Marine battalion

[yeoman]

Sir and ma'am, here's an interesting image, the LOC description has it "Washington, D.C. Marine battalion in front of Commandant's House at the Marine barracks.



Notice the little boy with the men up front?



The Sergeant Major is to the far right..., do notice the two marines with what looks like NCO chevron "shadows" on their uniforms. Any thoughts?

[Dusty Merritt]

Re: Marine battalion

I didn't realize the marines wore their chevrons "points up" like our modern military. According to the Naval Historical Center, this was adopted with the 1859 uniform regulations. I couldn't find anything to explain those dark chevrons, though. As far as I could find, they were all supposed to be yellow edged in red, like this:

Image source: http://acwmarines.org/

[AndrewGrim]

Re: Marine battalion

In the collodion process the red- yellow spectrum appears black or very dark, and blues appear lighter.

[MuleyGil]

Re: Marine battalion

Did you notice that the drum major also has the dark chevrons on his uniform, with a brighter star in the center? It may be like the modern Corps, where gold chevrons are on dress blues and green chevrons are on greens. Only in this case, the lower ranked NCOS had dark chevrons.

The young boy could well be John Philip Sousa. He was born in 1854 and his father, António de Sousa, was a trombonist in the Marine Band.

[Prodical Reb]

Re: Marine battalion

The little boy appears to be wearing a zouave uniform. Notice the fez, loose short waisted coat w/trim and baggy pants that I'm figuring are red w/greaves. Quite the stylish lad in the day!

The weapons the Marines are holding are M1842s. The nose cap gives it away.

When was the image taken?

[J. Donaldson]

Re: Marine battalion

The direct link to the image on the LOC site is here. The image is notated as taken in April, 1864.

[Marine Mike]

Re: Marine battalion

The band uniform was scarlet. NCO insignia would be gold for band or infantry. The fringe on the shoulder scales on the dress uniform is also gold. A great book to get has just been recently published is The Civil War Unifroms of the United States Marine Corps: The Regulations of 1859 by Lt. Col. Charles H. Cureton, USMCR(Ret.) and David M. Sullivan from R. James Bender Publishing. It ain't inexpensive but is a very good reference.

The Marine Corps had trouble transitioning from the 1842 Springfield though they preferred the .58 cal Springfield starting with the Model 1855. They got an initial order of 500 of the first type Model 1855 but these were recalled by the Dept. of Ordinance to be issued to other troops with a greater priority. The Marines would get two later shipments of 250 apiece but then are competing with volunteers and regulars to be outfitted. The Marines would proiritize the .58 to marines in the fleet but would still have to supplement with Enfields or the '42 Springfield. Some '42 Springfields were among the Marines in Dupont's attack on Ft. Sumter. The '42 will show up at the Navy Yards and at the Washington Marine Barracks even late in the war as evidenced by photos taken in 1864. A good book for reference is Civil War Small Arms of the U.S. Navy and Marine Corps by John D. McAuley. It is half the price of the other mentioned reference.

Great close-up on those LOC pictures. Something that is difficult with the books.

Mike Stein