BGuthrie Photos: VA -- Quantico -- Natl Museum of the Marine Corps -- Gallery: Defending the New Republic (1775-1865) (except Civil War)

VA -- Quantico -- Natl Museum of the Marine Corps -- Gallery: Defending the New Republic (1775-1865) (except Civil War):

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Specific picture descriptions: Photos above with "i" icons next to the bracketed sequence numbers (e.g. "[1] ") are described as follows:
1. MCM177_130210_027.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."
2. MCM177_130210_032.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
3. MCM177_130210_038.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.
4. MCM177_130210_043.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.
5. MCM177_130210_049.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.
6. MCM177_130210_055.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.
7. MCM177_130210_061.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.
8. MCM177_130210_072.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.
9. MCM177_130210_105.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.
10. MCM177_130210_117.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.
11. MCM177_130210_123.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.
12. MCM177_130210_133.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.
13. MCM177_130210_137.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.
14. MCM177_130210_150.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.
15. MCM177_130210_155.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.
16. MCM177_130210_164.JPG: On the Sea
17. MCM177_130210_169.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.
18. MCM177_130210_175.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.
19. MCM177_130210_183.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.
20. MCM177_130210_191.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.
21. MCM177_130210_219.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.
22. MCM177_130210_223.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.
23. MCM177_130210_228.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."
24. MCM177_130210_234.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.
25. MCM177_130210_240.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.
26. MCM177_130210_249.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.
27. MCM177_130210_257.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.
28. MCM177_130210_263.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.
29. MCM177_130210_269.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.
30. MCM177_130210_274.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.
31. MCM177_130210_280.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.
32. MCM177_130210_287.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.
33. MCM177_130210_292.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.
34. MCM177_130210_297.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.
35. MCM177_130210_303.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.
36. MCM177_130210_314.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.
37. MCM177_130210_319.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.
38. MCM177_130210_325.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.
39. MCM177_130210_346.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.
40. MCM177_130210_350.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.
41. MCM177_130210_354.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.
42. MCM177_130210_360.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."
43. MCM177_130210_406.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.
44. MCM177_131221_001.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. MCM177_131221_009.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.
46. MCM177_131221_023.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.
47. MCM177_131221_038.JPG: "We the People of the United States, in Order to form a more perfect Union, establish Justice, insure domestic Tranquility, provide for the common defence, 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
48. MCM177_131221_066.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.
49. MCM177_131221_075.JPG: This drawing by Marine Corps artist Arman Manookian portrays O'Bannon on camelback. In the march across the Libyan desert, O'Bannon and his Marines were joined by soldiers of fortune from several nations and Bedouin camel drivers.
50. MCM177_131221_079.JPG: The coordinated assault by Navy gunboats, Marine infantry, and allied forces in the seizure of the seaport and Derna did not end the Barbary War, but the tactical victory gave promise of future expeditionary competence.
51. MCM177_131221_091.JPG: 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.
52. MCM177_131221_094.JPG: On 3 August 1804, a US squadron of ships bombarded the forts at Tripoli Harbor. Four gunboats, under the command of Capt Stephen Decatur, attacked 11 Tripolitan boats and captured 3 in close-quarter fighting. The state of Tripoli is now the North African country of Libya. Its capital of Tripoli is located on the shores of the Mediterranean Sea.
53. MCM177_131221_104.JPG: 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.
54. MCM177_131221_107.JPG: This painting by Col Charles Waterhouse depicts the August 1804 naval bombardment of the forts guarding Tripoli Harbor by the US Squadron. Note the Marines who manned the 24-pounder long guns.
55. MCM177_131221_118.JPG: The leadership of Lt Presley O'Bannon was crucial in holding together a multinational fighting force plagued by internal dissensions and short rations, as well as terrain and weather. He successfully led the assault on Derna's outer fortifications.
56. MCM177_131221_122.JPG: "Board 'em! Board 'em!" -- Marine battle cry, Bladensburg, 1814
57. MCM177_131221_128.JPG: On 8 January 1815, the 93d Sutherland Highlanders attacked the American lines near Rodriguez Canal, five miles from the city of New Orleans. Artist Charles Waterhouse depicted Marines thwarting the attack.
58. MCM177_131221_131.JPG: On 8 January 1815, during the battle for New Orleans, Cap Daniel Carmick's Marines helped repeal a British assault on Gen Andrew Jackson's line along the Rodriguez Canal. Participation in the battle added more luster to the reputation of the Corps.
59. MCM177_131221_135.JPG: 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.
60. MCM177_131221_171.JPG: Marine Corps Flag, 1840s: The citizens of Washington DC presented this earliest flag to be designed for the Marine Corps to Commandant Archibald Henderson after the Mexican War. The silk flag was painted by Joseph Bush of Boston and is emblazoned with a version of the famous motto "From Tripoli to the Halls of Montezuma."
61. MCM177_131221_176.JPG: Neither a hereditary nor elected chief, Osceola fiercely rejected the forced emigration of the Seminoles from the Florida swamps to lands west of the Mississippi. He led the Seminoles until his capture in 1837.
62. MCM177_131221_187.JPG: On 12 April 1836, Seminole Indians attacked a blockhouse along Florida's Withlacoochee River. Although better known for their hit-and-run and ambush tactics, the Seminoles surrounded the blockhouse for 45 days.
63. MCM177_131221_190.JPG: Marines in the Seminole War Florida 1836-1842
64. MCM177_131221_207.JPG: Marines with Navy Exploring Expeditions 1826-1855
65. MCM177_131221_211.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.
66. MCM177_131221_224.JPG: Marines of Company C, under Capt George Terrett, outflanked Mexican artillery, pursued the enemy toward Mexico City, and repulsed a counterattack by lancers.
67. MCM177_131221_239.JPG: U.S. artillery pounded the Mexican stronghold of Chapultepec prior to the attack on the morning of 13 September 1847. Gen. John A. Quitman led his division, including Marines, from the south, cutting off reinforcements to the castle.
68. MCM177_131221_242.JPG: Artist Tom Lovell depicted Gen John A. Quitman leading his army into Mexico City. The Marine battalion, shown behind Quitman, suffered 58 casualties in the fighting, including 11 killed in action.
69. MCM177_131221_256.JPG: Gulf of Mexico Landing Operations 1846-1847
70. MCM177_131221_260.JPG: Marines under the command of Capt Alvin Edson moved toward an undefended beach south of the Mexican city of Vera Cruz. The city capitulated on 29 March 1847.
71. MCM177_131221_264.JPG: In this watercolor by William H. Meyers depicting the battle for Santa Clara, Marines can clearly be identified. Lt. Robert Tansil is seen in the forefront. Capt Ward Marston is pictured on the left, mounted on a black horse.
72. MCM177_131221_267.JPG: William H. Meyers, an artist and gunner aboard the USS Dale, was an eyewitness to the battle of San Pasqual on 6 December 1846. Marine Lt Archibald Gillespie, although wounded, helped drive off enemy forces.
73. MCM177_131221_280.JPG: This pencil drawing was the work of Alfred T. Agate, who served with the Wilkes Expedition. It depicts Tahitian women beating tapa cloth, a traditional fabric made from the paper mulberry tree.
74. MCM177_131221_284.JPG: 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.
75. MCM177_131221_287.JPG: German-born artist W. Heine Brown, a member of Perry's expedition to Japan, depicted the troops at Yokohama in parade formation in Landing of Commodore Perry, Yohu-hama (Yokohama), Japan, March 8, 1854. Note the Marines on the right side of the painting.
76. MCM177_131221_291.JPG: Lt Wilkes hoped to confirm the existence of an Antarctic continent during his expedition. On 16 January 1840, the Peacock, Vincennes, and Porpoise each reported that land was clearly visible.
77. MCM177_131221_296.JPG: In 1839, the Wilkes Expedition arrived in Australia. Alfred Agate traveled to Lake Macquarie to document aboriginal culture. There he painted Shingleman Yan.
78. MCM177_131221_307.JPG: The USS Vincennes, commissioned in 1826, became the first US naval vessel to circumnavigate the globe. Subsequently decommissioned, she was refitted and named flagship of the Wilkes Expedition in 1836.
79. MCM177_131221_311.JPG: Staff Sergeant Tom Lovell General Quitman and Marines Enter Mexico City, 1847
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Description of Subject Matter: Defending the New Republic
1775-1865
The Continental Congress authorized the establishment of 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. It is here that visitors begin their journey with the Marine Corps: from their humble beginnings in a tavern during the American Revolution on through the long years of a Nation divided by civil war.
In early 1776, Marines aboard Navy ships sailed to the Bahamas in search of supplies and munitions.�Once in the Bahamas, Captain Nicholas led 234 Marines in the Marine Corps’ first amphibious landing. 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—on the shores of�Tripoli—in the early 19th century.
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. In the 1840s during the Mexican War, Marine detachments executed a series of landings on both coasts and fought all the way to the “Halls of Montezuma,” Mexico City.
When the Civil War—America’s national tragedy—wrenched the country apart in the 1860s, it also�splintered the Marine Corps. Visitors explore the Civil War through the eyes of both Union and�Confederate Marines, understand the importance of noncommissioned officers, and conclude with the�story of one Marine who accompanied President Abraham Lincoln to Gettysburg where Lincoln�delivered his memorable address.

After their first 90 years of service, and never more than 4,000 strong, Marines won distinction fighting�their Country’s battles both at home and abroad ...More...
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2013 photos: Equipment this year: I mostly used my Fuji XS-1 camera but, depending on the event, I also used a Nikon D7000 and Nikon D600. Trips this year: three Civil War Trust conferences (Memphis, TN, Jackson, MS [to which I added a week to to visit sites in Mississippi, Louisiana, and Tennessee], and Richmond, VA), and my 8th consecutive San Diego Comic-Con trip (including sites in Nevada and California). Ego Strokes: Aviva Kempner used my photo of her as her author photo in Larry Ruttman's "American Jews & America's Game: Voices of a Growing Legacy in Baseball" book. Number of photos taken this year: just over 570,000.
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