Marine Corps History in a Year
An event a day from the official record, what is less known about it, and the question it puts to your own experience. Every claim is sourced, and where the record is silent the entry says so.
Everyone starts at Day 1, on the day the Corps was formed, and moves through the timeline one day at a time. A year from now you will have walked the whole 250 years.
The series so far
Day 1 · 10 November 1775
Two battalions of Marines
On 10 November 1775 the Continental Congress resolved that two battalions of Marines be raised, for an expedition that never sailed. What the resolution said and what survived it.
6 min read · 9 min listen
Day 2 · 28 November 1775
The first officer
On 28 November 1775 Congress commissioned Samuel Nicholas the first officer of Marines. The official history cannot establish his occupation and says he may have owed the job to who he knew.
5 min read · 8 min listen
Day 3 · 3 March 1776
The plan lasted until dawn
On 3 March 1776 the Continental Marines made their first amphibious landing, at New Providence in the Bahamas. The surprise plan collapsed at first light and Nicholas landed somewhere else instead.
6 min read · 8 min listen
Day 4 · June 1776
The sergeant who was still there
In June 1776 every Marine officer aboard the Continental ship Columbus resigned. Her captain filled one of the empty lieutenancies with Sergeant Edward Burke and left the other empty.
5 min read · 8 min listen
Day 5 · 24 November 1776
Seventy-one lashes
On 24 November 1776 Private Henry Hassan was court-martialed for desertion in Philadelphia. He was the one deserter the history records returning, and he was flogged at the head of his company.
6 min read · 8 min listen
Day 6 · 2 January 1777
To fly to the support of that important post
On 2 January 1777 Hessian grenadiers tried to force the bridge over Assunpink Creek at Trenton. The light troops sent to hold it included Marines who had failed a river crossing eight days before.
5 min read · 8 min listen
Day 7 · 3 January 1777
The rally that did not work
On 3 January 1777 at Princeton, Cadwalader's column, Nicholas' Marines on its right, was driven back by British volleys. Washington appeared to rally them and could not.
5 min read
Day 8 · January 1777
One Stephen Earle asserted
Almost everything known about who ran the Providence's Marine detachment in 1777 rests on one pension affidavit sworn in 1818, and the Corps's historian found evidence against part of it.
6 min read
Day 9 · 24 April 1778
Until a replacement could be found
On 24 April 1778 the Ranger took the Drake and Marine Lieutenant Samuel Wallingford was killed. Sergeant John Ricker was given the detachment until a replacement could be found.
6 min read
Day 10 · 26 July 1779
One account by a participant
On 26 July 1779 Marines landed on an island in the Bagaduce. The figure for their number comes from one sergeant's account, prepared more than fifty years later for inclusion in another man's book.
7 min read
Day 11 · 28 May 1781
Died at his post
On 28 May 1781 the Alliance, without wind enough to steer, could not bring half her guns to bear for most of the fight. Her Marines on deck and in the tops had not much protection.
6 min read
Day 12 · 3 June 1785
Passed from the scene
On 3 June 1785 Congress authorized the sale of the Alliance, the last Continental Navy vessel. The official history has the Continental Marines passing from the scene almost two years earlier.
6 min read
Day 13 · 28 May 1798
Eighty-three Marines and a war
On 28 May 1798 the President instructed American commanders to make reprisals on French commerce. A month later the whole Marine Corps numbered eighty-three men.
5 min read
Day 14 · 11 July 1798
It says where, never what
On 11 July 1798 President Adams approved the act establishing a Marine Corps. It says where Marines may be sent and who decides, and never what they are to do when they get there.
6 min read
Day 28 · 30 June 1834
An act for the better organization
On 30 June 1834 Congress passed the act that told the Marine Corps whose it was: under the laws of the Navy, except when the President detached it to the Army. The Corps had 915 men that day.
6 min read
Weekly anchors
Once a week, a longer piece that argues what the seven days add up to, including the case against.
This series is a personal project of the author and is not an official publication of the United States Marine Corps or the Department of Defense. The views expressed are the author’s own.