1866 - Status of the Navy and Marines Prior to the Gilded Age
THE SCOPE OF THIS entry is to review the status of the Navy, and more largely the Marine Corps in 1866, the year following the Civil War.
REFORM DOMINATES the discussion about the U.S. Navy in the latter half of the 19th century. To better understand the extent of the reform, we need to understand the state of the Navy immediately following the Civil War. Despite having executed a successful campaign to interdict foreign ships supplying the Confederacy during the war and controlling communications and commerce on interior rivers of the south, the U.S. Navy quickly slid from its relative dominance. The Navy that had more ships than the Royal Navy and helped to dissuade the French from its Mexican dalliance in the Western hemisphere, also suffered from poor design decisions, corruption in appropriations and the management of the various Navy Yards, and the polarized regional politics and recriminations that dominated Reconstruction.
AS ALWAYS, the course of the U.S. Marine Corps in this era closely tracked that of the Navy. To understand where the Corps stood, and the difficulties it would experience in finding its mission over the next forty years, it’s worth examining their structure and assets at the end of the Civil War. Due to its small size in comparison, and its limited and sometimes disputed mission, reform in the Marine Corps would be slower and less dramatic.
IN THE WAKE of the Civil War, the U.S. Navy experienced a genuine hollowing out in force size. Many vessels were placed in ordinary, or out of service, without any maintenance or preservation executed due to austerity budgets imposed by Congress. By 1866 the Navy had sixty-nine ships assigned to the various squadrons about the globe with another nine in special service, providing transportation and communications. Thirty-seven ships were found in yard duty or as training ships. In the nineteenth century, navies traditionally used ships facing obsolescence as receiving (barracks) ships, store ships, and as floating prisons. So the Navy only amounted to one hundred fifteen ships in commission (active) and one hundred sixty-three ships laid up in storage, needing repairs, incomplete in the ways, or for sale. This, just one year after the end of the war.
THE U.S. NAVY WAS in retrograde. Secretary of the Navy Gideon Welles was in his fifth year in the cabinet and had successfully prosecuted the “Anaconda Plan,” isolating and starving the south of foreign trade, and establishing domination of the inland waterways. In executing this plan, the U.S. had abandoned its structure of squadrons abroad which conducted U.S. foreign policy, protecting U.S. business interests, and spending its time literally “showing the flag.” Even before the end of the war in 1865, the Secretary of the Navy, Gideon Welles, recognized the Navy’s mission would be reverting to its pre-war stance, cruising abroad, protecting U.S. commercial interests, and conducting diplomacy. The Navy organized ships in squadrons to protect U.S. business and maritime interests in Africa, Asia, Europe and in the western hemisphere to accomplish this mission. Despite Civil War experience, these squadrons were not designed to conduct exercises en masse, and it was most common for U.S. ships to sail individually.
THE U.S. MARINE CORPS hadn’t escaped the Civil War wrapped in everlasting glory. Losses in comparison to the volunteer regiments were genuinely small; during the war, only 148 Marines were killed in action and 312 died due to other causes. The rout at Manassas, two companies of Marines surrendering without a fight to the CSS Alabama while travelling aboard the mail-ship Ariel, and the debacles of Forts Sumter and Fort Fisher, the Marine Corps did little to burnish the small force’s image.
TOO, SECRETARY OF THE NAVY Gideon Welles felt little fondness for the Marines. In 1864, Marine Corps Colonel Commandant John Harris died at the age of 71.[1] Secretary of the Navy Gideon Welles wrote:
“May 14 (1864), Saturday. Attended the funeral of Colonel Harris. His death gives embarrassment as to a successor. The higher class of marine officers are not the men who can elevate or give efficiency to the corps. To supersede them will cause much dissatisfaction. Every man who is over-slaughed (sic) and all his friends will be offended with me for what will be deemed an insult. But there is my duty to perform.”[2]
THE LACK OF A viable successor forced Welles to pass over one colonel and two lieutenant colonels and to select Major Jacob Zeilin to be seventh commandant of the Marine Corps. The passed over officers were allowed to remain in place in the barracks commands they held until the end of the war. This left Zeilin to deal with the challenges of disgruntled of high-ranking subordinates, a demobilizing force, budget cuts, desertions, and the existential fight to remain one of three military services. Periodically, individuals in congress, the Army, the Navy, and presidential administrations volunteered the abolition of the Marine Corps. In 1864 Congress presented recommendations to either dissolve the Marine Corps or reassign it to the army.[3] While the move never made it to the floor, it was a harbinger of the struggle Marine Corps leadership would have for the following forty years.
ENDEMIC TO THE STRUGGLE of the next several decades was the age of the Marine officer corps. Senior officers occupied their thrones in the barracks at the Navy yards, answering to the Navy Yard Commandant, with remote input from HQMC. Lieutenants and sergeants primarily led the detachments aboard ships around the globe. Unlike the Army during the Civil War, no junior Marine officers were promoted quickly to senior leadership roles by war’s end. Marine officers could only expect promotion when a senior Marine officer died or retired at age 64. In 1865 there were only seventy-seven Marine Corps officers, and thirty-two hundred enlisted Marines. The Marine Corps would not grow past this size until the turn of the century, and Civil War lieutenants couldn’t expect promotion to Major for nearly thirty years.
ASIDE FROM fighting the mixed record of the service in the war, the poor esteem of the Secretary of the Navy, a calcified staff composed of officers past their sell by dates, and increasing austerity in military budgets, Zeilin sought to improve the quality of Marine recruits, his thought being “a few good men are preferable to a number of recruits of inferior materiel.” Results, if measured by desertion rates, were nothing to crow about. Recruiting was conducted in cities away from the eastern harbor cities, in a burgeoning movement to reduce reliance on foreign born recruits.
WHERE MARINES were found were in the Navy Yards, and aboard ship. No formal training depots had been established, and no garrison prepared for deployment existed. Marine officers would continue to convince themselves that the Corps was more effective mustering ad hoc units when emergencies occurred, despite the chaos of bringing hundreds of men together from disparate stations to serve under officers and sergeants they’d never met. In the navy yards, the Marines expectedly guarded the gates of the facility, monitoring workers, sailors, Marines, and civilians seeking to access the property. Imposing good conduct and order at the gates prevented incidents aboard the yard. Additionally, they pulled walking tours, conducting “fire watch.” Shipyards, at the time, were notorious for the flammable materials they kept on hand. Timber, pitch, canvas, sawdust, coal, ammunition were all commodities in abundance where wooden ships were built. Ships were built in large, barn-like timber ship houses, where workers could work out of the weather and wooden ships not ready for commissioning could be stored out of the water. The skylines of Naval Yards were dominated by these gigantic wooden structures. Ropewalks were another hazard; long, narrow, wooden sheds where hemp was turned into rope, they housed fibers that had escaped from the rope making process. Obviously, oil or gas lamps were not always conducive to good, safe production or storage of flammable materials. Having the Marines on guard for common hazards helped prevent disaster. The Marines also provided ceremonial formations, both aboard the yard greeting visiting dignitaries, and marching in local parades. When needed, Marines reacted to fires in town, assisting local fire departments.
THE UNIFORMS MARINES wore in 1866 were similar in some ways to dress uniforms we recognize today, yet foreign in others. The familiar Eagle, globe, and anchor emblem hadn’t been introduced yet. Instead, a recumbent bugle encircling a gothic capital M adorned the head gear worn by officer and Marine alike. Headgear was either a tall black shako, a flat-topped conical cover with a short brim, or a black kepi, familiar to anyone from illustrations of the uniforms of the Union and Confederacy at the time. The Marines’ coat was a dark navy colored medium length frock coat, and when under arms, adorned with crossed webbing shoulder straps and belt, with brass buckles at the breastbone and waist. Their web gear would carry an ammunition box, a primer pouch, and a bayonet. Requirements for duty in the navy yards or aboard ship wouldn’t require musette bags or canteens on a regular basis. Trousers would either be white, or medium blue adorned with a red outboard seam stripe in red for officers and senior non-commissioned officers.
MARINE OFFICERS CARRIED a 1851 Navy Colt revolver in .36 caliber, and the U.S. Army officers’ sword with brass handguard.[4] Marines started the Civil War armed with the 1855 Rifled Musket with bayonet, firing the .58 caliber Minie ball round. By the end of the war, Marines were armed with either the muzzle loading 1861 Whitney Plymouth Rifle in .69 caliber, or the 1861 Rifled Musket in .58 caliber. Marines were required to be familiar with the guns that studded the decks of Navy vessels, as they may be required to man them when assigned to sea duty. This training would be administered at the local level, in the barracks setting, as the concept of a dedicated training depot for new recruits was still fifty years in the future.
THE CHARLESTOWN NAVY YARD was established in Boston in 1801, and in 1802 the Secretary of the Navy called for the establishment of a Marine guard to secure the shipyard. Marines too were assigned to the yards in Philadelphia, Brooklyn, the District of Columbia, and Gosport, Virginia.[5] In 1866 at Boston, Major Charles McCawley, USMC,[6] commanded four captains and lieutenants, and one hundred eighty-four Marine sergeants, corporals, fifers, drummers, and privates.[7] As with the other established Marine Barracks in the northeast, a constant struggle was found in maintaining sixty-year-old, 19th century structures oftentimes too small to house the assigned Marines. Over the decades, barracks would expand by building up, adding floors to the basic structure, and enclosing what were once balconies.
IN BOSTON in December of 1865, the toilet facilities were brought inside for the first time. At the same time some members of Congress were calling for the closure of the Charlestown Navy Yard, hinting to the austerity measures all the uniformed services would experience in the coming decade. Decaying facilities, and frequent rotation on guard duty were identified as major reasons for desertion rates of 25%. To alleviate some of the hardship of the aging barracks, the United States Receiving Ship Ohio provided overflow berthing for one first lieutenant, four sergeants, six corporals and thirty-seven privates.
TO THE NORTHEAST, the Marine Barracks at the Portsmouth Navy Yard at Kittery, Maine, was commanded by Lieutenant Colonel James H. Jones, USMC. He had two captains[8], two first lieutenants, ten sergeants, seven corporals, 3 drummers, 3 fifers, and ninety-nine privates assigned to his command. The base had recently been expanded by half, with the purchase of Seavey Island. The United States Receiving Ship Vandalia berthed an orderly sergeant, two corporals and thirteen privates awaiting sufficient barracks ashore.
AT THE NEW YORK NAVY YARD, in Brooklyn, Colonel William L. Shuttleworth, USMC, who had been passed over for the Commandant’s position by Major Jacob Zeilin, USMC, commanded four captains, six lieutenants, five fifers, seven drummers, twenty-two sergeants, twenty-two corporals, and 360 privates. New York also hosted a Marine Corps Recruiting Station, manned by one captain, and one sergeant who’d enlisted thirty-seven recruits in the month of July.
THE PHILADELPHIA NAVY YARD, located at Federal Street and Front Street, was commanded by Major Thomas Y. Field, USMC, who had two captains, one first lieutenant, two second lieutenants, eighteen sergeants, twenty-one corporals, six drummers, two fifers, and two hundred fifty-four privates. Because of limited barracks space fifty-four Marines, led by an orderly sergeant, and a sergeant, berthed aboard the United States Receiving Ship Constellation.
IN 1866, THE NAVY was in negotiations to purchase League Island, as they needed a freshwater anchorage for the decommissioned Civil War fleet and the Navy Yard’s existing location in the city restricted any further growth.[9] Over the next decade, the spectacle of dozens of warships and monitors rusting at anchor would be in full view at League Island, as well as on the Anacostia River in Washington, DC. The recruiting station in Philadelphia netted fifty-three privates in July of 1866.
AT THE WASHINGTON, DC NAVY YARD, manning the Latrobe Gate and other posts, Captain Charles Heywood, USMC,[10] commanded a first lieutenant, ten sergeants, six corporals, a drummer, two fifers, and one hundred seventy-seven privates. While the DC Navy Yard’s importance as a ship building facility waned, due to the shallow Anacostia and Potomac Rivers, its importance as a center for innovation in naval ordnance grew. Navy leadership sought to decrease the size of the civilian workforce at the Washington Navy Yard, and others in the northeast, but ran into opposition in Congress, where representatives and senators pulled every string to keep work forces in their districts and states employed. Not too far away, to the east, the United States Receiving Ship Allegany, with an orderly sergeant, two corporals and twenty-two privates guarded Navy assets in Baltimore harbor.
THE MARINE BARRACKS AT 8th & I Streets, where the Colonel Commandant had his headquarters, was, and remains today, just north of the Washington Navy Yard. The barracks was commanded by Major George R. Graham, USMC, who commanded a captain, a first lieutenant, seven second lieutenants (largely in training), an orderly sergeant, sixteen sergeants, eleven corporals, ten drummers, ten fifers, twenty-nine members of the Marine Band, with twenty “boys” (teenage apprentices for musician positions) and two hundred ninety-five privates. The Marine Band had a longer history in DC than did the guard Marines, having arrived from Philadelphia in 1800 under the direction of President Thomas Jefferson.
As it was not located aboard a Navy Yard, or Naval Station, it was the only barracks that the Colonel Commandant had operational command over. In all instances where Marines were stationed at Navy Yards, Naval Stations, or depots, they reported to the local Navy CO.
TO THE SOUTHEAST, Marines guarded the facilities at the United States Naval Academy, in Annapolis, Maryland. The USNA had recently returned from its wartime relocation to Newport, RI, and Rear Admiral David Dixon Porter, USN, second ranking officer in the Navy, was engaged in improving the curriculum, expanding the campus, and cleaning up after Army troops stationed at Annapolis during the war. Instead of barracks, the Marines were based aboard receiving ships; the USS Constitution, USS Nimpsic, USS Santee, USS Savannah, USS Marion, and USS Macedonian were home to five orderly sergeants, four sergeants, nine corporals, five fifers, four drummers, one music, and eighty-six privates.
AT THE NORFOLK Navy Yard, in Portsmouth, Virginia, (formerly the Gosport Navy Yard,)[11] razed during the rebellion and recaptured by the Army in 1862, Captain William H. Hale, USMC, commanded two first lieutenants, one second lieutenant, an orderly sergeant, six sergeants, ten corporals, three musics, and 154 privates. The navy yard was, and remains, located to the south of the city of Norfolk, the Naval Station to the north wouldn’t be purchased until the build-up to the First World War. As the essential facilities of the Norfolk Navy Yard were under repair, the United States Receiving Ship New Hampshire billeted a first lieutenants, a second lieutenant, five sergeants, four corporals, a drummer, a fifer and fifty privates.
FURTHER SOUTH, near what is today Hilton Head, South Carolina, Orderly Sergeant Thomas B. Isham, USMC, led the Marines guarding the Naval Depot at Baypoint, South Carolina. With him were four corporals, and twenty privates, guarding supplies left over from the blockading campaign during the war. (Eventually this location would be home to Port Royal Naval Station, and finally Marine Corps Recruit Depot Parris Island.) More importantly, the Pensacola Naval Station, on the gulf coast, was in the process of being rebuilt. Essential to protecting U.S. interests and trade from Florida to Texas, Pensacola was an important station to maintain security of U.S. Caribbean interests, and the approaches to the Panamanian Isthmus, which was home to an essential rail link between the Caribbean and Pacific, and in turn, the east and west coasts of the United States.
IN 1866, THERE was a Marine presence inland, in the Midwest. In Chicago, Lieutenant Henry Clay Cochrane, USMC,[12] commanded the recruiting effort, assisted by one sergeant, and a corporal. In July, they netted sixty-three recruits. At the Naval Station in Mound City, Illinois, Marines guarded a portion of the remains of the Mississippi River Squadron in storage on the banks of the Ohio River, as well as the Naval Hospital located there. William H. Parker, Captain, USMC, commanded a detachment composed of a second lieutenant, an orderly sergeant, four sergeants, a drummer, a fifer, and sixty-nine privates. Further south, on the Mississippi River, at the Naval Ordnance Depot at Jefferson Barracks, Missouri, one first lieutenant, one orderly sergeant, three corporals and sixteen privates guarded the remains of the Navy’s ordnance stored there.
PRIOR TO THE CIVIL WAR Commander David Farragut, USN, was responsible for much of the development of the Navy’s only west-coast shipyard. North of San Francisco Bay, across the Napa River from Vallejo, California, Mare Island Navy Yard would remain the crossroads of the Navy on the Pacific until the annexation of Hawaii and Pearl Harbor, and the establishment of a Naval Station in San Diego at the turn of the century. Guarding the shipyard under Lieutenant Colonel M.R. Kintzing, USMC, were two captains, two second lieutenants, fourteen sergeants, ten corporals, seven musics, and one hundred forty-four privates.
SECRETARY of the Navy Gideon Welles was nominated to his office in 1861 by President Abraham Lincoln. While he’d supported Lincoln’s campaign, he had no experience in uniform, or aboard ship. Gideon Welles was in his fifth year serving in the President’s cabinet. As there was no Secretary of Defense, or Department of Defense until 1947, the Secretary of the Navy, along with the Secretary of War, representing the Army, were in constant contact with the President and his entire cabinet’s decision-making process. In 1866 Welles’ diary highlights where his concerns lay; political infighting had reared its head regarding how harsh, or easy, the peace with the southern states should be. Would Congress for the first time override a presidential veto, and how would the administration deal with Fenians invading Canada from the U.S.? What to do with the Confederate Admiral Semmes, who was incarcerated at Washington Navy Yard? Also, President Johnson was on his way to being embroiled in his impeachment, exhibiting poor judgement and acting contrary to the needs of a nation scarred by internecine battle for the better part of five years. Debate over the Freedmen Bureau dominated discussion where rebuilding southern Navy Yards destroyed in the war did not. Additionally, diplomacy with France over its role in Mexico absorbed much of the administration’s time and efforts.
SENIOR RANKING NAVY OFFICER Vice-Admiral David Glascoe Farragut, had been responsible for the successful prosecution of the riverine portion of the Civil War. His leadership at New Orleans led to the Union’s execution of what the press had dubbed the “Anaconda Plan,” which eventually resulted in the capture of the Mississippi. By splitting the South geographically and taking the essential port of New Orleans out of the Confederacy’s logistical plan, and obliterating the Confederate Navy at Mobile Bay, the blockade of the rest of the southern ports had the desired effect on the population and armies of the south. The war had taken its toll on Farragut, aged 65 in 1866. Farragut had been in uniform since the age of nine as a Midshipman aboard the USS ESSEX, serving under his father prior to the War of 1812. After service in the West Indies, and during the Mexican American War, Farragut was tasked with creating the Navy’s first west coast shipyard, at Mare Island in the Bay Area during the 1850s. Lincoln promoted him to Vice Admiral in 1864, and Congress made him a full Admiral in July of 1866, while he was working out of the Navy Office in DC.[13]
WITH THE CESSATION OF HOSTILITIES, the Navy sought to rid itself of the ships it had captured from the Confederate Navy, and civilian ships it had purchased for the duration.
ONCE THE FOCUS for ships of the various foreign based squadrons shifted from interdicting trade with the South to cruising for diplomatic purposes was made, U.S. Naval policy found low tide, where it would largely remain for the following decade and a half. While the Secretary’s annual reports called for investments in infrastructure in existing navy yards, the rebuilding of the destroyed yards at Norfolk and Pensacola, plans were being made for the purchase of League Island, and land near New London, Connecticut for coaling operations. As would be expected in the year following the Civil War, politicians in the North had no interest in rebuilding Pensacola and Norfolk, instead seeking to further feather the beds of constituents working in and around the Navy Yards of the northeast.
THE EUROPEAN SQUADRON, composed of ten ships, with guns ranging from 48 on the Flagship Colorado, to 11 or fewer on the other ships of the squadron. The breakdown of ships, guns and Marines aboard[14]:
USS Colorado, flagship, 48 guns, two Marine officers, two sergeants, fifty-four enlisted
USS Ticonderoga, 11 guns, orderly sergeant, sergeant, twenty-four enlisted
USS Augusta, 10 guns, orderly sergeant and fourteen enlisted
USS Swatara, 10 guns, orderly sergeant, fourteen enlisted
USS Shamrock, 10 guns, orderly sergeant, fourteen enlisted
USS Canandaigua, 9 guns, first lieutenant, two sergeants, twenty-three enlisted
USS Frolic, 5 guns, corporal, eight privates
USS Miantonomoh, turreted ironclad, 4 guns, orderly sergeant, two corporals, eleven privates
USS Guard, 3 guns, no Marines
USS Ino, 3 guns, no Marines[15]
This squadron was commanded by Rear Admiral Louis M. Goldsborough, USN,[16] and spent its efforts visiting ports in the Baltic, Western Europe, and the Mediterranean.
THE ASIATIC SQUADRON, cruising the Indian Ocean eastward to the ports and sea lanes off Japan and China, had eight ships, under the command of Rear Admiral H.H. Bell, USN.
USS Hartford, flagship, 23 guns, Marine captain, first lieutenant, orderly sergeant, sergeant, and forty enlisted.
USS Wachusett, 10 guns, orderly sergeant, thirteen enlisted
USS Monacacy, 10 guns, orderly sergeant, fourteen enlisted
USS Ashuelot, sidewheel gunboat, 10 guns, sergeant, thirteen enlisted
USS Shenandoah, 9 guns, first lieutenant, orderly sergeant, sergeant, twenty-two enlisted
USS Wyoming, 7 guns, orderly sergeant, fifteen enlisted (Yokahama)
USS Supply, stores ship, 6 guns, no Marines
USS Relief, stores ship, 3 guns, no Marines
Secretary Welles laid out interests in the region, especially Japan, in his report of October 1866.
“In the not-too-distant future it will be of importance to this country to secure the commerce of Japan, and we should not permit ourselves to become complicated in the controversies of other powers with this particular people. Such is the policy of this department.”
THE NORTH ATLANTIC Squadron, composed of fifteen ships, cruised the ports of the eastern U.S., and Caribbean, and was responsible for, amongst other things, the sometimes-disputed fisheries off Atlantic Canada. Revolutionary actions in Haiti and St. Domingo (today’s Dominican Republic) concerned the Secretary, but since no U.S. interests had been harmed they’d been hands off. Ships of the squadron were as follows.
USS Rhode Island, 12 guns, Marine captain, second lieutenant, orderly sergeant, sergeant, forty-four enlisted
USS Osceola, 10 guns, no Marines
USS Saco, 12 guns, no Marines
USS Mackinaw, 10 guns, orderly sergeant, fifteen enlisted
USS Winooski, 10 guns, orderly sergeant, fourteen enlisted
USS Agawam, 10 guns, no Marines
USS Lenapee, 10 guns, no Marines
USS Chickopee, 10 guns, orderly sergeant, thirteen enlisted
USS Monongahela, 9 guns, second lieutenant, orderly sergeant, sergeant, twenty two enlisted
USS DeSoto, 9 guns, orderly sergeant, nineteen enlisted
USS Bienville, 9 guns, no Marines
USS Yantic, 9 guns, no Marines
USS Conemaugh, 8 guns, no Marines
USS Florida, 6 guns, orderly sergeant, eleven enlisted
USS Daffodil, 1 gun, no Marines (at Baypoint, SC (Port Royal))
THE SOUTH ATLANTIC SQUADRON, composed of eight ships was responsible for cruising the eastern ports of South America and western ports of Africa. Rear Admiral Gordon, USN, commanded the following ships.
USS Brooklyn, flagship, 21 guns, first lieutenant, three sergeants, forty-six enlisted
USS Juniata, 15 guns, orderly sergeant, sergeant, twenty-two enlisted
USS Shamokin, 10 guns, no Marines
USS Kansas, 9 guns, no Marines
USS Nipsic, 8 guns, one sergeant, nineteen enlisted, (at USNA)
USS Shawmut, 6guns, no Marines
USS Wasp, 3 guns, orderly sergeant, ten enlisted
USS Onward, 3 guns, no Marines
ON THE U.S. WEST COAST, the North Pacific Squadron, ten ships, cruised from Mexico to Puget Sound, and as far west as the Sandwich Islands (Hawaii). Rear Admiral Henry Knox Thatcher, USN, commanded the following ships.
USRS Vanderbilt, receiving ship, 15 guns, orderly sergeant, sergeant, thirty-six enlisted (Mare Island)
USS Pensacola, 21 guns, no Marines
USS Saranac, temporarily, 13 guns, second lieutenant, orderly sergeant, sergeant, thirty-two enlisted
USS Suwanee, 12 guns, no Marines
USS Mohongo, 10guns, orderly sergeant, 15 enlisted (Panama)
USS Jamestown, 22 guns, orderly sergeant, fourteen enlisted
USS Lackawanna, 9 guns, second lieutenant, orderly sergeant, two sergeants, twenty-five enlisted
USS Mohican, 8 guns, orderly sergeant, fourteen enlisted
USS Resaca, 8 guns, two sergeants, sixteen enlisted
USS Saginaw, 4 guns, no Marines
IN THE SOUTH PACIFIC SQUADRON seven ships covered U.S. interests from the western coast of South America to Australia. Rear Admiral Pearson commanded the following ships.
USS Powhatan, flag ship, 22 guns, captain, second lieutenant, orderly sergeant, two sergeants, four corporals, music, forty-two privates
USS Tuscarora, 10 guns, orderly sergeant, two corporals, thirteen privates
USS Wateree, 10 guns, orderly sergeant, two corporals, seven privates
USS Nyack, 8 guns, no Marines
USS Dacotah, 7 guns, orderly sergeant, two corporals, twelve privates
USS Farallones, storeship, 6 guns, (Mare Island)
USS Fredonia, 4 guns, no Marines
CLOSER TO HOME, ten ships composed the Gulf Squadron, guarding the approaches to the Panamanian isthmus and gulf state ports.
USS Estrella, flagship, 3 guns, orderly sergeant, two corporals, nine privates
USS Mahaska, 10 guns, no Marines
USS Tallapoosa, 10 guns, no Marines
USS Potomac, 26 guns, no Marines
USS Paul Jones, 8 guns, no Marines
USS Chocura, 6 guns, no Marines
USS Tahoma, 4 guns, no Marines
USS Yucca, 2 guns, no Marines
USS Glasgow, 2 guns, no Marines
USS Charlotte, 0 guns,
SHIPS CRUISING IN Special Services, nine in all, provided support and transport from U.S. ports to foreign squadrons and policed the Great Lakes, lately the scene of Fenians from the U.S. attacking English forces in Canada.
USS Sabine, apprentice ship, New London, Connecticut, and at the USNA
USS Massachusetts, transport
USS Memphis, transport
USS New Bern, transport
USS Purveyor, transport
USS Don, tug
USS Ascutney, tug
USS Sacramento, special cruise off coast of China
USS Michigan, Great Lakes, captured Fenians attacking Canada
USS Susquehanna, transport minister to Mexico for discussions with the French
Much of the fleet had been designed for the war on the rivers, where armor and armament were more important than open seaworthiness and speed. As a result several classes of monitors were developed. Shallow draft, minimal freeboard, and heavily armored decks dominated by an armor clad turret shielding one or two large cannon were features that would minimize damage from enemy shore guns or enemy ironclads. By the end of the war, some of the monitors employed two turrets, increasing firepower, as well as displacement.
The commander of the Marine Detachment aboard ship reported to the captain of the vessel. On smaller vessels, which didn’t rate a Marine officer, an Orderly Sergeant led the detachment.[17] Headquarters Marine Corps was responsible for training, equipping, and assigning Marines to the various detachments, but Marine headquarters did not command the detachments operationally. In 1866 Commandant Zeilin made note of the number of billets aboard ship that he could not fill given the current state of recruiting. He didn’t bring up desertions at that time.
IN CASE OF HOSTILITIES, embarked Marines were expected to man the rigging on the many ships that still operated under sail, and be prepared to either repel boarders, or take an enemy ship. Their role of acting as sharpshooters was reduced with the introduction of larger naval guns, mortars, and rifles. Though the likelihood of naval battles being settled by boarding parties decreased with time, taking naval prizes of defeated enemy combatant and merchant ships was common in the Civil War, and as a practice continued into the 20th century. Additionally, Marines were part of the deterrence aboard ship against mutiny. The U.S. Navy had little to no experience with mutiny by this point. Navy policy regarding mutiny was very proactive; with no requirement for showing probable cause, the hint of mutiny led to the most drastic of reactions. In the 1843 case of the USS Somers, potential mutineers were hung after a hearing.[18] In the 19th century this was the nearest the Navy came to experiencing a takeover of a ship by its crew. This history means you may either judge Marines in their mission of enforcing discipline and conduct as either extremely effective, or absolutely superfluous.
Marines at sea and in harbor stood watch outside the ships’ captains’ quarters, and at the quarterdeck, and manned security posts at various posts about the ship. As required, they manned one or more of the ship’s guns, at the captain’s discretion. Marines were not typically required to execute sailors’ tasks such as maintenance and bringing on coal. Over the years animosity developed over the Marines’ authority, in keeping good order and discipline, and not pitching in on shipboard maintenance. Either way, the presence of Marines on board ships, enforcing regulations, raised the hackles of many sailors and Navy officers. An argument made later was that the presence of Marines minimized the authority of officers and petty officers, which sounds more like an excuse for the lack of Navy leadership than the Marines being detrimental to good conduct aboard ship.
IN 1866, the work of the Navy was managed through a series of seven bureaus, each responsible for common functions. All reported to the Secretary of the Navy but lobbied their individual budgets with Congress separately. Congress enabled this behavior, as programs benefitted certain districts and provided bargaining chips. The separate bureaus therefore became politicized silos, with struggles over authority running into duplication of effort. The Bureaus were as follows.
§ Bureau of Yards and Docks was responsible for the infrastructure named. As ship technology developed, so to must yard technology develop. Old wooden drydocks would necessarily be replaced by larger stone or concrete docks in coming years.
§ Bureau of Equipment and Recruiting was largely responsible for ropewalks and the manufacture of rope fundamental to rigging vessels, but was also involved in recruiting and mitigating desertion.
§ Bureau of Navigation focused on compasses, and charting U.S. waters, personnel decisions, USNA housing, the Naval Observatory and Nautical Almanac. Over the years Navigation would be increasingly influential because of personnel decisions.
§ Bureau of Ordnance developed new 15” guns prior and during the Civil War, replaced wooden gun carriages with wrought iron items, and introduced breech loading shoulder arms, replacing muzzle loaders. The Washington, DC, Navy Yard became the focal point for ordnance as ship building and repair functions shifted to deeper water yards.
§ Bureau of Construction and Repair would become more involved in repairs. The Navy got around reporting the construction of altogether new vessels by claiming to be repairing older vessels and fudging for mistakes made in construction of ships during the war. Recently launched ships were notorious for rot for failing to use live-oak in construction.
§ Bureau of Steam Engineering was responsible for the machinery that would drive the fleet after sail. While the steam engine had been in use on ships since 1807, the technology was developing every year, with the concept of using fuel oil instead of coal first being addressed by the U.S. Navy in 1867.
§ Bureau of Provisions and Clothing sought to deplete left over stores from the Civil War, before producing uniforms in house, as the French and British did, and shifting onus on securing uniform items for sailors, so that they would no longer need to go out on town to secure uniforms.
§ Bureau of Medicine and Surgery directed the various Naval Hospitals and developed statistical methods of tracking the myriad of diseases that challenged the services during the 19thcentury. In 1866 Yellow Fever struck Pensacola Naval Station,
On an annual basis they reported to Secretary of the Navy, which remains an incredible source of information for the amateur historians among us.
With civilian leadership in the form of the Secretary of the Navy giving the bureaus free reign, there was no formal system of coordination between the bureaus, which fostered duplication in functions in each of the Navy Yards. Bureaus could be found directing staff officers aboard ships or at Navy yards, outside of the operational chain of command. Perhaps the most visible failure was in the case of the Casco Class of monitors.
CHIEF ENGINEER ALBAN STIMERS had gained great repute in the development and deployment of early Navy ironclads, such as the USS Monitor. Because of his reputation, he’d been put in charge of development of a new class of ironclads. Unfortunately, it seems he got ahead of himself in the process and failed to involve other designers typically involved in the development of new vessels. As a result, when ships in the Casco class were launched, they only had three inches of freeboard prior to armament and ammunition being loaded.
SECRETARY WELLES laid the blame on Stimer’s ego in his personal diary, but acknowledged he’d be taking the brunt of the blame in Congress. Ships of class were completed after prolonged redesign, but largely were not commissioned until after the war’s end. Ships surplus to requirements were sold off as quickly as possible, but many ships of the class wound up rotting in storage at League Island and on the Anacostia River in coming decades.
THE UNITED STATES NAVY, and United States Marine Corps of 1866 were on the winning side of the Civil War, yet in rough shape, with little relief on the horizon. Flawed promotion structures, ever shrinking resources, corruption and waste in procurement and development, diminishing morale, and questionable professional standards would exacerbate the situation for years. Not until the end of the next decade would Congress find the wherewithal to address the shortcomings in the Navy and eventually in turn, the Marine Corps.
IN FUTURE ENTRIES, we’ll examine the move towards reform politically, and the organizational improvements the two services will engage in as they enter the Gilded Age.
[1] Harris had served in the War of 1812, the Seminole Indian Wars, the War with Mexico (reluctantly) before becoming commandant upon the death of Archibald Henderson, “the old man of the Marine Corps,” in 1859.
[2] Diary of Gideon Welles Volumes I & II. (Editor, publisher, date, Kindle Edition)
[3] “In a letter dated 1 June 1865, Gustavus Fox listed eight postwar objectives of the Navy Department; item number four was ‘marines to go to Army, where they belong.’” Commandants of the Marine Corps – Allan R. Millett and Jack Shulimson, Naval Institute Press, Annapolis, MD. 2004. P93.
[4] From 1859 to 1875 the traditional Marine officers’ Mameluke had been set aside.
[5] Yates, John R., and Yates, Thomas. The Boston Marine Barracks – A History, 1799-1974. McFarland & Company, Inc. Jefferson, NC. 2015
[6] Lieutenant Colonel Commandant of the Marine Corps, 1876-1891
[7] Marine Corps Muster Rolls, July 1866, Anscestry.com
[8] One was Robert L. Huntington, USMC.
[9] After the Navy abandoned the Philadelphia yard for League island, the location became the wharves for the Pennsylvania Rail Road. Today I-95 is built atop what was the yard, next to a Ruby Buffet and Pep Boys.
[10] Lieutenant Colonel Commandant of the Marine Corps, 1891-1903
[11] Gosport was located to the south of Norfolk, in Portsmouth, VA.
[12] Cochrane would become a strident advocate for reforming the Marine Corps in the 1870s and 1880s, including calling for the ouster of Commandant Zeilin. Unlike many of his contemporaries, he left copious journals, giving insight into his career in barracks and at sea, as well as in his personal life. In 1861, he’d sought, and received a commission as a Second Lieutenant in the USMC, only to lose his commission the following day due to his being underage. For three years during the war, he’d served as a Master in the Navy, before being awarded his Marine commission in 1864. J.F. Holden-Rhodes’ “Smart and Faithful Force, Henry Clay Cochrane and the United States Marine Corps, 1861-1905” presents the best of these journals.
[13] Charles River Editors. “Admiral David Farragut: The Life and Legacy of the American Civil War’s Most Famous Naval Officer” Kindle Edition.
[14] For these purposes, enlisted means Corporals, Drummers, Fifers and Privates. Upon further review, I should have broken out Corporals, because they were non-commissioned officers as were sergeants. Mea culpa. The source of these numbers are the muster rolls of the U.S. Marine Corps of July 1866. Given the originals are written in 19th century cursive, I may have misread a thing or two.
[15] There may have been no Marines for several reasons. The muster roll may not have been included with those scanned by Anscestry.com. The ship may have been under repair, and the Marines assigned to the barracks while the ship was in harbor. The ship may have been too small for a detachment. As far as I know, there was no formal order to prevent Marines from serving aboard ship at this time.
[16] Goldsborough began his service at the age of 11 as a Midshipman, in 1816. During the Civil War, he’d commanded the Atlantic Blockading Squadron.
[17] Orderly Sergeant was more of a position, rather than rank, presaging the position of Company First Sergeant. Where a detachment lacked an officer, and a sergeant had to adopt roles other than posting the guard, such as administration, and reporting to Navy command the Orderly Sergeant bridged the gap. Later in the 1800s, the rank of First Sergeant would be created, and the Orderly Sergeant would be disestablished.
[18] Guttridge, Leonard F. “Mutiny: a history of naval insurrection.” Naval Institute Press. Annapolis. 1992
Comments
Post a Comment