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Corps of Colonial Marines
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{{short description|Two British Marine units consisting of former slaves}}{{about|the historical British Army regiments|other uses|Colonial Marines (disambiguation)}}{{Use dmy dates|date=October 2020}}{{Use British English|date=December 2013}}{{Good article}}- the content below is remote from Wikipedia
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factoids | |
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- {{flagd|UK|marines|size=20px}} Royal Marines
- Second Corps:Battalion|command_structure=|garrison= First Corps:
- Battle of Marie Galante (1808)
- Battle of Guadeloupe (1808)
- Battle of Bladensburg (1814)
- Burning of Washington (1814)
- Battle of North Point (1814)
- Battle of Fort Peter (1815)
- Battle of Negro Fort (1816)|anniversaries=|decorations=|battle_honours=|disbanded= |notable_commanders= Second Corps:
{{anchor|The First Corps}}First Corps
Rear Admiral Sir Alexander Cochrane raised the first Corps of Colonial Marines in 1808 while commander-in-chief of British naval forces on the Leeward Islands station during the Napoleonic Wars. The British had captured the island of Marie Galante earlier that year, but the French governor of Guadeloupe attacked the island on hearing that illness had weakened its British garrison. Marie Galante slaves assisted the British when promised that they would not be returned to their proprietors;Buckley, p284 by this means, the island was preserved under British control until the arrival of three companies of the 1st West India Regiment.Ellis, p125(File:Alexander Cochrane.jpg|right|thumb|alt=A portrait of Alexander Cochrane |Alexander Cochrane, responsible for raising the Corps of Colonial Marines)Cochrane named the ex-slaves the Corps of Colonial Marines, which was enlarged with fugitive slaves from Guadeloupe. The Corps was paid from Marie Galante revenues, clothed from Royal Navy stores and commanded by Royal Marine officers.Letters from Commander-in-Chief, Leeward Islands (ADM 1/329) Cochrane to Admiralty, 18 October 1808, reporting the formation of the Corps from slaves of masters on Marie Galante helping the French and from slaves from Guadeloupe; Cochrane to Poole, 2 Nov 1808, describing the Colonial Corps as "nearly complete, having upwards of two hundred volunteer Blacks, ... principally deserters and others captured from the enemy". After the repossession of Guadeloupe Cochrane maintained the Corps, and on 12 October 1810 redistributed the men: 70 among the ships of the squadron, 20 to 30 to the battery at the Saintes (a group of small islands south of Guadeloupe) and 50 remaining in the Marie Galante garrison. They saw no further action as a distinct body, but were listed in ships' musters among supernumeraries for wages and victuals under the description "Colonial Marine" until mid-1815.Marie Galante garrison muster, ADM 37/8610. Members of the Corps listed in various Royal Navy ships' musters in the ADM 37 series.McNish Weiss, John. (2007). "Sir Alexander Cochrane's first Corps of Colonial Marines: Marie Galante 1808". Paper for 2007 Naval History Symposium, United States Naval Academy, Annapolis, Maryland, USA{{anchor|The Second Corps}}Second Corps
Cochrane, by now a Vice Admiral, assumed his position as Commander-in-Chief of British forces on the North Atlantic station in April 1814 and ordered the recruitment of a body of Colonial Marines as he had done six years earlier on Marie Galante.Letter from Cochrane to Lord Melville, 23 December 1813, National Library of Scotland, MS 2576, 122Vâ119 Rear Admiral George Cockburn, Cochrane's second-in-command on the Atlantic coast, implemented Cochrane's order recruiting the second Corps of Colonial Marines.Letter from Cochrane to William Matthews dated 9 May 1814 "to endeavor to raise a Corps of Colonial Marines, from the People of Color who escaped to us from the Enemy's shore in this neighbourhood and to cause such as ... may enlist for the purpose to be immediately formed, drilled and brought forward for service." Letters from Commander-in-Chief, North America: 1814, nos. 269â348 (ADM 1/507)JOURNAL, John N., Grant,weblink Black Immigrants Into Nova Scotia, 1776â1815, The Journal of Negro History, July 1973, 58, 3, 253â270, 10.2307/2716777, 2716777, 150064269, {{Dead link|date=July 2019 |bot=InternetArchiveBot |fix-attempted=yes }}Lambert, p309 It served as part of the British forces on the Atlantic and Gulf coasts of the United States during the War of 1812.Rodriguez (Ed), p63On 2 April 1814, Cochrane issued a proclamation to all persons wishing to emigrate. Any persons would be received by the British, either at a military outpost or aboard British ships; those seeking sanctuary could enter His Majesty's forces, or go "as free settlers to the British possessions in North America or the West Indies".The text of the proclamation has been widely published, and copies of the printed original are in UK National Archives WO 1/143 f31 and ADM 1/508 f579Morriss, p98 An historical precedent was Dunmore's Proclamation of 7 November 1775, although this offered freedom only to those who bore arms with British forces.Whitfield, p30{{anchor|Recruitment and service on the Atlantic Coast}}Recruitment and Atlantic coast service
By 10 May, Tangier Island off the Virginia coast had been occupied by the British and offered an accessible location for those seeking refuge. Male refugees were given the option "to become blue Jackets, take up arms or [to] join the working party" constructing Fort Albion and its infrastructure.Heidler, p538 The Corps was embodied on 18 May 1814 and made its combat debut in the raid on Pungoteague Creek on 30 May 1814 where, in a skirmish known as the Battle of Rumley's Gut, it helped capture an American artillery battery.Sutherland, p152 James Ross, captain of {{HMS|Albion|1802|6}}, later described their involvement as "a most excellent specimen of what they are likely to be. Their conduct was marked by great spirit and vivacity, and perfect obedience".Latimer, p249 One, a soldier named Michael Harding,HMS Albion Ship Muster 1814 Jan â Aug ADM 37/5005, which has listings for the Corps, and for fugitive slavesRodriguez (Ed), pp 62â66, contains John McNish Weiss's essay 'Black Freedom Fighters (War of 1812)' was killed early in the battle but "it did not daunt or check the others, but on the contrary animated them to seek revenge". Cockburn's initial impressions were positive; he observed that the new recruits were "getting on astonishingly" and were "really fine fellows". After this, the Corps participated in the Chesapeake campaign; in subsequent correspondence, Cockburn wrote that the recruits had behaved "unexpectedly well" in several engagements and had not committed any "improper outrages".Morriss, p99Members of the Corps served alongside their shipborne Royal Marine counterparts from the Cockburn Chesapeake squadron (HM Ships Albion, Dragon, Loire, Jasseur and the schooner {{HMS|St Lawrence|1813|6}}), participating in a series of raids. After the British failed to destroy the American Chesapeake Bay Flotilla at the Battle of St. Jerome Creek, they conducted coastal raids on the towns of Calverton, Huntingtown, Prince Frederick, Benedict and Lower Marlborough.Heidler, p95 On 15 June 1814, a force of 30 Colonial Marines accompanied 180 Royal Marines in 12 boats in a raid on Benedict.Marshall, p729: "Captain Barrie commends, in high terms, the conduct of all the officers, seamen, and marines, under his orders, as well as that of the colonial corps, composed of armed blacks."{{London Gazette|issue=16941|pages=1965â1965|date=1 October 1814}} Nine days later, on 24 June, a force of Colonial and 180 Royal Marines attacked an artillery battery at Chesconessex Creek (although this failed to prevent the escape of the Chesapeake Bay Flotilla, which left St. Leonard's Creek two days later).Crawford (ed), p156, quoting a Letter from Cockburn to Cochrane dated 17 July 1814. 'The Marine Clothing you sent by the Asia for the Colonial Marines has arrived most opportunely, we were in very great want for it; I think we have about 120 Men in the Corps and I have now no doubt of encreasing[sic] it rapidly, they are indeed excellent Men, and make the best skirmishers possible for the thick Woods of this Country'Crawford (ed), p130, quoting a Letter from Cockburn to Cochrane dated 1 July 1814. 'I have directed the Marine Clothing specified in the margin to be Sent to you in the Asia for the purpose of equipping the Volunteers (500 jackets, 1000 shirts, 1000 pairs of trousers, 500 Hats, 500 Stocks, 1000 Flannel Jackets)'The arrival on 19 July of a battalion of Royal Marines, which had left Bermuda on 30 June, enabled the squadron to mount further expeditions ashore. After a series of diversionary raids, the Marines were again landed at Benedict on 19 August accompanied by recently-arrived Peninsular War army veterans. The battalion was to accompany the Colonial Marines in attacks on Bladensburg and Washington in August 1814. A company fought at the Battle of Bladensburg,Gleig, pg 92 refers to a small party of Marines in the 1st Brigade, with the majority forming the 3rd BrigadeWEB,weblink The Battle of North Point A Little-Known Battle from a Scarcely Remembered War, by Ross M. Kimmel, Dnr.state.md.us, 21 November 2012,weblink" title="web.archive.org/web/20120402233330weblink">weblink 2 April 2012, dead, and the other two companies took part in the burning of Washington. One of the firing parties was led by Second Lieutenant Lewis Agassiz (1793â1866); for his part in the battle, his family was later granted a coat of arms depicting a torch.Agassiz (1907) p6: "The crest represents a man's forearm, bared, holding in the hand a torch made of rope. in recognition of the services of Captain J. J. C. Agassiz RN on the 21st August 1801 ... and also in recognition of the services of Mr Lewis Agassiz at the capture of the city of Washington .. where the public buildings were destroyed by fire; in which act of devastation he assisted, having been in charge of one of the firing parties." Casualties suffered by the Colonial Marines during this action were one man killed and three wounded.{{London Gazette|issue=16939|pages=1942â1943|date=27 September 1814}}On 3 September 1814, three companies of the Colonial Marines joined with three remaining companies of Royal Marines to form the 3rd Battalion, Royal and Colonial Marines.Nicolas, p265JOURNAL, George, Gleig,weblink Recollections of the Expedition to the Chesapeake, and against New Orleans, by an Old Sub, United Service Journal, 1840, 2, many of these poor fellows, after voluntarily serving for a few months in a sort of provisional battalion, called the "Colonial Marines," obtained grants of land, Later that month, all three companies fought at the Battle of North Point in Maryland. A fourth company was created in December 1814,ADM 96/341 Marine subsistence and pay sheets 1814 and further recruitment was begun along the Georgia coast during the first quarter of 1815. The number of enlistments allowed two more companies to be raised, with sergeants taken from companies recruited in the Chesapeake.ADM 96/471 Marine subsistence and pay sheets 1815Although the Corps suffered some combat losses during its Chesapeake campaign actions in 1814, its greatest losses arose from disease due to poor conditions on Tangier Island. An outbreak of dysentery in the winter of 1814 killed the surgeon and 69 men from the battalion.Nicolas, p287When a dozen British sailors were captured near the island on 20 June 1814, their account of hardships encountered with food and water on the island, and the building of Fort Albion, had reported in a local newspaper. NEWS, Farmer's Repository, 28 July 1814, at Tangier Island ... the crews there are very sickly with the flux, the water being brackish and bad ... they had been for 2 months on short allowance of food, but had lately obtained a supply from Bermuda,weblink The strength of the corps is mentioned as having risen to about 200 men whilst on Tangier Island in the autumn.BOOK, James, William, 1818, A Full and Correct Account of the Military Occurrences of the Late War Between Great Britain and the United States of America. Volume II,weblink London, 332, The Corps' last tour during the War of 1812 was in Georgia from December to March 1815. Admiral George Cockburn seized the southern U.S coast to disrupt trade, communication, and transportation of troops to the Gulf of Mexico, where Admiral Cochrane's forces planned to take the southwestern territories of the U.S. Part of the Corps joined the successful British attack on Fort Point Peter. The corps occupied Camden County and Cumberland Island, aiding the emigration of an estimated 1,485 slaves from southeast Georgia.Bullard, Mary R, Black Liberation on Cumberland Island, 1983{{anchor|Recruitment and service on the Gulf Coast}}Recruitment and Gulf coast service
In addition to British outposts on the Atlantic coast at Tangier Island (Virginia) and Cumberland Island (Georgia), there was a similar outpost on the Gulf coast at Prospect Bluff on the Apalachicola River in Spanish East Florida which attracted Redstick Creek Indians and Black Seminoles. George Woodbine and a detachment of Royal Marines were landed from HMS Orpheus in May 1814Tucker, p535 with gifts, two thousand muskets and blankets for the Indians.THESIS, Did Military Honour Hinder the Royal Navy's Effective Use of North American Indians in the Gulf of Mexico Campaign in the War of 1812., T. J., Linzy, M.A. dissertation, Department of War Studies, King's College, London, 28 August 2009,weblink" title="web.archive.org/web/20100116121618weblink">weblink 16 January 2010,weblink dead, JOURNAL, John, Sugden,weblink The Southern Indians in the War of 1812: The Closing Phase, Florida Historical Quarterly, January 1982, Sugden, on p281, is the source used by Linzy, Letter from Pigot to Cochrane dated 8 June 1814, within Letters from Commander-in-Chief, North America: 1814, nos. 141â268 (ADM 1/506) A fort was constructed, and Cochrane sent Edward Nicolls to oversee the operations at Prospect Bluff.Letter from Admiral Cochrane to the Chiefs of the Indian Nations dated 1 July 1814 refers to Nicolls, adding 'I have sent with him.. two thousand stand of arms, with one thousand swords'. This is within WO 1/143 folio 70, which can be downloaded for a fee from the UK National Archives websiteBOOK, British and Foreign State Papers 1818â1819, 1835, 6, 434, James Ridgway, London, Ambrister's Commission from Cochrane "Whereas, I have thought fit to send a Detachment of the Royal Marine Corps to the Creek Nations, for the purpose of training to arms, such Indians and others as may be friendly to, and willing to fight under, the Standard of His Majesty: I ..appoint you as an Auxiliary Second Lieutenant, of such Corps of Colonial Marines ... Given under my hand and seal, at Bermuda, this 25th day of July, 1814,weblink Nicolls left Bermuda with 112 Royal Marines, 3 field pieces, 300 uniforms and 1,000 muskets for recruits to his corps.Mahon, p347 quoting a letter from Cochrane to the Admiralty dated 25 August 1814, Letters from Commander-in-Chief, North America: 1814, nos.141â268 (ADM 1/506) On 26 August 1814 Nicolls issued his first "order of the day" for his "battalion".NEWS, Niles' National Register volume 7, 5 November 1814, 133,weblink It remains uncertain how many men Nicolls had under his command at that time, since muster and pay records have not been found. More escaped slaves were recruited in Pensacola (to the chagrin of the Spanish),JOURNAL, Mark F., Boyd,weblink Events at Prospect Bluff on the Apalachicola River, 1808â18, Florida Historical Quarterly, October 1937, [St. Augustine]: Florida Historical Society, Latour, pg 11 asserts that Nicolls "enlisted and publicly drilled Indians, who wore the British uniform in the streets [of Pensacola]." but they were forced to return to Prospect Bluff in November after the American capture of Pensacola.Heidler, p188Heidler, p388Post-war developments
The war ended in February 1815, and the three European companies of the 3rd Battalion, Royal and Colonial Marines were sent back to Britain. With their departure, the battalion was reformed as the 3rd Battalion, Colonial Marines,Nicolas, p268 consisting of six infantry companies of Colonial Marines and a staff company of Royal Marines brought from Canada. They performed garrison duty at the Royal Naval Dockyard at Ireland Island, Bermuda and were carried from there in the transport Lord Eldon to be disbanded in Trinidad on 20 August 1816. Near what is now known as Princes Town, the former Colonial Marines formed a free farming community, known as the Merikens (sometimes spelled Merikins), under the supervision of their former non-commissioned officers. Households had {{convert|16|acre|adj=on}} plots. These settlements were successful, and in 1847 their ownership of the land was formally recognised. The community of descendants retains its identity and commemorates its roots in an annual celebration.Rodriguez (Ed), p66The detachment in Florida, which had grown to about 400 men,BOOK, American State Papers: Foreign Relations 1815â1822, 1834, 4, 551, Gales & Seaton, Washington, pg. 551 has the testimony of a Royal Marine deserter from the Fort, sworn at Mobile on 9 May 1815, advising "the British left, with the Indians, between them three and four hundred negroes, taken from the United States, principally Louisiana,weblink BOOK, American State Papers: Foreign Relations 1815â1822, 1834, 4, 552, Gales & Seaton, Washington, Letter from General Gaines dated 22 May 1815 "P.S. I learn that Nicholls[sic] ..is still at Appalachicola, and that he has 900 Indians and 450 negroes under arms,weblink Letter from Admiral Cochrane to General Lambert dated 3 February 1815 refers to "a coloured corps has been organised of from 300â400 men" which is commanded by Nicolls. This is within WO 1/143 folio 55, which can be downloaded for a fee from the UK National Archives website. A copy is also contained within: Letters from Commander-in-Chief, North America: 1815, nos. 1â126 (ADM 1/508) was paid off and disbanded when the British post was evacuated at the end of the war. A small number of men went to Bermuda with the British as part of a refugee group, rejoining the main body of Colonial Marines.BOOK, British and Foreign State Papers 1818â1819, 1835, 6, 364, James Ridgway, London, memorandum dated 21 May 1815 "a few that were shipped to the island of Trinidad, in HMS Levant (1813), His Majesty's Ship, The Levant; and such as have enlisted in the Colonial Marines,weblink Others from the Florida unit remained in settlements around the Fort which had become a symbol of slave insurrection. Southern plantation owners considered the presence of a group of armed fugitive slaves, even in a remote and sparsely-populated area of Spanish Florida, an unacceptable danger;Landers, p123 this led, under the leadership of General Andrew Jackson, to the Battle of Negro Fort in July 1816 and the beginning of the First Seminole War. For their involvement in the conflict, two former auxiliary officers of the corps were executed in 1818 in what became known as the Arbuthnot and Ambrister incident. It is believed that former Colonial Marine refugees were among a group that escaped to the Bahamas in 1822 and founded, on the west coast of the island of Andros, Nicholls Town {{sic}}, a community that retains its identity to the present day.Rodriguez (Ed), p65See also
Notes
References
- BOOK, Agassiz, Arthur Rodolph Nunn, 1907, A Short History of the Agassiz Family, Shanghai, Oriental Press, 222962662,
- Buckley, Roger Norman (1998). The British Army in the West Indies: Society and the Military in the Revolutionary Age. Gainesville, Florida, University Press of Florida. {{ISBN|978-0-8130-1604-7}}.
- Bullard, Mary R. Black Liberation on Cumberland Island in 1815. M.R. Bullard, 1983. 141p.
- Congress of the USA (1834). American State Papers: Foreign Relations: Volume 4, Commencing March 5, 1815 and Ending May 8, 1822. Washington: Gales & Seaton. {{oclc|70183718}}
- BOOK, Crawford, Michael J., Hughes, Christine F., The Naval War of 1812: A Documentary History, Vol. 3, 2002, Naval Historical Center (United States Government Printing Office, GPO), Washington, {{harvid, Crawford et al., 2002, |isbn=978-0-16-051224-7 }}
- Ellis, A. B. (1885). The History of the First West India Regiment. London: Chapman & Hall. {{ISBN|1-153-82315-2}}
- Foreign Office (1835). British and Foreign State Papers Volume 6, 1818â1819. Piccadilly, London: James Ridgway. {{oclc|434287559}}
- BOOK, Gleig, George Robert, George Robert Gleig, The Campaigns of the British Army at Washington and New Orleans, 1814â1815, 1827, J. Murray, London, 0-665-45385-X,
- Heidler, David Stephen & Jeanne T. (2004). Encyclopedia of the War of 1812. Annapolis, Maryland: Naval Institute Press. {{ISBN|1-59114-362-4}}
- BOOK, Lambert, Andrew, The Challenge: Britain Against America in the Naval War of 1812, 2012, Faber and Faber, London, 978-0-571-27319-5,
- Landers, Jane G. (2010). Atlantic Creoles in the Age of Revolutions. Cambridge, Massachusetts: Harvard University Press. {{ISBN|0-674-05416-4}}
- BOOK, Latimer, Jon, 1812: War with America, 2007, Belknap Press, Cambridge, 978-0-674-02584-4,weblink
- BOOK, Latour, Arsène Lacarrière, Historical Memoir of the War in West Florida and Louisiana in 1814â15, with an Atlas, 1816, 1999, University Press of Florida, Gainesville, 40119875,
- Mahon, John K. (ed). (1991). The War of 1812. Cambridge, Massachusetts: Da Capo Press. {{ISBN|0-306-80429-8}}.
- Marshall, John (1825). Royal Naval Biography. London: Longman, Hurst, Rees, Orme, and Brown. {{oclc|8717325}}
- Morriss, Roger (1997). Cockburn and the British Navy in Transition: Admiral Sir George Cockburn, 1772â1853. Columbia, South Carolina: University of South Carolina Press. {{ISBN|1-57003-253-X}}
- BOOK, Nicolas, Paul Harris, 1845, Historical Record of the Royal Marine Forces, Volume 2 [1805â1842], London, Thomas & William Boone, 758539027,
- Owsley, Frank L. & Smith, Gene A. (1997). Filibusters and Expansionists: Jeffersonian Manifest Destiny, 1800â1821. Tuscaloosa, Alabama: University of Alabama Press. {{ISBN|0-8173-0880-6}}
- Rodriguez, Junius P. (ed). (2007). Encyclopedia of Slave Resistance and Rebellion, Volume 1. Westport, Connecticut: Greenwood Publishing Group. {{ISBN|0-313-33272-X}}
- JOURNAL, John, Sugden,weblink subscription, The Southern Indians in the War of 1812: The Closing Phase, Florida Historical Quarterly, January 1982, 60, 3, 300, 30146793,
- BOOK, Sutherland, Jonathan, 2004, African Americans at War: An Encyclopedia, ABC-CLIO, Santa Barbara, California, 978-1-57607-746-7,
- BOOK, Tucker, Spencer, 2012, The Encyclopedia of the War of 1812: A Political, Social, and Military History, Santa Barbara, California, ABC-CLIO, 1-85109-956-5,
- Weiss, John McNish (2002). The Merikens: Free Black American Settlers in Trinidad 1815â16. London: McNish & Weiss. {{ISBN|978-0-9526460-5-1}}
- Weiss, John McNish. (1996). "The Corps of Colonial Marines 1814â16: A Summary". Immigrants and Minorities, 15/1, April 1996. {{issn|0261-9288}} Note: this early article is amended by the book 'The Merikens' and by the author's web article weblink {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20180208143724weblink |date=8 February 2018 }}.
- BOOK, Whitfield, Harvey Amani, 2006, Blacks on the Border: The Black Refugees in British North America, 1815â1860, University Press of New Hampshire, Lebanon, New Hampshire, 1-58465-606-9,
External links
- weblink" title="web.archive.org/web/20180208143724weblink">A History of the Colonial Marines
- Essay and video on Colonial Marines {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20130607135446weblink |date=7 June 2013 }}
- Biography of William Peterson, a Private in the Corps of Colonial Marines via weblink" title="web.archive.org/web/20121003182210weblink">Flee! Stories of Flight from Maryland In Black and White and its weblink" title="web.archive.org/web/20121113123253weblink">1812 link
- weblink" title="webarchive.nationalarchives.gov.uk/20121225135917weblink">Corps of Colonial Marines pay & muster list in 1814
- weblink" title="webarchive.nationalarchives.gov.uk/20121227091023weblink">Marine casualties of the War of 1812
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