Marines

[Forty Rod]

I'm hitting  brick wall in my research for Marine uniforms, weapons, and training in the ten years immediately before the Civil War.

Any suggestions would be greatly appreciated.

[Colonel Buckshot]

I believe before the civil war I remember seeing plates of them wearing green uniforms

[MUD MARINE]

Go to any site with colour prints of the marines storming the armoury in Harpers Ferry where ohn Brown was holed up with his faithful and you will see that the regular Corps uniform was almost exactly the same as in the Civil War with the sole exception of the cover. When Brigadier Archibald Henderson, the longest serving Commandant, passed away in 1859, Colomnel ohn Harris took over.

Colonel Harris dropped the mameluke sword for officers in favour oa sword with a hand guard. He also changed the cover for the kepi. Only minor changes were made to the uniform. The white cross belts for enlisted and white sword belts for the officers remained.

You might try the Marine Corps Historical Society at the Marine Corps Museum in Quantico, Virginia for some details.

The Quartermaster of the Corps had all uniforms made by the Corps uniform factory in Philadlphia, PA. Much of his drawings and descriptions have made their way to the museum.

The white trousers and covers are seldom seen sice that were primarily worn aboard ship.

One of our more famous officers once opined that the Corps was handicapped by being armed with "old muzzle fuzzles  :-)

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[Charles Isaac]

I read your post wrong so I deleted my previous post about weapons of the Marines. I thought the post said  after the Civil War! Oops!

10 years preceding the Civil war would be the M1842 .69 caliber smoothbore musket. Now, I have yet to see any documentation of Marines getting the new rifled muskets prior to the Civil War. All the photographs show them with the smoothbore musket and the recapture of Harpers Ferry Armory was conducted with M1842 smoothbores. I am sure a lot of the ships and Naval Bases still had the M1816 smoothbores and maybe even some of the earlier muskets as well that were converted to percussion. The Govt was cheap back then and didn't throw anything away if they could still use it.


Depending on where they were stationed or what ship they were on, they got what the Navy issued to them. M1851 Colt Navys and various percussion smoothbore .69 caliber single shot pistols would be the issue sidearms.

[US Scout]

I'm hitting  brick wall in my research for Marine uniforms, weapons, and training in the ten years immediately before the Civil War.

Any suggestions would be greatly appreciated.

See if you can find a copy of Rankin's book on Uniforms of the Marines.  Its out of print but you can get a used copy through Amazon.com or through inter-library loan. While not perfect, he discusses changes in uniforms, weapons and equipment up through Vietnam.  I have a couple of other recommendations that I can provide when I get home this evening.

Up until about 1860, enlisted Marines wore a light blue shell jacket and trousers, with a dark blue round cap.  Officers wore a dark blue frock coat and either light blue trousers, if serving with troops, or dark blue trousers if not (generally this meant majors and above, and staff officers at HQMC).  New regulations went into effect in late 1859, but like the Army it took several years for the unifroms to get into the seabags, especially for those Marines aboard ship on foreign stations until they could return to the States.

Firearms included the 1842 and 1855 muskets.

Training was pretty much the same as the Army - a lot of drill.  Since "Napoleanic" tactics were still pretty much the norm, all they had to know was how to march from one linear formation into another and load and shoot on order.  Once aboard ship, Marine detachments might receive some training in manning one of the big guns.  It depended on the ship's captain.

US Scout
Bvt Brig Gen, GAF

[Major Matt Lewis]

Any information on the 1851 dance the Marines had with the Chinese?  That might provide some good insight.  Same with the Marines in the Mexican War...   

[MUD MARINE]

As President, Andrew Jackson decreed that Marines wear green uniforms. Green was the colour that European light infantry and rifles wore.

The green was unpopular in the Corps but what killed it was the tendency of the poor green dye to run making the uniforms disgraceful.

The cover just before the Civil War was the dragoon hat that looked close to a modern uniform cover. When Colonel Commandant John Harris took office in 1858, he made quite a few changes. Going to the kepi was one of them.

The Corps has always prided itself on being the least costly per member of the services. When that was combined with a peciunary
Congress, the Corps was stuck with muzzle fuzzels from the 1840s and 1850s.

TRIVIA: If you see a Civil War photograph of shipboard personnell, look closely and you will generally see a man working a gun while wearing a different uniform with a kepi and white crossed belts. That is a Marine.

[Grizzly Adams]

Here is a link that may help.  Check out the "Uniform Requirements" section which have pics of both Navy and Marine uniforms.

 http://www.geocities.com/Yosemite/9304/index.html

Here's a link to the Naval Landing Party site with lists of uniform items and other kit for both officer and enlisted personnel of the Navy and Marine Corps - both US and CS.  Lots of charts with hot links to sutlers, so you have to spend some time!

http://www.usnlp.org/equipment/index.html

Good luck!