Marines in the American Revolution

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During the fall of 1775 the struggle for Boston was at a stalemate. General George Washington in command of the ragged collection of American troops had lain siege to the city, and upon the outcome hinged the fate of the colonies. If Washington's force could hold its own against the well-trained British regulars, perhaps Great Britain would consent to the colonist's demands. But British reinforcements and supplies were on the way. In order to stop the flow of these reinforcements, Washington decided to buy, borrow or build his own small fleet of ships. It was the Continental Marines who were officially charged by Congress with safeguarding the new fleet and providing 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. It was up to Nicholas and the other 10 officers commissioned in late 1775 to recruit more Marines. The majority of the recruiting was done in Nicholas' Tun Tavern. By early January 1776, the companies of Continental Marines numbered around 230 officers and men. They embarked on five of the eight ships of the fleet, ready for their first taste of war. Two months after leaving Philadelphia, the fleet rendezvoused at the island of New Providence in the Bahamas. A short time before noon on March 3, the fleet's Marines and a number of seamen under Marine Captain Nicholas splashed ashore and captured Fort Montagu, one of the island's two forts, in a battle as "bemused as it was bloodless." After resting the night in their prize, the invasion force completed the job the next morning by taking Fort Nassau, securing the town, and arresting the British governor. By March 16, the island's military stores, with the exception of the gunpowder, were loaded onto the ships and secured.

The Continental Marines' geographical base was Philadelphia, to which Captain Nicholas returned in June 1776. There he assumed the responsibility of raising four more Marine companies for the frigates then being built for the American forces. Although recruiting went slowly, Nicholas had at least four small ships detachments by autumn, which were put to work guarding both Continental and state vessels and stores while waiting for the frigates to sail. In November, Pennsylvania suddenly was open to invasion as Washington's army collapsed in the face of British assaults on its positions along the Hudson River. Washington, his army in retreat across New Jersey, asked for the Philadelphia Associator Brigade, seamen from the Pennsylvania state navy, and Nicholas' four companies. For the first time Marines marched off to bolster an American Army. Leaving one company behind to guard the frigates, Captain Samuel Nicholas led the Marines from Philadelphia in early December to join Brigadier General John Cadwalader's brigade at Bristol, Pennsylvania. The next day, Cadwalader's brigade joined Washington's attack on Princeton, supporting General Hugh Mercer's brigade of Continentals. Mercer's troops, however, ran into two well-deployed British regiments and soon collapsed in the face of heavy, disciplined musketry. Cadwalader's brigade came to Mercer's aid, but it too was forced back. A 2d Continental Division under John Sullivan converged on the battlefield, caught the British on an exposed flank, and took Princeton.

Throughout the rest of the year, the most notable accomplishments of the Marines centered on the defense of Fort Mifflin and the Delaware River operations of October and November 1777. These tenacious efforts handicapped the British fleet from supporting and reinforcing British ground units active in and around Philadelphia. On September 24, 1779, after seizing several small prizes, John Paul Jones engaged the British 44-gun frigate Serapis off Flamborough Head on the east coast of England. In this famous sea battle, where Jones made his reply to Captain Pearson, "I have not yet begun to fight," Marines delivered devastating fire from the tops and rigging which cleared the weather deck of the Serapis. Although the Bonhomme Richard was outmanned and outgunned, a grenade thrown from the rigging entered a hatch of the British frigate, ignited powder on the main gun deck, and set off an explosion that contributed to the Serapis' defeat. For the Continental Marines the last three years of the War for Independence became a sequence of forlorn cruises. As British privateers and armed merchantmen increased in number, the few American ships still in service found it difficult to venture out in search of prizes. When the peace treaty with Britain finally was signed in 1783, only the Continental frigate Alliance was still in commission. A small Marine guard commanded by Lieutenant Thomas Elwood stayed with the frigate until Congress decided to sell the vessel in September. With the sale of the Alliance, the Continental Navy and Marines went out of existence.