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A Few Good Men

On March 20, 1779, Captain William Jones, commander of the Marine detachment aboard the Providence, placed an ad in the Providence Gazette: "The Continental ship Providence, now lying at Boston, is bound on a short cruise, immediately; a few good men are wanted to make up her complement." The famous phrase proved an effective recruiting slogan. The Providence set sail in June and, sailing east, encountered a convoy of British ships from Jamaica. The Providence took 11 prizes. After this cruise, Jones and his detachment were taken off the Providence in Charleston, South Carolina, in December 1779 to help man artillery batteries against an anticipated British assault on the city. Jones was captured in May 1780 when Charleston surrendered to the British and later paroled. He spent the final years of the American Revolution working in his family's hardware store in Providence, Rhode Island, but his advertisement had given the Marines one of their most famous descriptions.

Despite the success of John Paul Jones's audacious expeditions, 1779 also witnessed a major defeat for the Continental Marines. On June 15, Brigadier General Francis McLean, leading a troop of 640 British regulars, occupied the Bagaduce Peninsula on Penobscot Bay in Maine, then a province of the Massachusetts colony. McLean's occupation was intended to provide a base from which to attack American privateers and to support loyalist forces in New England.

The government of Massachusetts resolved to launch an expedition against the British occupation of the peninsula before the troop could become entrenched. It assigned 4 of its state Navy's brigs and chartered another 12 privateers and 23 merchantmen as transports. In addition, the Continental Navy supported the Massachusetts expedition by assigning another three ships, the Warren, the Diligent, and the Providence, all of which carried Marine detachments. New Hampshire chartered one privateer in support of the expedition.

Fifteen hundred militiamen were assigned to the expedition, but only 873 actually participated. Still, this added substantially to the 227 Continental and Massachusetts Marines. The colonial forces were commanded by Captain Dudley Saltonstall of the Continental Navy and Brigadier General Solomon Lovell of the Massachusetts militia. Boston silversmith Lieutenant Colonel Paul Revere served as Lovell's chief of artillery.

The Bagaduce Peninsula, approximately 2 miles long and 1 mile wide, extends into the Bagaduce Harbor and is connected to the mainland by a narrow isthmus. When the American forces arrived in the harbor on July 24, the British had already established an artillery battery on Banks Island just off the peninsula and were busy building a log fort in the center of the peninsula (Fort George). The harbor entrance was, therefore, very well guarded, because it fell within the crossfire from Banks Island and the fort on the peninsula and was guarded by three British sloops as well.

On July 26, 1779, Captain John Welsh, the Marine commander aboard the Warren, led a unit of Marines in an amphibious assault on Banks Island, seized the small artillery battery there, and raised the Stars and Stripes. Revere turned the captured British cannon on the three British sloops defending the harbor entrance, which withdrew up the harbor to a position nearer the log fort.

After this initial success, however, the expedition quickly bogged down as the commanders of the force could not agree upon a course of action. Lovell wanted to land on the south side of the Bagaduce Peninsula, which offered the best landing site. In order for him to do so, however, Saltonstall would have to eliminate the three sloops remaining in the harbor, but Saltonstall refused to enter the harbor before Lovell had captured the fort on the peninsula. Saltonstall and Lovell compromised on a landing site on the western end of the peninsula, and on July 28, Captain Welsh led his Marines onto the peninsula.

They were met immediately by musket fire from British troops stationed on the headland and, once ashore, they found themselves struggling up a steep slope. Welsh, an Irishman who came to the colonies to fight the British, was killed immediately. His lieutenant, William Hamilton, fell mortally wounded. Another 13 Marines were killed and 20 more were wounded.

The Continental Marines pressed on, however, pushing the British troops back toward the fort. Massachusetts Marines followed the Continental Marines ashore and pressed up to the fort as well. General McLean stood in the center of his meager fort, ready to take down his colors as soon as his troops had made a token resistance, but the final assault never took place. General Lovell, to protect his men from British musket fire, called a halt to the advance and, during the next few days, began building earthworks and battery emplacements after the fashion of eighteenth-century siege craft against a fort with log walls barely reaching to shoulder height.

One of the Marines under his command later commented that Lovell was a very good sort of man, clearly one who cared about the well-being of his troops, but this sort of good man, the Marine continued, rarely made a good leader. Not wanting to expose his ships to cannonades from the fort, Saltonstall, too, hesitated to take action, and the entire assault bogged down for the next 16 days.

On August 14, the HMS Raisonable and seven other British ships entered Penobscot Bay. The Marines re-embarked on their ships and the small American fleet fled up the Penobscot River. Saltonstall beached the Warren and set her afire. The British pursued the rest of the fleet and over the course of the next two days captured two American vessels. Another 17 were abandoned and burned by their crews. Many of the sailors and Marines who made up the Penobscot Bay expedition were able to escape through the woods along the shore of the river, but casualty estimates run as high as 500 men lost. Saltonstall was brought before a court-martial and cashiered from service.

The Penobscot Bay expedition was a disaster, one that would remain in Marine legend for some time, but it was followed quickly by another disaster in South Carolina. The British, having failed to pacify the central colonies, turned to a southern strategy, hoping to spark rebellion in the southern colonies where they thought loyalist sentiment was strongest. The Continental Congress, anticipating an assault on Charleston, sent four ships, the Boston, the Providence, the Queen of France, and the Ranger; each carrying a detachment of Marines, to South Carolina.

In February 1780, the British opened their campaign with an assault on Charleston. The Americans, though they anticipated the attack, were caught unprepared, and the larger British force was able to trap the small American force in Charleston's harbor and then drive it up the Cooper River and out of the battle. The Queen of France was scuttled, obstructing the river, and the Marines were assimilated into five Continental Army artillery units along the shore. The American forces at Charleston were outnumbered three to one and forced to surrender on May 12, 1780. It was the colonists' greatest defeat during the American Revolutionary War.

The defeat at Charleston also marked a low point for the Continental Navy. With the loss of the Boston, the Providence, the Queen of France, and the Ranger the Continental Navy only had five ships left with Marine detachments, the Alliance, the Confederacy, the Deane, the Saratoga, and the Trumbull. When France entered the war on the side of the colonists, the Continental Navy became virtually superfluous as the French navy was much stronger and posed a much greater threat to the British navy than did the few ships the colonies could keep afloat. In addition, ships were expensive to build and too easily subject to loss, as had been made clear at the battle of Charleston. It was simply too expensive at that point in the war to continue building ships for a Continental Navy.

There were, however, a couple battles left in the small colonial fleet. In May 1780, the Trumbull, under the command of Captain James Nicholson, left New London, Connecticut, on its first cruise of the war. It carried on board a detachment of 30 Marines under the command of Captain Gilbert Saltonstall and Lieutenants Jabez Smith Jr. and David Starr. Two other marine officers, Captain John Trevett and Lieutenant David Bill, were on board serving as volunteers.

The Trumbull sailed south, and on June 1, just north of Bermuda, she encountered the British privateer Watt. The Watt attacked the Trumbull as soon as she spotted her, and the ensuing battle last for two and a half hours. As Captain Saltonstall later described, the Watt tore the Trumbull to pieces. The main topmast was shot away; the fore, main, mizzen, and jigger masts were also destroyed; two of her guns had been damaged; the sails had been cut to ribbons by cannon shot - 62 through the ensign sail, 157 through the mizzen sail, 560 through the main sail, and 180 through the foresail, according to Saltonstall. Every yard of her hull had been shot through with cannon shot and much of the rest peppered by grapeshot or musket fire. After two and a half hours of such torture, Saltonstall managed to edge away from the Watt and, still under his command and able to sail, albeit limping, Saltonstall declared the battle a draw.

The Trumbull had suffered 13 dead and another 18 injured. Four Marines - three of the officers and Sergeant Ezekial Hyatt - were among the dead or mortally wounded. Lieutenant David Bill was killed early in the battle when scattershot shattered his skull. Lieutenant Starr, struck by grapeshot, lived until the following Monday. Lieutenant Smith lingered on until June 28, almost a month after the engagement. Captain Trevett had been wounded twice, once in the eye. Saltonstall recorded that he himself had been wounded 11 times by grapeshot or splinters.

The Watt fared no better than the Trumbull, however. According to Saltonstall's records, her sides had been equally as damaged as the Trumbull’s sails had been, and the Watt's main topmast and mainmast were leaning to the side. In fact, at one point, so much water rushed through the holes in the Watt's hull that it threatened to overwhelm her pumps. The Watt's netting was also set on fire by the musket and cannon shot.

In all, the Watt lost 13 men, and 79 were wounded. The Marines aboard the Trumbull had played an important role in the battle, manning the cannon and firing muskets from the fighting tops of the masts.

Both ships managed to limp back to port. The Watt reached New York on June 11 and the Trumbull made it to Nantasket, Connecticut, on June 15. Saltonstall commented that it had been the bloodiest engagement of the entire Revolutionary War.

Almost a year after the bloody battle between the Trumbull and the Watt, on May 29, 1781, the Alliance engaged the Atalanta and the Trepassey. Caught in a lull, the Alliance was unable to maneuver while the two smaller British ships used oars to move to the bow and stern of the larger ship and, out of range of most of the Alliance's cannon, and proceeded to fire on her at will. The battle went on for three hours before a breeze finally caught the Alliance's sails, but in that time she had suffered numerous casualties. Among them were Lieutenant Samuel Pritchard, who had been hit by a six-pound shot, Lieutenant James Warren Jr., a Harvard graduate, who had been wounded in the leg, and Sergeant David Brewster, who had been shot in the head by a British marine. Once the Alliance could maneuver, however, she made quick work of the two smaller ships.

Despite the Alliance's narrow victory, the Continental Navy and the Continental Marines continued to suffer major losses in 1781, including three of the remaining five ships and their Marine detachments. The Saratoga went down in a Caribbean storm in March, all hands lost. The Confederacy surrendered in April. The Trumbull was captured in August. Only the Alliance and the Deane remained in the Continental Navy, and the two detachments assigned to these two ships were the only units remaining in the Continental Marines.

By the end of 1781, the immediate need for the Continental Marines had ended. Britain's southern strategy was defeated in September 1781 when Continental and French forces under the command of Washington and Rochambeau encircled Cornwallis's army and defeated him at Yorktown, Virginia. The American Revolutionary War was essentially over, but fighting continued for the next year and a half as the two sides negotiated a peace.

Both the Deane and the Alliance launched successful cruises in 1782 and 1783. The final battle occurred on March 10, 1783, between the Alliance and the Sybil. At the end of the war, however, both the Deane, now named the Hague, and the Alliance were sold off in an effort to pay the debts that had been accumulated during the conflict. The last two detachments of Marines were disbanded as well. With the release of Lieutenant Thomas Elwood in September 1783, the Continental Marines ceased to exist.

Over the course of the American Revolutionary War, 131 officers and more than 2,000 noncommissioned officers and enlisted men had served as Continental Marines. Marine records indicate that 49 men were killed in action and another 70 were wounded in action. The Continental Marines, serving most often in conjunction with the Continental Navy but also alongside the Continental Army, had been a small force, but it had made significant contributions to the colonial war for independence. Perhaps more important, the Continental Marines had begun the traditions that would become the hallmark of the U.S. Marine Corps.

Frederick M. Franks Jr. (Editor), Clifton G. Ganyard. A Few Good Men: The Revolutionary War. Alpha Bravo Delta Guide to the U.S. Marine Corps. Alpha. June 3, 2003.

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