 The
United States Marine Corps (USMC) is a branch of the
United States armed forces responsible for providing force
projection from the sea,[2] using the mobility of the U.S. Navy
to rapidly deliver combined-arms task forces. It is one of seven
uniformed services of the U.S.. Administratively, the Marine
Corps is a component of the Department of the Navy, but it acts
operationally as a separate branch of the military, often
working closely with US Naval forces for training,
transportation, and logistic purposes.
Originally organized as the Continental Marines on November 10,
1775 as naval infantry, the Marine Corps has evolved in its
mission with changing military doctrine and American foreign
policy. The Marine Corps has served in every American armed
conflict and attained prominence in the 20th century when its
theories and practice of amphibious warfare proved prescient and
ultimately formed the cornerstone of the Pacific campaign of
World War II. By the mid 20th century, the Marine Corps had
become the dominant theorist and practitioner of amphibious
warfare. Its ability to respond rapidly to regional crises gives
it a strong role in the implementation and execution of American
foreign policy.
The United States Marine Corps, with approximately 193,000
active duty and 40,000 reserve Marines, is the smallest of the
United States' armed forces in the Department of Defense (the
United States Coast Guard is smaller, about one fifth the size
of the Marine Corps, but serves under Homeland Security). The
Corps is nonetheless larger than the entire armed forces of many
significant military powers; for example, it is larger than the
active duty Israel Defense Forces or the whole of the British
Army.
The United States Marine Corps traces its institutional roots to
the Continental Marines of the American Revolutionary War,
formed at Tun Tavern in Philadelphia, by a resolution of the
Second Continental Congress on November 10, 1775 to raise 2
battalions of Marines. That date is regarded and celebrated as
the date of the Marine Corps' "birthday". At the end of the
American Revolution in 1783, both the Continental Navy and
Continental Marines were disbanded, and although individual
Marines were enlisted for the few American naval vessels left,
the institution itself would not be resurrected until 1798. In
that year, in preparation for the Naval War with France,
Congress created the United States Navy and Marine Corps.
The Marines' most famous action of this period occurred during
the First Barbary War (1801–1805) against the Barbary pirates,
when William Eaton and First Lieutenant Presley O'Bannon led
seven Marines and 300 mercenaries in an effort to capture
Tripoli. Though they only reached Derna, the action at Tripoli
has been immortalized in the Marines' hymn and the Mameluke
Sword carried by Marine officers.
During the War of 1812, Marine naval detachments took part in
the great frigate duels that characterized the war, which were
the first American victories in the conflict. Their most
significant contributions were delaying the British march to
Washington, D.C. at the Battle of Bladensburg and holding the
center of Gen. Andrew Jackson's defensive line at the defense of
New Orleans. By the end of the war, the Marines had acquired a
well-deserved reputation as expert marksmen, especially in
ship-to-ship actions.
After the war, the Marine Corps fell into a depression that
ended with the appointment of Archibald Henderson as its fifth
commandant in 1820. Under his tenure, the Corps took on
expeditionary duties in the Caribbean, the Gulf of Mexico, Key
West, West Africa, the Falkland Islands, and Sumatra. Commandant
Henderson is credited with thwarting President Jackson's
attempts to combine and integrate the Marine Corps with the
Army.[23] Instead, Congress passed the Act for the Better
Organization of the Marine Corps in 1834, stipulating that the
Corps was part of the Department of the Navy as a sister service
to the U.S. Navy. This would be the first of many times that the
existence of the Corps was challenged.
Commandant Henderson volunteered the Marines for service in the
Seminole Wars of 1835, personally leading nearly half of the
entire Corps (two battalions) to war. A decade later, in the
Mexican–American War (1846–1848), the Marines made their famed
assault on Chapultepec Palace in Mexico City, which would be
later celebrated by the phrase "From The Halls of Montezuma" in
Marines' hymn. In the 1850s, the Marines would see further
service in Panama and Asia, escorting Matthew Perry's East India
Squadron on its historic trip to the Far East.
With their vast service in foreign engagements, the Marine Corps
played a moderate role in the Civil War (1861–1865); their most
prominent task was blockade duty. As more and more states
seceded from the Union, about half of the Corps' officers also
left the Union to join the Confederacy and form the Confederate
States Marine Corps, which ultimately played little part in the
war. The battalion of recruits formed for the First Battle of
Bull Run (First Manassas) performed poorly, retreating with the
rest of the Union forces. |
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