A Journal of the American Civil War: V2-3

By Theodore P. Savas

Balanced and in-depth military coverage (all theaters, North and South) in a non-partisan format with detailed notes, offering meaty, in-depth articles, original maps, photos, columns, book reviews, and indexes.

CW-Era Marine Corps – Dahlgren’s Marine Battalions to Carolina – Parsons’ Texas Cavalry chasing Banks – Final March to Appomattox, eyewitness account, 12th VA Infantry

• Language: English
• Publisher: Savas Publishing
• Release date: Dec 31, 2021
• ISBN: 9781954547216

Book preview

Some Notes on the Civil War-Era Marine Corps

Jeffrey T. Ryan

¹

When the first shots were fired on Fort Sumter in April of 1861, the United States Marine Corps numbered fewer than 1,900 men.² The largest concentration of Marines was at the Washington Barracks at Eighth and I Streets, adjacent to the Washington Navy Yard in the nation's capital. In addition to the tiny headquarters staff of the Corps, 283 Marines were stationed there, along with a 55-man guard at the yard itself. Brooklyn Barracks had 78 marines; Charles-town Barracks, at Boston, another 133; and Philadelphia, 84. There was a small contingent of 30 men at Portsmouth, New Hampshire. Some were on receiving ships and the remainder were stationed as ships' guards throughout the Navy.³ The Gosport Navy Yard at Norfolk, Virginia had been abandoned and the marine barracks destroyed; in Florida, the Warrington Navy Yard had been surrendered to state troops, and the marine garrison there had been paroled.

All of the services suffered from officer resignations as those with ties of sympathy or birth to the Confederate States went south, but the Marine Corps was hit particularly hard. The mid-Atlantic states had always supplied a disproportionate number of Marine officers, Virginia especially, and many of these followed their states out of the Union; commissions awaited almost all of them in the nascent Confederate States Marine Corps. Unfortunately for the United States Marines, it was from the junior line officers that the majority of resignations were received. Only three of the 20 second-lieutenants resigned, but 11 of the 20 first-lieutenants and five of the 13 captains did so. One major, who was the Corps' Adjutant and Inspector, represented the sole field-grade resignation. The Marines' tiny officer corps felt their loss severely, and although the resigning officers felt the compulsion of honor and conscience, to the Marine Corps' commandant they had abandoned the service in its hour of need.⁴

Marines were accustomed to serving in small detachments, which tended to magnify the importance and responsibilities of junior officers and senior noncommissioned officers. Although Congress authorized more than three dozen new officers by year's end, the shortage of experienced leaders was to plague the Corps throughout the Civil War. Although almost all of the field-grade officers remained, most were too old for active service; many of the line officers were older as well, owing to the glacial pace of pre-war promotions. The cantankerous Maj. Ward Marston, who bombarded the commandant's office with demands for field service, had been commissioned in 1819, and Maj. John G. Reynolds, who actually did command several marine field forces, was 60-years old when the war began. Many of these officers had been in the Marine Corps for decades, none were graduates of the service academies, and they had developed among themselves a vast network of animosities and grudges through years of peacetime barracks pettiness that did little to help the Corps in its moment of crisis. During the war the marines remained, as always, a regular service, and granted no volunteer commissions. Wartime officer selection remained much as it always had been, which was largely based on the commandant's personal impression of the candidate and on suitable recommendations. In the Marines, connections had always counted for more than formal military education; after July 24, 1861, however, officer candidates were at least required to pass a basic professional examination.⁵

Although a small number of enlisted marines simply deserted the service to go south, in general the wartime Corps boasted higher caliber recruits than it usually received. Tell it to the Marines was a popular expression at the time, and it was not meant to reflect highly on the intelligence of the Corps' personnel. Through slack recruiting practices, the Marines had perhaps a disproportionate share of foreigners, drunks, minors and the occasional lunatic, any of whom might abandon the service without notice.⁶ In April of 1861, for instance, a half-dozen Irish marines deserted to join Irish volunteer regiments.⁷ But, as the war dragged on, recruitment picked up, especially after the Marines managed to get their recruitment bounty raised to a par with the Army. At its worst, in 1863, Marine recruiters were attempting to compete against three-year volunteer enlistment bounties of $100 and up, with a paltry two dollar Marine bounty and an unattractive four-year hitch, with the onus of increased regular service discipline working against them as well. The paucity of recruits compelled the Corps in several instances to enlist willing Confederate prisoners— just to fill the ranks.⁸ By July of 1864, with the Marines offering the Army bounty and with the battles in Virginia taking a frightful toll in lives, Marine Corps service never looked more attractive; the Corps' recruiting problems were essentially over. By January of 1865, the number of marines had grown to 3,855, about double the pre-war figure. Unfortunately, the Marine Corps' commitments had increased even more, and although they approached their full authorized size, the Corps continued to be stretched thin.⁹ Its antiquated scale worked against the Corps throughout the war. While the Navy increased over five-fold, and the Army expanded enormously, the Marine Corps barely doubled in size; the mathematics of its situation were undeniable. As a result, the Marines were hard pressed to maintain even their traditional commitments as ships’ guards and navy yard garrisons, and scraping together units for field service remained a challenge.

Unidentified Marines. Lieutenant with full dress frock and a fatigue cap

enlisted man in full dress uniform

enlisted man in fatigue dress. Photos courtesy of the Marine Historical Center.

The commandant of the Marine Corps since 1859 was Col. John Harris, who had the misfortune of succeeding the venerated "father of the Marine Corps" Archibald Henderson, to the Corps’ highest office.¹⁰ Henderson was no brilliant theorist of Marine doctrine, but he had possessed an especially forceful personality which, during his thirty-nine year reign, helped to elevate the marines in the public estimation. Harris’ own personality was noticeably less imposing, and although his heart was in the right place, he often had trouble aggressively pushing for the fulfillment of his Corps’ needs and tended to fare badly in the inevitable comparisons with his famous predecessor.¹¹

Organizationally, the Marine Corps was not divided into permanent companies or battalions at the time of the Civil War. Such marine battalions as served in the field during the war were created as the occasion demanded, each becoming more ad hoc as the war progressed and the Marines’ manpower limitations tightened. Recruits were received and trained, when possible, at the Marine Corps barracks at the principle navy yards, especially the Washington Navy Yard in the District of Columbia. Many of the newly enlisted marines were forced to learn on the job, and then the standard was usually not much above minimal company drill. The quality of Marine field formations and ships’ guards varied considerably from one detachment to the next because of irregular professional education and varying diligence of individual marine officers. In general, however, the officers and their marines became increasingly more competent as the war dragged on and they had a chance to learn their trade in action. Ironically, the Marine Corps’ battalion organizations, due to manpower shortages and other complications, diminished in their advance preparation and foresight at the same time that the individuals comprising each successive battalion increased in expertise.

Colonel—Commandant John Harris. Harris served in the Marine Corps’ highest post from 1859-1864. Photo courtesy of the Marine Corps Historical Center.

In battle, the Corps participated in a number of distinct spheres. The Marines’ most distinguished service during the war was aboard ship as gun crews. The use of marines at the guns of the Navy’s vessels was encouraged by both Civil War commandants, not least as a way to provide useful naval employment and to thereby protect the Corps from abolishment or amalgamation that threatened several times during the war. The traditional shipboard role of the Marine guard was that of a police force at sea, and as sharpshooters aloft in the vessel’s fighting tops in battle. Both of these functions were becoming increasingly obsolete by the time of the Civil War, and the ships’ guard more often than not found itself assigned to a gun or two of its own. They usually drilled under their own officers, and it was expected by the commandant that the marines’ guns would be handled with more skill than those of mere sailors. Several times during the war, the commandant’s sanguinary wishes were fulfilled. The enlisted members of the Corps’ gun crews garnered eight Congressional Medals of Honor at the Battle of Mobile Bay in 1864, while three of their officers received brevet promotions. By the time of this climactic naval battle, the use of the ships’ guard as gun crews had become common practice in the Union Navy. Marine gunners had a hand in sinking the dreaded commerce destroyer Alabama, and had helped future-Admiral David G. Farragut pound his way past the forts protecting New Orleans.¹²

The traditional role of marines ashore was as navy yard and coastal fort garrisons, and even in this capacity the Corps saw some action during the war. In 1863, a detachment from Brooklyn Barracks helped suppress the New York City draft riots.¹³ In late 1862, a battalion of marines bound for the newly established Mare Island Barracks at San Francisco had the mortifying distinction of being captured en masse by the C. S .S. Alabama.¹⁴ In the summer of 1864, a 100-man marine battalion drawn from the Philadelphia Navy Yard helped defend the Gunpowder River Bridge from marauding Confederate cavalry acting in concert with Lt. Gen. Jubal A. Early.¹⁵ In the first year of the war, when the marines at the Washington Barracks represented one of the only accessible military units available to the Federal Government, detachments were detailed to hold Fort Washington on the Potomac River, to strengthen Fort