Continental Marines...

Inarticulate Babbler · Sep 5, 2008

Anybody know what the Continental Marines did between November of 1775 and nJanuary of 1776--or while their ships were frozen in the Delaware from January of 1776 to February 15th, 1776?

Details would be great.

san_remo_ave · Sep 5, 2008

Although there were three types of Marines who served during the American Revolution, Continental, state, privateer, it was the Continental Marines who were officially charged by Congress with safeguarding the new fleet and providing a modicum of discipline for the new crews. On November 28, 1775, Congress issued the first commission as captain of Marines to Samuel Nicholas, a prominent Philadelphia tavern keeper. To Nicholas and the other 10 officers commissioned in late 1775 fell the task of raising Marines. By early January 1776, the companies of Continental Marines, numbering around 230 officers and men, embarked on five of the eight ships of the fleet, ready for their first taste of war at sea.

from HERE

Inarticulate Babbler · Sep 5, 2008

Yes, I've seen that site, thank you. It, like many others, has short statements and is left vague. I've got the NDAR (Naval Documents of the American Revolution) Volume 2--and am waiting of 3 and 4, which are needed to complete 1775 and this part of 1776--which have Washington's letters, Greene's letters, Knox's letters, Lee's, Howe's, Gage's, Whipple's, Saltonstall's, Ward's, Esek and Stephen Hopkins, other captains' journals, minutes from the Continental Congress and various committees of safety. However, the information I seek is not there. (At least, not yet.)

I didn't sit down to write this completely un-researched, but you can never know enough. Lol - I had to restart on this twice already because of small details (one of which was the fact that barns didn't have haylofts until 1808...go figure). :e2bike2:

san_remo_ave · Sep 6, 2008

Inarticulate Babbler said:
It, like many others, has short statements and is left vague.

And that's the way of history, too, isn't it, especially if all that happens is daily life.....

Inarticulate Babbler said:
However, the information I seek is not there. (At least, not yet.)

OK, then you'll need to be more specific about what you're looking for because I haven't any idea what work you've done prior to the OP.

It appears to me that from Nov - Jan was all manner of activity around recruitment since Nicholas was commissioned at the end of Nov and by Jan there were 230 officers and men. I even found the text of a recruitment broadside, but you may already have that.

What further info are you looking for? If you're looking for the daily minutiae, the documentation may not even exist.

Inarticulate Babbler · Sep 6, 2008

I'm not looking for a journal, but details on what a normal day was like during that recruiting/training period. What I would like to know, in more detail, is about the time spent during January/February frozen in the Delaware. I had a small breakthrough from www.allexperts.com - and the expert recommended a military forum. From there, I got the address to the "extensive" Marine Corps Archives. Since I'm trying to do justice with their history, it seems they approve (Ooh-rah!), and are willing to help.

As far as being specific, I can't. I'm not searching for any particular detail, but for enough to know what I'm talking about (and to get a clear picture). I hope I'm not the only one who does this.

Birol · Sep 11, 2008

This book:

The war of American independence: military attitudes, policies, and practice, 1763-1789 Higginbotham, Don. Northeastern University Press, 1983. History e-book project.. ACLS Humanities E-book.

Contains this endnote:

39. A new account of of Hopkins' raid is John F. McCusker, Jr., "The American Invasion of Nassau in the Bahamas," American Neptune, XXV (1965), 189-217. Marine Captain Nicholas' report of the marines' role is in a letter to an unidentified friend, dated April 10, 1776, in The Remembrancer, Part II (1776), 212-214. Interesting remarks about the Continental marines are in J. Fenimore Cooper, The History of the Navy of the United States of America (Paris, 1839), 164-167. There are few histories of state naval operations; a good one is Robert A. Stewart, The History of Virginia's Navy in the Revolution (Richmond, 1934). See also Louis F. Middlebrook, Maritime Connecticut during the American Revolution (Salem, Mass., 1925), I.

Hopefully that will help you find a couple of directions in which to continue your research.

Inarticulate Babbler · Sep 11, 2008

Birol said:
This book:

The war of American independence: military attitudes, policies, and practice, 1763-1789 Higginbotham, Don. Northeastern University Press, 1983. History e-book project.. ACLS Humanities E-book.

Contains this endnote:

Hopefully that will help you find a couple of directions in which to continue your research.

Yes, thank you. I will look into them.

If anyone else is interested in this subject, I've found some answers in Marines in the Revolution: A History of the Continental Marines in the American Revolution 1775-1783. The beginning part is relevant to my questions and gave some answers--in more detail--about what the Continental marines did until their January launch.

Also, The NDAR (Naval Documents of the American Revolution) has a plethora of excellent information. I have volume 2 (American Theater September 3rd, 1775 - October 31, '75; European Theater August 11th, '75 - October 31, '75; American Theater November 1, '75 - December 7, 1775) which has over 1300 pages of letters, council minutes, Continental Congress minutes, maps and rederings. I urge anyone writing about this era to have an appropriate volume.

I just thought I'd share a couple of good sources.

JasonA · Oct 10, 2008

5 October 1775: Meeting in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, the 2d Continental Congress used the word "Marines" on one of the earliest known occasions, when it directed General George Washington to secure two vessels on "Continental risque and pay", and to give orders for the "proper encouragement to the Marines and seamen" to serve on the two armed ships.

Inarticulate Babbler · Oct 10, 2008

JasonA said:
5 October 1775: Meeting in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, the 2d Continental Congress used the word "Marines" on one of the earliest known occasions, when it directed General George Washington to secure two vessels on "Continental risque and pay", and to give orders for the "proper encouragement to the Marines and seamen" to serve on the two armed ships.

Both the Royal Marines and the Spanish Marines had been established prior to the Continental Marines. I know that the Continental Marines were designed after the Royal Marines. In the NDAR Vol. 2 (Naval Documents of the American Revolution Vol. 2), the minutes of the Continental Congress November 10, 1775 are, verbatim:

Resolved, That General Washington be directed in case he should judge it practicable and expedient to send into that colony a sufficient force to take away the cannon and warlike stores and to destroy the docks, yards and magazines, and to take or destroy any ships of war and transports there belonging to the enemy.

Resolved, That two battalions of marines be raised, consisting of one Colonel, two Lieutenant Colonels, two Majors, and other officers as usual in other regiments; and that they consist of an equal number of privates with other battalions; that particular care be taken, that no persons be appointed to office, or inlisted into said Battalions, but such as are good seamen, or so aquainted with maritime affairs as to be able to serve to advantage by sea when required: that they be inlisted and commissioned to serve for and during the present war between Great Britain and the colonies, unless dismissed by order of the Congress: that they be distinguished by the names of the first and second battalions of American Marines, and that they be considered as part of the number which the continental Army before Boston is ordered to consist of.

I know names and dates of their origin, just not some of the more specific details...

Continental Marines...

Inarticulate Babbler

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san_remo_ave

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Inarticulate Babbler

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san_remo_ave

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Inarticulate Babbler

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Birol

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Inarticulate Babbler

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JasonA

Inarticulate Babbler

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