The first “modern” Marines were established by King Charles II in 1664 with 1,200 men. They were known as the “Maritime Regiment of Foot” but were better known as the Admiral’s Regiment. In 1802 they were officially named the “Royal Marines”.

In 1740 American militia units were attached to the Royal Marines and fought along side them in Florida against the Spanish in the War of Jenkins ear. At the same time the British Parliament raised 4 battalions of Marines in North America under the assumption that the colonists were better suited to tropical conditions. Thirty six hundred men were formed into one unit under the governor of Virginia, General Spotswood, after his death they were placed under the commanded of Colonel William Gooch, the Lieutenant governor of Virginia. In 1741, in 138 ships, these Marines headed for an assault on Cartagena. This ill-fated assault was hampered by in-fighting between Admiral Edward “Old Grog” Vernon and Brigadier General Thomas Wentworth. When all was said and done only 2,700 of the original 11,600 men (8,000 British and 3,600 colonists) returned alive, many of these deaths were due to disease, after they landed at Walthenham Bay- now known as Guantanamo Bay, Cuba. Only 10% survived the entire campaign. One of whom was Captain Lawrence Washington half brother to George Washington. Captain Washington renamed his colonial estate after “Old Grog” Vernon but soon died as a result of a disease contracted while on the expedition. George inherited the estate now known as “Mount Vernon”.

American colonists also fought for the British during the War of the Austrian Succession, known as King George’s War, and also fought in the 7 Years War with England. Then again against the French in the French and Indian War. This was the last conflict where American Colonists would fight side by side with the British.

".....it was the colonial wars between France and England in North America which established the concept of 'Light Infantry' or Marine infantry in the British Army.

In the North American Wars of the 1750s, the heavy equipment, conspicuous red and white uniforms and close formation fighting of the British Army proved to be wholly unsuitable when operating in close country against Indians and French colonists, who had highly developed field craft and marksmanship skills. Prompted by these experiences General James Wolfe (1727-59) and Lord Amherst (1717-97) realized there was a need for a new approach in the Infantry. A small corps of 'Light' troops, recruited from the settlers, was formed in 1755. It consisted of specially trained men, carefully selected for their toughness and intelligence, able to scout and skirmish, concentrating and dispersing with great stealth and speed. Their dress, equipment and tactics were adjusted to meet this new role...."

.....From the Official History of the 43rd Regiment, British Army.

At the outbreak of war against England in 1775, many colonies raised units of Marines. General Washington, who had formed a fleet of 4 warships in the Boston area, recruited a regiment of the Massachusetts militia, known as the Marblehead Regiment*, comprised of New England Mariners, who provided crews for Washington's navy. A detachment from Connecticut (known as the Original Eight), helped Benedict Arnold to hold the Finger Lakes, making it able for Fort Ticonderoga to be taken.

Although not always divided between sailors and Marines, when they were differentiated, it was as they were as far back as the Phoenicians, Romans and Greeks: the Marines were aboard for the express purpose of fighting, as opposed to those who actually sail the ships, or navigate them. This difference was delineated when Pennsylvania formed a state navy to protect the Delaware.

Upon a request for assistance from Rhode Island, the Continental Congress came to realize the viability to form a national force. The Congress had technically already been in control of a Marine force. On June 10, 1775, the Continental Congress took control of all military forces on Lake Champlain, which included 17 Massachusetts Marines under Lieutenant Watson, part of the ship "Enterprise". At this point they were hoping to get by with just Washington's and Arnold's forces. Furthermore, they were intimidated by the massive British force, as well as their own financial limitations. But, as long as the effort was being made, to form one with a permanence.

According to Marine legend the first Commandant, Captain Samuel Nicholas, opened his recruiting station at Tun Tavern, Philadelphia, Pennsylvania. He formed two battalions of Continental Marines. These Continental Marines, though few in number, performed notable service during the American Revolution.

The Continental Congress and the committee saw a need for a marine force capable of aiding in the seizure and defense of ships and making amphibious assaults against shore objectives. Congress authorized the establishment of two battalions of Continental Marines on 10 November 1775. Each of the two battalions was to be divided into ten fifty men companies in order to distribute the Marines' manpower between their shipboard and amphibious duties.

Congress tried to turn over responsibility for the formation of the marine force to the commander of the Continental Army, General George Washington. Earlier in 1775, Washington had directed the fitting out of a small naval force along the coast of Massachusetts, manned by a regiment of fishermen from Marblehead; they split themselves between "sailor" and "marine" duties. However, Washington's army was besieging British forces in Boston and he was in the midst of reorganizing his army. He wrote Congress that he did not have the time or resources to devote to a new marine force.

The primary duty of Nicholas and other early officers was to fill the ranks of their units with enlistees. These individuals often had little knowledge of naval warfare and life at sea. The first enlisted Marines - most hailing from Philadelphia - were typically small merchants, businessmen, skilled tradesmen and unskilled laborers who had little knowledge of naval matters. Nevertheless, by the end of 1775 a small force of some 235 Marines was assigned to six naval vessels fitting out in the Pennsylvania port. In all 10 officers recruited 5 companies of Marines for the Navy.

The small amphibious force first saw action in March 1776, landing at New Providence in the Bahamas to seize British powder and shot stored at Fort Montagu. Later in the war, Continental Marines made other amphibious assaults in Maine and again the Bahamas, fought as part of Washington's army, operated small boats on rivers, and even escorted the national treasury. At sea, they fought - and enforced discipline -on board Continental Navy warships.

Marines at Princeton

Encouraged by his success against the Hessian garrison at Trenton on Christmas night 1776, General George Washington determined upon a further stroke. Crossing the Delaware River on 30 December, he reoccupied Trenton. General Charles Cornwallis, who commanded a large British force occupying the town of Princeton, at once responded by marching towards Trenton to give battle. After a rather indecisive skirmish at Assanpink Creek on 2 January 1777, Washington withdrew a short distance to the eastward and set up camp.

Full of confidence, the British commander made his camp, believing that at last he had caught the elusive American general, and that with the dawn of the next day, he would be able to scatter or crush the opposing army. Washington, however, had other ideas. When night had fallen he gathered his forces, leaving guards to keep his camp fires burning thought-out the night, and set out to force his way though the rough country to his rear, around to the Princeton Road.

At Sunrise on the 3rd, the British 17th and 55th Regiment just outside Princeton on their way to reinforce Cornwallis were startled to see an American Army rapidly approaching. Quickly ordering up the 40th, the guard at Princeton, British Colonel Charles Mawhood opened up with his cannon and sent the 17th forward with fixed bayonets.

The violent charge hurled the Americans under General Hugh Mercer back in disorder. Pennsylvania troops under General John Cadwalader and Marines under Captain Samuel Nicholas quickly took over the fight, but they too were repulsed. Washington, fearing a rout, rode up and personally reformed the Virginians, Pennsylvanians, and Marines.

Appealing to their patriotic fervor, Washington led the Americans in an extended line to within 30 yards of Mawhood's redcoats. "Fire," he shouted. An American volley, then a British - smoke enveloped both forces. But the Americans had the better of it, and as the red line broke and scattered, Washington urged his men on, exclaiming, “It’s a fine fox chase, my boys!"

Willing's Marine expedition February 1778

In the period prior to the Revolution, James Willing, scion of a prominent Philadelphia family, had engaged in trade at Natchez. in the fall of 1777, he received, though the influence of his brother Thomas and close friend, Robert Morris, a commission from Congress that authorized him to organize a volunteer company of Marines, to be drawn from the hardened soldiers then stationed at Fort Pitt; secure and armed a large boat; proceed down the Ohio and Mississippi Rivers, winning the assistance or forcing the neutrality of all the inhabitants along the river's east bank; and then returned to Fort Pitt, with five boats loaded with dry goods and arms for the cause.

With matters of supply and organization quickly settled, Willing and his 34-man company departed the fort in the armed boat "Rattletrap" on the night of 10 January 1778. Recruiting more men as he went, Willing succeeded in slipping by British outposts along the Ohio and upper Mississippi Rivers.

By mid-February, his flotilla had reached the plantation of Colonel Anthony Hutchins, a short distance above Natchez. Under the cover of darkness a party was sent out to seize the prominent loyalist, his property, and slaves which were then loaded on board the armed galley "Rattletrap".

Several days later the expedition arrived at Natchez where several more prominent pro-British resident were sized. As soon as Willing passed the southern bounty of the Natchez district, his progress became an orgy of plunder - plate, slave, and provisions were sized, and much property was burned. A period of inactivity followed the expedition's arrival at New Orleans - then more forays were made into the country side against British sympathizers.

After several more attempts to enforce neutrality, the Marines started up the west side of the Mississippi under Lieutenant Robert George in order to join General George Rogers Clark in the Illinois territory, while Willing himself departed by sea for the east.

Anthony Remington

Anthony Remington, from Warwick, Rhode Island. Enlisted as a Marine in late August 1776 aboard the frigate Providence, which laid in Providence Harbor at the time, under Capt. Duval; Captain of Marines, and John Channing, 1st Lt of Marines. Term of enlistment: 12 months. Providence was commanded by Commodore Abraham Whipple. Honorably discharged twelve months later while the "Providence" lay in Providence River. Discharge signed by Commodore Abraham Whipple.

After leaving the Marine Corps, his health impaired, Remington served every year in the local militia (Pawtuxet Rangers, of which he was a founding member) until 1781, and also as a coast watcher for the Navy. He endured ill health and poverty for the rest of his life, alleviated in part by pensions awarded for his military service.

Remington's great-great-great grandson, Alpheus Appenheimer, served with the Marines in France in 1918. His great-great-great-great-great grandson, Mitchell B. Young, served with the Marines in Vietnam.

Major Samual Nicholas

Marblehead

is a Township in Essex county, Massachusetts about 16 miles north of Boston. During the colonial period it was an important commercial port. In November 1775 the "Lee" sailed from Marblehead and captured the British "Nancy" containing military stores for the British Army. These supplies went to the American Army in Cambridge. The "Lee" was manned by fifty men of the "Amphibious Regiment" -Continental Marine Corps-which under General John Glover rendered invaluable service in the War of Independence.

**On May 9, 1775 Fort Ticonderoga was captured by Benedict Arnold and Ethan Allen by authority of the Connecticut Assembly and the Massachusetts Committee of Safety for the Continental Congress. Upon capture of this fort and it's much needed military supplies, General Benedict Arnold requested reinforcements from the Continental Congress. An expedition was immediately organized and left Hartford, Conn. With this expedition went eight "well- spirited and equipped" Marines from New York. These eight men are revered as the "Original Eight" by the Marine Corps.

Benjamin Franklin described a recruitment procession that he had seen in December 1775:

"I observed on one of the drums belonging to the Marines now rising, there was painted a Rattlesnake, with this modest motto under it, 'Don't tread on me.' As I know it is the custom to have some device on the arms of every country, I supposed this may have been intended for the arms of America...it occurred to me that the Rattlesnake is found in no other quarter of the world besides America and may, therefore have been chosen on that account to represent her."

To help with recruiting, Congress passed the following resolutions in November 1776:

"Resolved, That the rank of officers of marines be the same as officers of similar commissions in the land service: That the commanders, officers, seamen, and marines in the continental navy, be entitled to one half of merchantmen, transports, and store ships by them taken, from and after the first day of November, 1776, to be divided amongst them in the shares and proportions fixed by former resolutions of Congress:

That the commanders, officers, seamen and marines, in the continental navy, be entitled to the whole value of all ships and vessels of war belonging to the crown of Great Britain, by them made prize of, and all privateers authorized by his Britannic Majesty to war against these states, to be divided as aforesaid."

Congress took into consideration the report of the committee to whom that part of the report of the Marine Committee relative to the pay and rank of the marine, was recommitted; Whereupon,

"Resolved, That a bounty of 20 dollars be paid to the commanders, officers, and men of such continental ships or vessels of war, as shall make prize of any British ships or vessels of war, for every cannon mounted on board each prize, at the time of such capture, and 8 dollars per head for every man then on board and belonging to such prize:"

The pay of the Marines was also reviewed and the monthly wages for a private and NCO became the same as for the army, while a Captain earned 30 dollars per month, and Lieutenant 20 dollars per month. Captains also received 4 dollars per week subsistence for living on shore when their ships were not fit for service. It was also resolved by Congress "That vessels, under ten guns, to be commanded by lieutenants:" This unfortunately could lead to a drop in pay, as in the case of Captain Abraham van Dyck, who, in 1780, was appointed to the Saratoga, with the pay and status of a Lieutenant."

In November, Pennsylvania became 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, where they waited for the expected attack. The British instead went into winter quarters along the Jersey shore of the Delaware River. On Christmas night, Washington captured the Hessian garrison at Trenton without the help of Cadwalader's brigade whose way was blocked by ice. Crossing the river the following day, the Pennsylvania brigade marched into Trenton on 2 January as the Continental Army and British met at Assunpink Creek. After an indecisive skirmish, Washington withdrew a short distance and set up camp.

The next day, Cadwalader's brigade joined Washington's two-pronged 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 Second Continental Division under John Sullivan converged on the battlefield, caught the British on an exposed flank, and took Princeton.

After the Trenton-Princeton campaign, Nicholas' battalion disintegrated. Reduced by transfers and desertions, the three Marine companies joined Washington's army in its winter quarters at Morristown and disappeared as a distinct unit. Thereafter, the responsibility for raising Marines fell to the individual Marine officers assigned to the various Continental ships without reference to a shore based organization. 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.

Marines operated around New Orleans until 1779, at which time they returned north up the Mississippi under the command of Lieutenant Robert George who reported to General George Rogers Clark to participate in his campaign against hostile Indians. While Captain Willing and his company of Marines raided British settlements along the Mississippi, a force of 26 Marines and sailors under the command of Marine Captain John Trevett landed at New Providence in the Bahamas and again occupied its two forts. With the town captured, the newly adopted Stars and Stripes (authorized by Congress on June 14, 1777) were raised over a foreign fortification for the first time. In two days of occupation, Trevett's Marines and seamen took five vessels, liberated a group of American prisoners, spiked the guns of a major British garrison, and acquired valuable ordnance.

The Royal Navy intensified its presence around the American ports making it difficult for the American Navy to raid British vessels, and set its sights on European waters, but access to Britain was difficult until France allied with the Colonies after the American victory at Saratoga in 1777, and allowed the Navy use of its ports. In April 1778, John Paul Jones sailed in the 20 gun sloop Ranger from Brest in France for the Irish Sea. His intention was to descend upon an English port, destroy its merchant shipping, and carry away a person of distinction to be held as a hostage for the release of American prisoners. Of the numerous seaports which dotted the inlets and coves, the Ranger's captain settled upon the port of Whitehaven.

At midnight on the 22nd, Jones ordered two boats lowered and 30 volunteer Marines and seamen over the side. The captain took command of one, while Marine Lieutenant Samuel Wallingford officered the other. The landing part burned a few colliers and fishing vessels, pillaged the local fort, and the following morning in a raid on St. Mary's Isle, stole Lord Selkirk's silver plate after failing to kidnap Selkirk himself, who was not at home.

However the next day they encountered the sloop HMS Drake and Wallingford was killed, along with two others. The Drake was captured and put under a prize crew, and Jones returned to France. Shortly thereafter, the Ranger sailed for America while Jones remained in France to find another command.

Early in 1779, the British government ordered a portion of the Nova Scotia garrison south to seize a protected anchorage in what is now Maine, from which the Royal Navy could effectively protect supply convoys. Arriving at Penobscot Bay in June, the British expedition hastily established a base on Bagaduce Peninsula and garrisoned it with 600 troops. Alarmed, the Massachusetts government organized a force composed of Continental warships, state navy vessels, privateers, and 21 transports to carry the more than 1,000 militiamen. Among the expeditionary troops were three companies of Continental Marines, numbering approximately 300 men. Under the direction of Continental Navy Captain Dudley Saltonstall and Brigadier General Solomon Lovell, the Americans cautiously besieged the British position.

On 26 July, Continental and Massachusetts state Marines stormed Banks Island, on which the British had emplaced several cannon. The outnumbered British Marines withdrew. Two days later, the Americans launched their main effort against the British position on Bagaduce. In the forefront of the assault were Continental Marines who gained the heights and drove back the defenders, but at a loss of two of their ranking officers, Captain John Welsh and Lieutenant William Hamilton. The fort was besieged but never taken.

After two weeks of skirmishes, abortive attacks, and command feuds, the American fleet was forced, by the appearance of a large British relief squadron, to retire up the Penobscot River. Near the fall line, the Americans burned their ships and retreated southward through the Maine wilderness to Boston. The expedition had failed; Massachusetts had lost its entire fleet and was on the brink of financial ruin.

The Penobscot affair was only one of a series of disasters that reached their peak the following year at Charleston, South Carolina. Knowing the British would make a maximum effort to capture Charleston as a first step in their effort to pacify the southern colonies; four Continental ships under Captain Abraham Whipple were dispatched south from Massachusetts. Each vessel carried a full detachment of Marines. Shortly after their arrival, the Marines and seamen prepared for battle. The British fleet, however, penetrated Charleston's inner harbor and forced Whipple's ships up the Cooper River. The Marine detachments then joined the artillery batteries defending the city's seaward approaches. Their efforts were in vain. The British Army landed, marched around the city, crossed the Ashley River, and besieged Charleston from the rear. Five days after Fort Moultrie's small garrison surrendered the beleaguered defenders of the South Carolina capital capitulated and 200 Marines from Whipple's squadron went into captivity.

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. In 1780 Congress reported that:

"The Board take leave further to observe that there are but two Captains of Marines out of Employ, excepting such as are Prisoners, and about six Lieutenants, and where they are, or in what business engaged is altogether uncertain, none of them are here. It would be a great injury to the Service to have marines on board our ships without officers to Command them, until absent officers should be sought for and found, and when any of them should be found they may be either employed in private, or decline further public service."

When the peace treaty with Britain finally was signed in 1783, only the Continental frigate Alliance was still in commission. The Marines were paid off and mustered out on 1st April 1783. A small Marine guard commanded by Lieutenant Thomas Elmwood stayed with the Alliance until Congress decided to sell the vessel. With the sale of the frigate, and the mustering out of Lieutenant Elwood, the Continental Navy and the Marines went out of existence. On 3 June 1783, Lieutenant Elmwood turned in the last of the Marine's equipment:

95 muskets, 13 without bayonets 29 pistols 111 cartouche Boxes 41 cutlasses 1 drum & drum Sticks 1 fife 1 drum Head 2 arms chest with Locks 2 great coats/grey 300 flints Expended:

1 musket, lost overboard 3 pistols, lost overboard 4 pair of pistols lost attempting to board the ship L'Orient in February 1782. 1 drum destroyed by Drummer, same time. 1 fife, lost by Fifer at same time. 7 cutlasses lost at same time. 3 locks, same time.

The Continental Marines had served faithfully and well under difficult circumstances during the Revolution both on land and at sea. They laid the foundation and established the precedence for the Corps of Marines that would follow in their wake. On July 11, 1798, President John Adams signed the bill entitled "An Act for Establishing and Organizing a Marine Corps" which established a permanent Marine Corps in America.

TIME LINE

Nov. 28, 1775 -- John Hancock, president of the Continental Congress, authorizes captain's commission for Samuel Nicholas, which tradition holds, was the first Commandant of the Marine Corps.

July 4, 1776 -- Declaration of Independence signed

First amphibious raid: New Providence, Bahamas March 3, 1776 --

First Lieutenant John Fitzpatrick killed in action aboard the "Cabot" 6 April 1776

Defeat of Benedict Arnold on Lake Champlain 13 October 1776

Marines at Princeton 3 January 1777

Evacuation of Billingsport 2 October 1777

Flag Rising at New Providence 28 January 1778

Whitehaven Raid 22 April 1778

Marines developed the fire team concept 29 May 1781

Assault on Penobscot 28 July 1779

The Ohio River Valley Summer 1782

April, 1783 -- Treaty of Paris; Marine Corps disbands shortly after treaty signed. Formal re-establishment of Marine Corps doesn't occur until 11 July, 1798.

Revolutionary War

HISTORY OF TUN TAVERN

In the year 1685, Samuel Carpenter built a huge "brew house" in Philadelphia. He located this tavern on the waterfront at the corner of Water Street and Tun Alley. The old English word tun means a cask, barrel, or keg of beer. So, with his new beer tavern on Tun Alley, Carpenter elected to christen the new waterfront brewery with a logical name, Tun Tavern.

Tun Tavern quickly gained a reputation for serving fine beer. Beginning 47 years later in 1732, the first meetings of the St. John's No. 1 Lodge of the Grand Lodge of the Masonic Temple were held in the tavern. An American of note, Benjamin Franklin, was its third Grand Master. Even today the Masonic Temple of Philadelphia recognizes Tun Tavern as the birthplace of Masonic teachings in America.

Roughly ten years later in the early 1740s, the new proprietor expanded Tun Tavern and gave the addition a new name, "Peggy Mullan's Red Hot Beef Steak Club at Tun Tavern." The new restaurant became a smashing commercial success and was patronized by notable Americans. In 1747 the St. Andrews Society, a charitable group dedicated to assisting poor immigrants from Scotland, was founded in the tavern.

Nine years later, then Col. Benjamin Franklin organized the Pennsylvania Militia. He used Tun Tavern as a gathering place to recruit a regiment of soldiers to go into battle against the Indian uprisings that were plaguing the American colonies. George Washington, Thomas Jefferson, and the Continental Congress later met in Tun Tavern as the American colonies prepared for independence from the English Crown.

On November 10, 1775, the Continental Congress commissioned Samuel Nicholas to raise two Battalions of Marines. That very day, Nicholas set up shop in Tun Tavern. He appointed Robert Mullan, then the proprietor of the tavern, to the job of chief Marine Recruiter -- serving, of course, from his place of business at Tun Tavern. Prospective recruits flocked to the tavern, lured by (1) cold beer and (2) the opportunity to serve in the new Corps of Marines. So, yes, the U.S. Marine Corps was indeed born in Tun Tavern. Needless to say, both the Marine Corps and the tavern thrived during this new relationship.

Tun Tavern still lives today.