Follow the Fickle Fingers of Fate

I found this excerpt to be of particular interest as read from:

Sailors as Infantry in the US Navy
Patrick H. Roth (Captain, US Navy, Ret.)
Burke, Virginia
October 2005

The Early Navy: Late 18th-19th Century

The use of sailors as infantry (and as artillerymen ashore) was common during the 19th century. At sea, boarding was a recognized tactic. Likewise, landings and operations ashore were normal.  Marines assigned to ships were small in numbers and their primary duty was as ship’s guard, accordingly navy infantry assault operations, be it boarding or operations ashore, were largely ships company evolutions.  Only when a small number of landing personnel were required might the marines carry them out without assistance of the ships crew.  During the 19th century, marines were not permanently organized into tactical maneuver organization such as battalions and regiments.  They rarely operated as an independent organized force.

Naval infantry operated ashore regularly during the Quasi War with France, the War of 1812, Seminole Wars, the War with Mexico, the American Civil War, and the Spanish-American War.6 The Seminole Wars and the War with Mexico are particularly illustrative.  Operations ashore were what the Navy did during these wars.  The Seminoles, of course, had no navy.  Mexico also had no navy to speak of.  Almost all naval operations in both wars involved the use of sailors ashore in traditional Army roles.  During the War with Mexico, sailors operated ashore in the capture of California and Mexican coastal cities and towns. Sailors famously landed Home Squadron heavy guns and operated them ashore during the siege of Vera Cruz.  In fact, throughout the nineteenth century, the Navy provided artillery and the sailors crewed and serviced light artillery and guns supporting naval landing operations.

Exercising naval infantry (small-arms capability) was enshrined in Navy Regulations.  Commanding officers were required “frequently to exercise the ships company in the use of…small arms.”  Specific numbers of men (“exclusive of marines”) were required to be exercised and trained: 44 gun ships, 75 men; 36 gun ships, 60 men; 32 gun ships, 45 men; 24 gun ships, 40 men; 18 gun ships, 30 men; all smaller vessels, 20 men.  US Navy Ordnance Instructions mandated that “the whole crew are to be exercised by divisions in the use of the musket, carbine, pistol and sword, and in firing at a target with small arms…boat’s crews [are] to be exercised in all preparations for attacking the enemy, either by land or water…”

Following the Naval Academy’s founding in 1845, infantry tactics were an integral part of the curriculum being required in both the First and Second Class years.  The Bureau of Ordnance and Hydrography published a manual of exercises for small arms and field artillery in 1852 that was used at the Academy. 

Specialized landing party ordnance was developed.  Commander John Dahlgren’s 1850 model 12-pounder boat howitzer, which was capable of being rigged on a field carriage, “was considered the best boat gun of its day in the world.”  Dahlgren later, while commanding the South Atlantic Blockading Squadron during the Civil War, ordered that boat artillery and sailor infantry be “landed occasionally for practice.”

When not engaged in war the 19th century Navy operated on distant stations with a mission to support commerce.  With regularity, this involved operations ashore in order to maintain order and protect property.  During the years before 1900, exclusive of wartime operations, sailors operated ashore as infantry at least 66 times while on distant stations.  Operations might involve ensuing order, capturing pirates, punitive operations, or any number of reasons.

 An integrated description of the Sailors and Army Soldiers campaigning together and tasked with seeking out the Seminole warriors:

  Surgeon Jacob Rhett Motte of Magruder’s command wrote a most revealng eyewitness account of the drill formation of the expedition: “When drawn up in line they presented a curious blending of black and white, like the keys of a piano forte; many of the sailors being coloured men.  There was also an odd alternation of tarpaulin hats and pea-jackets, with forage caps and soldiers triproundabouts;  soldiers and sailors, white men and black,  being all thrown into the ranks indiscriminately,  a beautiful specimen of mosaic,  thus modifying sailor’s ardour with soldier’s discipline.”

Follow the Fickle Finger of Fate

NAVAL HISTORY AND HERITAGE COMMAND