The capture of the Underwriter
Like their Federal counterparts, Confederate Marines were occasionally detailed for special service to cut-out and capture enemy vessels. In February 1864 men from Co C, under apt Thomas S.Wilson, took part in the capture of the side-wheel gunboat USS Underwriter in the Neuse River near New Berne, North Carolina. About 2.30am on February 2, a force consisting of 250 seamen and 25 Marines aboard ten small boats glided up to the Underwriter as she lay at anchor. Discovered too late, the first...
Uniforms Arms Equipment
It wTas hoped by the South that a peaceful separation of the slave states from the Union would be achieved in 1861 hence, the original uniforms chosen by the Confederate States Marine Corps were probably intended to be similar to those adopted by the US Marine Corps in 1859. Some evidence in support of this is to be found in General Order No.2, General Headquarters, Navy Department of the State of Virginia , Richmond, Virginia, April 25, 1861, which stated The uniform of the Officers, Seamen...
Hampton Roads
Upon arrival at Richmond, detachments from Co C were assigned to the gunboats Patrick Henry and Jamestown, while the remainder were ordered to report to Flag Officer French Forrest at the Gosport Navy Yard, near Norfolk. Commanded by Capt Thom, they eventually went aboard the ironclad CSS Virginia, and took part in the battles of Hampton Roads on March 8-9, 1862 see above . With little opportunity to serve as sharpshooters aboard the ironclad, these Marines manned several of the guns, with Capt...
Drewrys Bluff 1
With the Confederate withdrawal from the Peninsula and the evacuation of Norfolk during early May 1862, the Virginia, Patrick Henry, and Jamestown were forced to withdraw up the James River towards Richmond. As her draught was too deep to negotiate the shoals, the Virginia w as abandoned and burned off Craney Island on May 11. The smaller gunboats steamed up as far as Drewry's Bluff, about eight miles below Richmond, where the Jamestown was sunk to complete the river obstruction, while the...
The Port Royal expedition
During the fall of 1861 it was proposed to capture Port Royal and thereby gain a foothold on the coast of South Carolina and Capt Samuel F.DuPont, USN, requested that a battalion of 300 Marines be attached to his fleet. Nineteen officers and 330 enlisted men were organized under the command of Maj John Reynolds by mid-October taken mainly from the Washington headquarters, plus the Boston and Brooklyn navy yards, these Marines left Hampton Roads in the chartered steamer Governor with the rest of...
Fort Fisher
By the end of 1864 the only Confederate port on the Atlantic coast that remained open to blockade runners was Wilmington, NC, which was defended by the formidable Fort Fisher on Cape Fear. An abortive attack launched on Christmas Eve by MajGen Benjamin F.Butler, commander of the Army of the James, was followed on January 15, 1865, by the greatest amphibious assault of the Civil War, by a force commanded by Gen .Alfred H.Terry'. The US Army's 24th Corps landed to secure the Confederate works...
Organization and recruitment
Seventeen days after its establishment on February 4, 1861, the provisional government of the Confederate States of America passed an act to create a Navy Department, with Stephen R.Mallory as Secretary of the Navy. Working closely with Congress, by March 12 Mallory had prepared a budget that provided for the creation of a Navy and Marine Corps. Four days later an Act of the Congress established the Confederate States Marine Corps, and authorized the creation of a headquarters consisting of a...
Tullifinny Crossroads
Failure to reach the Charleston amp Savannah Railroad via the Broad River prompted Adm Dahlgren and Gen Foster to try a different route. On December 5 the Fleet Bde and a brigade of infantry were transported up the Tullifinny River to Devaux's Neck, where they were to advance inland to destroy the Tullifinny River bridge. Disembarking at Gregory's Landing, the infantry advanced first with the naval brigade following behind. The expedition quickly came into contact with a motley assortment of...
The surrender of the Ariel
At the end of that year the battalion of 136 Marines under Maj Addison Garland were not so successful. Embarking at New York on the mail steamer Ariel on December 1, they were assigned as a permanent garrison for the new naval base at Mare Island, California. Six days into her voyage the Ariel was off Cape Maysi, on the eastern tip of Cuba, when she was intercepted by the Confederate commerce raider Alabama, commanded by Capt Raphael Semmes. Initially forming his Marines to repel boarders,...