The United States Marine Corps History Essay Example

The United States Marine Corps has persevered through many hardships in their beginning to become the toughness they are known for around the world today. Started on November 10th, 1775, when the Continental congress passed a resolution that two battalions of American Marines were to be raised. Captain Samuel Nicholas was authorized to recruit the Marines for service in a squadron led by Commodore Ezek Hopkins called the Continental Navy’s first. Which was then forming in Philadelphia. In mid-February there were three hundred Marines divided between eight ships destined for New Providence in the Bahamas. Nicholas led a landing party of Marines on March 3rd capturing two small stone forts. The first American Marine engagement was a success. On return to Philadelphia Nicholas was promoted to Major and charged with raising four more companies of Marines. Which were Then put in service of the four frigates being built. In December 1776 Nicholas with three of those Companies crossed the Delaware river to join Washington. Arriving in time for the battle of Princeton. After Princeton the Marines shrank in size down to a small garrison. It was then Marine recruiters Started using the slogan “looking for a few good men”. The Marines saw action again in the Summer Of 1779. A Boston expedition sailed to Penobscot Bay to overthrow two battalions of British that had Fortified themselves in a hastily built fort named Fort George. With a landing force of over a thousand men, a quarter of which were Marines. In the Main attack thirteen Marines died among the dead was the commanding officer along with twenty more wounded. 

The Marines were able to scale the cliff to reach the fort. Unfortunately, a British squadron arrived in the bay August 13th. The next day the British ships attacked. Nineteen American ships were lost but most of the men were able to escape overland to Boston. The largest amphibious landing of the Revolutionary War ended in failure. Shortly after the American Independence the Barbery pirates, state-supported pirates in North Africa. Captured several American ships, declaring war on the United States. America was able to conduct a Treaty with Morocco in 1787. They were not able to make treaties with Algiers, Tunis, and Tripoli until1795. However, in 1801 the Pasha of Tripoli claiming late payments of tribute declared war on the United States. In 1805 Marine Lieutenant Presley O’Bannon marched an army six hundred miles across The Libyan desert, and successfully stormed the fortified Tripoline city of Derna. That march is where we get the words “to the shores of Tripoli” from the Marine hymn. With the defeat of Tripoli in 1805 The Tripoline government signed a treaty with the United States so that America was no longer Obligated to pay tribute to that country. 

In 1812 the Dey of Algiers rejecting the treaty of 1795 declared war on the United States. Shortly after Britain declared war on America again. Because Of the war with the British, America was not able to deal with Algiers until 1815 after the “treaty of Ghent” with the British. The United States Navy, which had grown during the war of 1812, sent a whole Squadron to the Mediterranean. When the U.S. Navy arrived in Algiers, the new ruler Dey Omar, not Wishing to fight a superior force, reluctantly signed a treaty with America, ending the paying of tribute, And the attacking of American ships. The squadron sailed to Tunis, Tripoli, and Morocco to receive similar treaties. Ending the American involvement with the Barbary pirates. 

Now backing up a year to 1814 with the war with Britain. In the Summer of 1814, the British marched toward Washington with Four thousand veteran troops. Defending the Capitol were mostly militia, whose numbers did not make Up for the lack of training. Captain Samuel Miller marched one hundred and three Marines to join the Defense. When the British crossed the Potomac’s eastern branch on August 24th the militia withdrew but the Marines took a stand knowing it was futile. Eight Marines were killed, Captain Miller among the dead, with fourteen others wounded. The British were able to burn most of Washington, but because Of that stand of the Marines the British were not able to take Baltimore. Later that year in December Major Daniel Carmick and three hundred Marines took their place beside Andrew Jackson in New Orleans. The British advanced over an open field and over seven hundred of Them died along with their commanding officer Major General Sir Edward Pakenham.

The Marines fought in the war with Mexico (1846-1847) where they fought to the “Halls of Montezuma” another line to the Marine hymn. When the United States declared war on Germany April 6th, 1917, the Marines advertised the slogan “First to fight”. Marine recruiting stations were full of volunteers. By June 14, three oversized battalions of Marines, called the 5th regiment, commanded by Colonel Charles A. Doyen joined the first American troop convoy to sail for France. There General John J. Pershing parceled them out for guard duty and as military police in French ports. The 6th regiment and the 6th machine gun battalion were formed at the new training camp at Quantico, Virginia. They sailed during the fall of 1917, joining the 5th battalion in the beginning of 1918. In mid-March the Marines of the 2nd Division were thrust into the fray where they quickly learned the ugly reality of the western front: lice, mice, mustard gas, and many other diseases. The Marines came out of the trenches in May feeling pleased with their work.

Later in May the French gave way to a massive German offensive. The Germans reached the Marne River at Chateau-Thierry, thirty-five miles from Paris with the road to Paris seeming open. On June 2nd the 2nd Division formed a line across the road. The Germans attacked the next day, and learned a lesson in rifle fire that began to kill at eight hundred yards. They attacked for three more Days. Then on June 6th the 2nd division counter attacked, charging across a wheat field. The Marines objective was hill 142, they fought and charged into German machine gun fire. The Marine commanding officer was shot three times before he died. The Germans were used to artillery, machine gun fire, but sustained rifle fire unnerved them. The Marines attacked with rifle and bayonet and finally took the hill. The cost of taking that hill was more than one thousand men. From there the Marines took out hidden machine gun nests in the ruins of Bouresches. The Germans hid themselves in a nearby hunting reserve called Belleau woods. The Marines fought so ferociously in the wood that the Germans nicknamed them “devil dogs” and said “they killed anything that moved”. On June 9th the Marines pounded the woods with artillery. The next day they started probing the woods. The Marines fought through mustard gas, machine gun fire, and bayonets. The fighting lasted for two weeks, until the Germans were finally pounded into defeat by artillery on June 24th. The Marines suffered casualties of five thousand two hundred men. On the morning of July 18th, the 2nd division attacked southeast of Soissons and by nightfall the 5th regiment had taken the village of Vierzy. The next day they continued the attack with help from the 6th regiment. Those two days fighting had cost them two thousand men but the had successfully punctured the German line. The Germans would never attack again. For nearly two months the 2nd division rebuilt from its losses. Then on September 12th the division entered back into the war at St Mihiel as part of the newly formed U.S. 1st Army. By nightfall of the 15th the Marines held their objective. On October 3rd the 5th and 6th  Regiments attacked with the goal of taking Mont Blanc which was the key to breaking the German line. Within three days of perhaps the brigades heaviest fighting in the war, the Marines held Mont Blanc. On November 1st the division attacked on a narrow two kilometer Front and pierced what the Americans called the “Hindenburg line”. The Marines fight ended 

With a flourish, a night crossing of the Meuse River on November 10th, just hours before the Armistice. After the Armistice came the long march on foot into Germany. Occupational duty in the American Sector around the Rhine River at Koblenz. The 4th Marine brigade were the last ones to come home in the summer of 1919 where they marched proudly past the White House before disbanding at Quantico. The Marines strength had risen from fifteen thousand to almost seventy-six thousand. Of the approximate thirty-two thousand Marines that served in France eleven thousand three hundred and fifty-one became casualties and two thousand fifty-seven of those casualties were either dead or missing in action forever. One Marine made this quote “If I charge follow me, If I retreat kill me, and if I die avenge me”. That sums up the Determination of the Marine Corps.