Selected columns from Robert R. Dorr and Fred L. Borch highlighting the Corps history
The Marine Barracks at 8th and I streets in southeast Washington, D.C., is familiar to Marines who have served in the nation's capital.
The quadrangle-shaped compound is home to the Marine Band, and it has been the residence of every commandant since 1806. Also, it housed the Corps' headquarters until the early 20th century.
"It's a very beautiful old, red-brick complex," said retired Reserve Lt. Col. Frank Sturgeon, an architect who helped renovate the commandant's residence in recent years. "The Marine Barracks have a feeling of nostalgia. The ceremonies that go on there are patriotic and stirring."
Today, the public knows of band performances, ceremonial functions and funeral escorts. Marines from "8th and I" perform "dignified transfers," greeting aircraft that bring America's war dead to Dover Air Force Base, Del., and solemnly transferring the flag-draped coffins to the Dover mortuary.
But the Marine Barracks also is officially recognized as the Corps' oldest post. Marine literature calls the commandant's residence the oldest government building in continuous use in Washington, although other sources suggest the White House is a year older.
"You cannot be there
without sensing the tradition," said retired Gunnery Sgt. Kent Smith, who pulled duty at 8th and I during the Vietnam era. "The place should be declared a national treasure." It has, in fact, been named a "national historical place."
When the Corps was founded Nov. 10, 1775, the U.S. was not yet a nation and did not have a capital. Washington was chosen as the seat of government in 1791. The city was "a muddy bog situated on a mosquito-infested swampland," wrote an early surveyor, but now-familiar landmarks, including the Washington Navy Yard, quickly appeared along the Potomac River.
In 1801, President Thomas Jefferson and the second commandant, Lt. Col. William Ward Burrows, rode horses to find a site to station the Marines near the Navy Yard. Burrows chose the location and hired British architect George Hadfield to design the barracks and the commandant's house.
Historians differ as to why the British didn't raze the place when they burned Washington during the War of 1812. Did they spare the commandant's home as a sign of respect? Or were the British planning to use the house as a command post? The record is unclear.
The "swagger stick" - a long, thin cane or stick - was part of the officer and enlisted Marine uniform for at least 100 years before falling into disuse in the 1960s.
According to the Marine Corps Historical Reference Branch, canes, sticks, riding crops and quirts were "carried informally" by Marine officers from the mid-19th century.
These items were carried without official approval until 1915, when officer and enlisted Marines were encouraged to carry swagger sticks while on recruiting duty "to increase military bearing and appearance."
During World War I, Marines in the American Expeditionary Force in France saw British officers with swagger sticks. This reinforced the leathernecks' existing custom of carrying them. In fact, their popularity was so widespread that Marine uniform regulations published in 1922 authorized enlisted Marines "on liberty or furlough" to carry swagger sticks "in order to increase the smartness of the Marine."
In the 1930s and '40s, swagger sticks had been largely abandoned and eventually uniform regulations made no mention of them. However, Marines stationed in China in the 1930s continued to carry them as a matter of custom.
In 1952, the swagger stick was again officially authorized; the Corps called it "an optional item of uniform for all male officers." Officers were "authorized and encouraged" to carry the stick as part of the service uniform except when they were in formations with troops under arms.
It was also in 1952 that the Corps announced a standard design for the swagger stick: "a round cane 24-inches long and five-eighths of an inch in diameter, covered with a smooth grain leather in the Marine Corps dark brown mahogany color."
Two years later, the length of the swagger stick was officially shortened to 22 inches and, for the first time, specifications were announced for their metal trim, which consisted of a small silver Marine Corps emblem and a 1-inch silver tip.
In December 1954, staff noncommissioned officers were given authority to carry the swagger stick, but the metal trim was brass rather than silver.
The swagger stick reached its zenith from 1956 to 1960, when Gen. Randolph M. Pate, the 21st commandant, encouraged its use. But it ended under Gen. David M. Shoup, who followed Pate.
As Allan R. Millett and Jack Shulimson wrote in "Commandants of the Marine Corps," Shoup strongly believed that "the swagger stick symbolized elitist affectation, and it reminded him of some unpleasant experiences he had had in China." He had seen British officers toss money at Chinese men and then strike them with their swagger sticks as they picked up the coins off the ground.
Few Marines carried the swagger stick after that.
Current uniform regulations make no mention of the swagger stick. It is almost forgotten today despite its long history in the Corps.
Samuel Nicholas, the first Marine officer and senior-ranking Marine during the Revolutionary War, laid the foundation for the modern Corps.
Born in Philadelphia in 1744, Nicholas was the son of a blacksmith and had some formal education in local Philadelphia schools. He was married and working as a tavern keeper when the American Revolution began.
On Nov. 10, 1775, Congress authorized the raising of two battalions of Marines. Eighteen days later, Nicho-las received his commission as a senior captain with the pay of about $26 a month. This was the first commission granted to any individual in the "Navy of the United Colonies" - which meant Nicholas was not only the first Marine officer but also the first officer in the Continental Naval Service.
Nicholas immediately began recruiting Marines and, in January 1776, had sufficient men to serve on Continental Navy ships in the waters around Philadelphia. He took command of Marines on the warship Alfred and, when that ship attacked British forces in the Bahamas on March 3, 1776, Nicholas commanded the first amphibious landing of American Marines.
Leading a unit of about 290 men (including 50 sailors), Nicholas and his party rowed small boats ashore, seized forts Montague and Nassau, and took the British governor prisoner. While the Americans faced little opposition, the event proved the value of Marines as an expeditionary force.
After returning to Phila-delphia, Nicholas continued to recruit and, in December 1776, led three Marine companies from Philadelphia to join Gen. George Washington's Army in Trenton, N.J. With then-Maj. Nicholas in command, the Marines fought as an independent unit with Army Col. John Cadwalader's brigade in the Trenton-Princeton campaign. Unfortunately, Nicholas' three companies were absorbed into the Continental Army in 1777.
Nicholas remained the senior Marine, but he no longer led all Marines. Yet Marines continued to prove their value on Navy ships, and Marine firepower played a critical role in many sea battles, inclu-ding the victory of the Bonhomme Richard over HMS Serapis in September 1779.
With the American victory over Great Britain, Congress abolished the Continental Navy - and the Marines. But Nicholas had laid a foundation for the future. Traditional Marine roles aboard warships - assisting naval officers in maintaining discipline and providing sharpshooters to snipe at enemy naval officers during battles at sea - were firmly in place.
Nicholas died at age 46 of yellow fever in August 1790. He was interred at a Quaker burial ground in Philadelphia. Three ships have been named in his honor.
Additionally, as a recent article in the Washington Post reported, men and women in the Marine Corps reserve officer training program at the University of Pennsylvania honor Nicholas' memory "as the founder of the United States Marine Corps" by laying a wreath at his grave once a year.
