Marines saw limited action in War between the States
About half of the officers at the time went with their states and formed the Confederate States Marine Corps.


One of the pleasures of my writing this column is the great correspondence I get from readers -- I even enjoy the letters and e-mails that do not agree with me. I am continually amazed and delighted by the literacy and deep feeling readers have for the Civil War. Whether you are for it or against it -- whether you think the war was justified or even if the wrong side won, your writing tells me how heartfelt our Civil War still is for all Americans. It was, and always will be, one of our defining moments.

One of the problems I have with correspondence is that sometimes I cannot read parts of what you write. I have before me a handwritten note that says, "I would be pleased if you could write an article sometime about the U.S. Marine Corps and their part during the Civil War. Thank you." The letter is signed: "Mr. Carper" and the return address is "Alleghy" or "Alleybg, VA" and that is all. The postmark on the envelope is a misprint, and all that shows is "200."

I am a veteran of World War II and there is no greater admirer of the U.S. Marine Corps than me. The Marines were an enormously effective weapon in the Pacific theater, and their island invasions starting with Guadalcanal on Aug. 7, 1942, and including Kwajalein, Eniwetok and the Marianas, were examples of what combat forces can achieve with the proper training and leadership. Peleliu, Iwo Jima and Okinawa in 1944 and 1945 added to their glory.

But to get back to Mr. Carper's letter and his question about Marines in the Civil War: Marines are, by definition, naval infantry, and their earliest assignment, starting on Nov. 10, 1775, was protecting naval officers on the vessels they commanded from attack by seamen, as well as "... such other duties as the President may direct."

Marines were active at Tripoli in the War of 1812 and at Chapultepec in the Mexican War. During the Spanish-American War the Marines were ordered to Guantanamo Bay, and for the first time, an American flag was flown on Cuban soil. The United States controls Guantanamo Bay to this day.

During World War I, Marines were active as infantry units and fought particularly effectively at St. Mihiel, the Meuse-Argonne offensive and Chateau-Thierry. After the war, they were on occupation duty. Between the wars, the Marine Corps perfected their "landing-from-the sea" capability that worked so well as we advanced west in the Pacific War.

And, of course, Marines were heavily involved in both Operation Desert Storm and the current conflicts in Iraq and Afghanistan.

Marine action during the Civil War was limited. There were few of them in the Federal military, when the South seceded from the Union. About half of the Marine officers joined their states and formed the Confederate States Marine Corps, authorized by the Confederate Congress in March 1861. The CSMC was patterned largely after the Union Marine Corps, and had an authorized strength of 34 officers and 944 enlisted men. Far fewer than those numbers served, mostly on guard duty at Confederate naval facilities along the Southern coastline. They also served aboard Confederate naval vessels and commerce raiders, performing their normal duties.

They performed well. Confederate Navy Secretary Stephen Mallory commended them for their "promptness and efficiency."

The Defense Department notes that of a Union military of more than 2 million men, about 4,100 were Marines and their service was mostly on blockade duty and aboard ships. Congress explored the possibility of merging the Marines into the regular army, but the Marine Commandant at the time carefully followed all navy regulations and did not assume any of the traditional combat roles of the Army. As a result, the merging idea was dropped. A small unit of Marines was part of the attack on Fort Fisher in January 1865.

They were part of gun crews on naval vessels and suffered casualties in these operations; 148 Marines were killed in action and another 312 died during the war.

Mr. Carper, would you please write me again and let me know where you are from?

An e-mail from Art and Karen Green of Mobile, Ala., told about the "... 38th Alabama Inf. My Grandfather Pvt. John C. Green served in Co. B of the 38th. He fought at Chickamauga, Lookout Mt., Missionary Ridge and the Atlanta Campaign. He was wounded and captured at Atlanta on July 22, 1864, and spent the remainder of the war in Camp Chase Prison, near Columbus, Ohio. John walked home to lower Alabama after June of '65. He outlived three wives and had 12 children."

Margaret Mitchell in her classic "Gone with the Wind" tells about this stream of soldiers walking through Atlanta to their homes in the lower South after the war ended. It is a human description of what Atlanta was like during those months. Mitchell noted that Confederate soldiers came in three waves: "The railroad had carried the remains of Johnston's Army from North Carolina to Atlanta and dumped them there. ...When the wave of Johnston's men had passed, the weary veterans from the Army of Virginia arrived, and then men from Western troops, beating their way south to homes which might not exist and families which might be scattered or dead. Most of them were walking; a few fortunate ones rode bony horses or mules ... which even an untrained eye could tell would never reach faraway Florida or south Georgia.

"Going home! Going home! That was the only thought in the soldiers' minds. Some were sad and silent, some were gay and contemptuous of hardships, but the thought that it was all over and they were going home was the one thing that sustained them ...

"They all had two things in common, lice and dysentery. The Confederate soldier was so accustomed to his verminous state that he did not give it a second thought. ... As for dysentery, it seemed to have spared no one from private to general."

When they reached Tara, Mammy took charge. She dosed them and cleaned them up as best she could. " 'Dey ain' a soun' set of bowels in de whole Confederut ahmy,' observed Mammy darkly as she sweated over the fire, brewing a bitter concoction of blackberry roots, [the] sovereign remedy for such afflictions. 'It's mah notion dat 'twarn't de Yankees whut beat our gempmum. Twuz dey own innards. Kain no gempmum fight wid his bowels tuhnin' ter water.'

"One and all, Mammy dosed them ... and one and all, they drank her doses meekly."

Mammy had other rules: "No lice-ridden soldier should come into Tara. She marched them behind a clump bushes, relieved them of their uniforms, gave them a basin of water and strong lye soap to wash with and provided them with quilts and blankets to cover their nakedness, while she boiled their clothing in her huge wash pot."

This is a beautiful moment in a beautiful novel, and I recommend it to all.

WANT TO WRITE? NED HARRISON is a Greensboro, N.C., writer who specializes in military history and writes a monthly Civil War column for The Roanoke Times. He wants to hear about your ancestors who were part of our Civil War. Write him at News & Record / RT, P.O. Box 20848, Greensboro, NC 27420 or e-mail him at:

n-b-h@mindspring.com

Ellie