_Pre: VA -- Quantico -- National Museum of the Marine Corps (pre-World War I) (4 photos from 2007)
- 2010_VA_MCM_Pre: VA -- Quantico -- National Museum of the Marine Corps (pre-World War I) (88 photos from 2010)
Generally-Related Subject: VA -- Quantico -- National Museum of the Marine Corps
Generally-Related Subject Description: The National Museum of the Marine Corps is a lasting tribute to U.S. Marines -- past, present, and future. Situated on a 135-acre site adjacent to the Marine Corps base in Quantico, Virginia, the Museum's soaring design evokes the image of the flag-raisers of Iwo Jima and beckons visitors to its 118,000-square-foot structure. World-class interactive exhibits using the most innovative technology will surround visitors with irreplaceable artifacts and immerse them in the sights and sounds of Marines in action.

Collections of the National Museum of the Marine Corps:

The collections held in trust at the National Museum of the Marine Corps document over 230 years of Marine Corps history. The mission of the Museum is to collect and preserve in perpetuity, artifacts that reflect and chronicle the history of the Corps. The more than 60,000 uniforms, weapons, vehicles, medals, flags, aircraft, works of art and other artifacts in the Museum’s collections trace the history of the Marine Corps from 1775 to the present.

The Museum’s holdings, which range from combat aircraft to individual Civil War era blouse buttons, are divided into four broad categories: ordnance, uniforms and heraldry, aviation, and art. Some of the more unusual items in the care of the Museum include a coat worn by Marine Captain Levi Twiggs during his service in the Indian Wars, a presentation baton given to John Philip Sousa on his departure as director of the Marine Corps Band, and an Oscar awarded to the Marine Corps for the World War II documentary “Tarawa.” Perhaps the most symbolically important artifact in the Museum’s collection is the second American flag raised over Iwo Jima’s Mount Suribachi. Associated Press combat photographer Joe Rosenthal’s image of the raising of this flag became one of the most iconic images of World War II and the inspiration for the Marine Corps War Memorial in Washington, D.C.

The Museum collects artifacts selectively and responsively – accepting o ...More...
Generally-Related Subject Pages: Other pages here that have content somewhat related to this one:
- 2010_VA_MCM_Chapel: VA -- Quantico -- National Museum of the Marine Corps (Chapel and area) (22 photos from 2010)
- 2006_VA_MCM_KWar: VA -- Quantico -- National Museum of the Marine Corps (Korean War Gallery) (29 photos from 2006)
- 2007_VA_MCM_KWar: VA -- Quantico -- National Museum of the Marine Corps (Korean War Gallery) (18 photos from 2007)
- 2010_VA_MCM_KWar: VA -- Quantico -- National Museum of the Marine Corps (Korean War Gallery) (23 photos from 2010)
- 2013_02_10J_MCM_KWar: VA -- Quantico -- National Museum of the Marine Corps (Korean War Gallery) (34 photos from 02/10/2013)
- 2006_VA_MCM_Misc: VA -- Quantico -- National Museum of the Marine Corps (misc) (38 photos from 2006)
- 2007_VA_MCM_Misc: VA -- Quantico -- National Museum of the Marine Corps (misc) (26 photos from 2007)
- 2010_VA_MCM_Misc: VA -- Quantico -- National Museum of the Marine Corps (misc) (36 photos from 2010)
- 2013_02_10C_MCM_Misc: VA -- Quantico -- National Museum of the Marine Corps (misc) (48 photos from 02/10/2013)
- 2006_VA_MCM_Atrium: VA -- Quantico -- National Museum of the Marine Corps (outside and Leatherneck Gallery) (57 photos from 2006)
- ...More (25 total)...
Same Subject: Click on this link to see coverage of items having the same subject: [Military] [Museums (History)]
2013 photos: So far, I'm mostly using my Fuji XS-1 camera but, depending on the event, I'm also using a Nikon D7000 and Nikon D600. Trips this year have been limited to a Civil War Trust conference in Memphis.
Photo Contact: Email Bruce Guthrie.