US Marines come ashore
US Marines come ashore as part of a small landing party, c. 1836, [although its unlikely the leatherneck would be armed with a Colt Patterson revolver as shown, since they only just came out that year and very few were used in military service outside the Texas Navy] only a few years after the Marine Corps had been put under the organization of the US Navy. Prior to the American Civil War – and beyond it as well – the Marine Corps remained a very small force, with one of their main duties being the detachments assigned to the various ships of the Navy. Despite the small size of the Corps – only a handful of battalions – they nevertheless contributed some notable successes during the first half of the 19th century, most famously when they stormed “the Halls of Montezuma” (Chapultepec) during the Mexican-American War.
(Anne S. K. Brown Collection)