the u.s. marine corps is fighting spirit and effectiveness is widely known, but few are aware the cause,

humble beginnings and its achievements during the early years of the revolution through successes and failures and down the eastern seaboard, the opening years of the war saw the american military develop. the continental marines as an effective force in service support, naval vessels and amphibious operations, and in support the army in land warfare. washington's marines is the first complete study to entwined together the men strategy perform myths and personalities of the marines formative years into a single study. today's knows the marine corps inside major-general jason cuba is a marine with more than 30 years of service. an infantry man by trade. he is commanded at every level from commander to commanding general. jason has also served in several key staff positions, including as a strategic planner with the joint chiefs of staff, the director of the marine calls expeditionary warfare school

marine corps is office of legislative affairs and chief of staff of the us naval naval striking and support forces for naito. he holds master's degrees in military studies and in national security studies and has written articles for the marine cause gazette and won several awards from the marine corps association. he is the author of from cold war to iso one marine's journey and marines the origins, the corps and the american revolution, 1775 to 1777, which is the subject of today's talk. so please join me in welcoming maj jason cuba. all right well, good morning ladies and gentlemen. our afternoon now. and let me just say what an absolute lou honor it is for me to be here today. and i want to thank dr. brooks and mr. dozer for the very kind

invitation and allow me to come here today and for the personal time and attention they give me is very gracious. host this morning. if you were one of my marine corps units right now, i'd be telling all of you in the back to get up and get front and center here and consolidate forces. but since you're a little more senior crowd, i think we'll allow you to stay right where you are. but i am really encouraged by the of you that have joined us today that tells me that your lovers american history and that's near and dear to my heart. and today, without making a political statement that's more important than ever. and as we get ready to approach the 250th anniversary of the birth of, our great nation, i can't think of a better time reconnect with our history and to be able to understand it, to put it into context and what we're dealing with. so thank you. thank you for. being here today. before i, i must say that anything i speak about today is my own personal based off of my own research, and it does not represent the official position of the u.s. government.

the department of defense, department of the navy, or the united states marine corps. fair enough. all right. this is bowen's take on the world. okay, so again, thank you for being here. we're going to take a bit of a journey here to tell you about the birth of our great nation and then how the marine corps came into existence. in the context of those times. and it really is a parallel journey that we have both went on during this time. and as you heard dr. brooks talk about, you know, many people are familiar, the very honorable service and the selfless sacrifice and war fight and proudest of united states marines and very many people are familiar with this iconic image of the flag raising it, where you, iwo jima, melchior, baji, and that great quote by our former president, ronald reagan. but lot of people really don't know about our humble beginnings and what resulted in the need for a marine corps men and

future who could fight on land and sea. and then in today's environment, there's actually five domains of war. back then, land and. sea. then we added air. now we have space cyber and we just added information. and you think about how information is used as a tool of war. today, just watch what's going on with hamas and israeli forces in israel. okay, so let's jump right in. so the roots of the american revolution can be traced back to the french and indian war from 1756 to 1763. in which england, france and spain vied for control of the north american continent. you know, the british and americans prevailed. this victory and providing for the defense of the american colonies came at a very high cost. the mother country thought it only that the colonies bear their fair share of cost,

particularly americans were only paying about 1/20 of the taxes being paid by those back in england. but the independently minded americans pushed back on several taxes, particular equally when levied without proper representation in the government. and although neither country saw the war, conflict was inevitable. and as you see in the image here on the left hand side, that is a british tax collector being tarred and feathered by sons of liberty. that conflict began on april 19, 1775, in upper right hand corner, when captain john parker formed a company of minutemen on the lexington green to face off against 700 british soldiers and marines before the day was done, the americans had placed the british in boston under siege. but this victory on land was half the equation. is a maritime nation with an extensive coastline and,

countless lakes, rivers and, canals that can be used to quickly move people and things america will need. men who could fight and win on land and if it hoped to defeat one of the world's most powerful forces. this became evident in mid-june 1775, during an event that author james fenimore cooper referred to as the lexington of the sea. at the time, principal british supplies and reinforcements had to travel. 3000 miles across the atlantic ocean. this proved to be timely. it was expensive and it was dangerous. so british leadership sought closer local solutions and they used the west indies, which is now known as the caribbean, the southern colonies in the area between, boston and nova scotia, which would be future become the future state of maine. british admiral graves at the

time sent two merchant vessels loaded with flour and other food supplies and guarded the armed schooner margherita to the town. and beatrice, massachusetts. future maine in the area. and that's the picture. you see depicted in the middle. local patriots captured the two merchant vessels, but the margherita escaped and the americans grabbed pitchforks and muskets, boarded the merchant and gave chase the were lucky. the resultant battle of margherita, also known the battle of machias became, the first american naval victory and the first naval fight of the american revolution. four days later, colonel william prescott led approximately 1600 americans up breed's hill, not bunker hill, but breed's hill on the charleston peninsula. resulting in a british victory but at a very high cost.

three days later, george washington assumed command of the continental. outside of boston. the immediacy of the at boston. the continental congress efforts on first establishing the army. but it would soon need to address the need for a navy and four marines not possess an either. at the time congress leveraged a temporary stopgap in the use of privateers or sanctioned pirates in which private merchant men were converted into warships and manned by civilian crews. capture british shipping on the high seas. privateers had some positive impact in capturing british supplies, but many were in business for gain. their actions rarely coordinated with ground forces, and washington had no over them. in fact, they became a draw on the manpower and resources that

would later be needed by the continental army. navy, marines. washington quickly realized that the privateers alone were insofar urgent to blockade the british in boston being resupplied and reinforced from overseas, so added necessity. he created his own navy using soldiers to fill role of sailors and marines. colonel john glover, marblehead, massachusetts, provided washington with his first ship that you see depicted here and named it the honda in recognition of glover's wife. washington's navy soon grew to six ships, and although they had early success, the challenge is associated with building a pickup team like this soon came to forefront. one of washington agents described the situation this way and i quote the people on board the brigantine washington are in general discontent and, have

agreed to do no duty on said ships and say they enlisted to serve in the army and not as marines. benedict arnold and you see arnold's navy in the lower left hand corner depicting or excuse me, right hand side depicted there. he had a similar experience a year later when he was assigned in soldiers to man a fresh water fleet that he built on lake champlain in upstate new york to fight what would become the battle of bell corps to block british advances coming south from canada and arnold describes his folks this way we have a wretched crew. the marines, the refuse of every regiment and the seamen, few of them ever wet with salt water, recognized in these challenges, congress was forced to act when it received an intelligence report on.

the 5th of october 1775. the report said that there were two unprotected vessels moving from england, filled with reinforcements and resupply guys going to quebec. so congress assigned a committee of three consisting of john adams from new york, john langan from new hampshire, and silas from connecticut, to devise a plan to have washington captured these two vessels. they developed a plan in which they tasked washington with purchasing two merchant ships, converting them into warships, and capturing these two vessels. the committee of three briefed the full congress on the 13th of october, making this official birthday of the and future united states navy. so washington had difficulty finding the ships in england. but thanks to the lucrative privateer business, there were

no ships available up north. so he recommended that the congress look a little further south. so five merchant ships were eventually purchased and converted into warships in philadelphia, pennsylvania. the navy now had its first fleet. five converted merchant ships that were loaded and manned with cannons. but now it needed an admiral to command it and they selected this gentleman, isaac hopkins, 57 year old from providence, rhode island, who served as a privateer captain during the french and indian war. now, hopkins established largest of the five merchant vessels that alfred as his flagship that you see depicted in this painting. and he identified a young sailor named john paul jones to be the first lieutenant for the navy's first flagship. and gentlemen, we're asking about the flags earlier as the first fleet prepared to sail january of 1776. it raised flags on the alfred.

congress had approved the grand flag that you see in the lower left here as the official flag of the united colonies. on the 3rd of december 1775, in advance of the declaration of independence and congressman christopher gadsden of south carolina and a member of the newly now expanded marine committee presented paul jones with the flag. you see in the lower right hand side. the slide famously known as the gadsden flag, which was approved on the 20th the december 1775. so although congress had established a navy, it failed establish the marines to serve beside it until another fateful event occurred on november 2nd, 1775. the citizens of passamaquoddy, nova scotia fueled american hopes of canada joined in the

struggle against the mother country as a 14th colony. the committee of safety from passamaquoddy petitioned congress to allow it to mission into. i quote the association of the north americans for the preservation, their rights and liberties. congress responded by commissioning the first continental marine officer three days later. this gentleman, samuel nicholas, that you see depicted here on november 5th, samuel nicholas became first and therefore the senior marine officer when president of the continental congress at the time. john hancock signed his commission. many mistakenly to this as designate nicholas as the first commandant of the marine corps. but that's not because congress did not bestow that title on the commandant until 1798, during a quasi war against france, after the american revolution.

nicholas was a 31 year old philadelphia native. he was born a quaker and his father died when he was seven years old. he attended the academy of philadelphia. became the future university of pennsylvania. and graduated at the age of 16, after which he became a merchant and owner of contest omega wagon tavern in downtown philadelphia. starting a trend of marines being affiliated with alcohol that remained strong this day. and any of you marines out there know what i'm talking about. all right. but nicholas, would honorably serve as a senior marine. the war from 1775 through 1783 being the first marine nicholas became the first marine recruiter. following the note from pastor mccarty, congress energized the marine committee. now increase to five members by ed in john from new york and stephen hopkin from rhode island.

recognize last name, nepotism was alive and well. the first fleet, admiral hopkins, was a brother of the congressman. they met on second story room of this building you see depicted on the slide that is ton tavern, which is commonly accepted the birthplace of the united states marines today. in fact i was sharing with dr. brooks how that building no longer in philadelphia. there's just a historical marker on the site where it but there are gentlemen that have purchased land in very close proximity to the original location that are now rebuilt in an exact replica of ton tavern and. hope to have that complete by the 250th anniversary on passamaquoddy advice, congress developed the plan from to conduct a naval campaign to capture the british principal naval base located in halifax, nova scotia.

the committee presented its recommendation to the full congress on the 9th of november, and the following day congress resolved. i quote that two battalions of marines be raised, that they be distinguished by the names of the first and second battalion of american marines making the 10th in november. the official of the united states marines, which is celebrated by marines, regardless of where they are in the world, regardless of what their circumstances are, they still celebrate the birth of our core today and again, i shared with dr. brooks earlier how i distinctly recall being in a combat situation. we didn't the opportunity to have a full ball, a large birthday cake. so i took one of my my what we call meals ready to eat field rations had pound cake in it, took that little pound cake out, put a match in it and lit it. and we sang happy birthday to the marine corps. that's what marines.

so congress directed washington order to form these two battalions of marines to cherry pick soldiers out of his battalions holding the british under siege in boston. and those sailors, soldiers that may have had any type of maritime experience like john glover's folks, he used to create his own navy outside of boston. but washington was his own challenges at the time, so he balked at the idea. he also balked at the idea, leading an expedition up to capture halifax. he had his hands full and challenges galore outside of boston. so john hancock acquiesced, but he was still determined to form body of marines for service with the fleet. so congress directed nicholas and other marine officers to recruit their own men. this picture depicts, those first recruits. congress chose to organize the

marines differently than the two battalions they originally envisioned. in order to have them be able to easily transition from fighting at sea to fighting ashore. so they organized first marines into ten companies of 50 marines each one company of 50 marines could be assigned to an individual ship as marine detachment on board that ship if required. do limited operations ashore, they could task, organize those 50 man companies into larger battalions to fight ashore. and that's, in fact, what would happen in support of george washington during ten crucial days, which we'll talk about here in a moment. nicholas led the effort recruit five companies to man the fleet's first five ships and he took personal command of the marine detachment on board the alfred the flagship. a snapshot of lieutenant isaac

kriegsmarine detachment on the ship, andrew duryea provides a good of a continental marine company. in 1775. craig's consisted of 40 marines, few of which were born in america. they were mostly immigrants from great britain, ireland, holland and germany. all but one of the marines was recruited from philadelphia. their average age was 25 and a half years old, with the youngest being 18 and the oldest being 40. their average height was five foot six, with the shortest marine five three and a half inches and the tallest being six foot. and the marines brought a wealth of background and experience to their unit. they included carpenters, masons, barbers, bakers, cabinet makers, coopers jewelers, brass founders, tailors, butchers, painters, wool climbers, millers, servants, and a single doctor.

so the american fleet set sail on its inaugural cruise on january. fourth 1776. in all the fleet at this time consisted of seven ships armed with 110 cannons manned by 680 sailors and 234 marines. now, hopkins, the admiral, had two sets of orders when he set sail. he opened up the first set of orders, and it basically told him what the congress has expectations of the good order and discipline of the fleet would be and how they were to perform their duties. and one of the principal duties of the marines with the fleet is to maintain good order and discipline. the second set of orders identified several ambitious and quite frankly, unrealistic tasks. hopkins was to immediately set course for the chesapeake bay, where he was to locate capture or destroy the fleet located there. now, think about this. this is the most powerful navy in the world.

men in ships of war with nearly 100 cannons in their top line vessels. we had seven converted merchant ships. if that was not enough once he was complete and destroying the british fleet off of the virginia coast, he was then to proceed down the carolinas where he was to do the same thing, locate the fleet down there and destroy that fleet. and if that were not enough, once that was complete, he was to shoot back up north, engage the fleet over and off of the rhode island coast and destroy that fleet as well. so, you know, however, as hopkins was reading these orders, he found that there was a caveat in orders that he hoped to exploit. it stated, i quote, if bad winds or stormy or any other unforeseen accident or disaster, disable you so to do you then to follow such course as your best judgment shall suggest.

well, hopkins wisely chose to use his better judgment, and determined to follow his own plan. he had earlier received an intelligence report that there was gunpowder and weapons being held down in the bahamas at a place called providence and new providence was once very heavily, and it consisted of two forts for my ten go garden. the eastern approaches to nassau and fort nassau garden. the western approaches to nassau which was the capital of new providence. now events on the north american continent had weakened the island's defenses when its regiment of regulars was sent north to reinforce british forces fighting in america. governor montfort browne, who was the of new providence, established a 300 man militia force and he had one small schooner, the saint john for protection. now, hopkins tasked samuel with

capturing both of these forts with 220 marines and 50 sailors. unfortunate fleet. the fleet was discovered before the raid and brown had most of the gunpowder shipped to eastern florida before the marines landed. regardless, nicholas, the marines in a successful raid and they captured both forts with 88 cannons, 15 mortars and an abundance of ordnance and of no, this exceeds the number of guns transported by henry knox from fort ticonderoga to washington outside of boston. it's just that they were a thousand miles south of boston, and knox arrived with his cannons before the marines and sailors arrived theirs. but nonetheless, those cannons were used effectively throughout the rest of the war and in addition to that, governor brown at the time attempted to escape during the raid and he was placed on house and guarded by

marines. he later complained that the marines and i, quote, use that discretion. all of my wines and other liquors as did everything else, they had occasion for. you know, now hopkins loaded, brown and the prize was captured by the marines. he departed for rhode island. brown was later used in a prisoner exchange to secure the release of american general john sullivan, who had been captured during the battle of long island earlier. as they were moving north towards rhode island. they understood that strategically this first amphibious operation conducted by the navy and marines had other benefits. what it did achieve was it forced the british to employ their naval forces over a much broader area in order to protect its other holdings across world. because the marines and sailors demonstrated they could strike them where and when they wanted. that's the great advantage of

naval as the fleet north. the british sent the force the delaware river to test the american defenses protect and philadelphia trying to use their advantage of maneuver of seas. this resulted in a second stage of recruitment of sailors and marines, which included a gentleman named robert mullen. mullen was the owner of the ton tavern, the official birthplace of the. this is also the time when a gentleman named john martin, otherwise known as cato, became the first african-american marine, recruited in april of 1776. now hopkins captured several british merchant vessels on their way to rhode island. but he got in a tough battle against a frigate that's depicted in this. the frigate was known as the glasgow, and it resulted in the death of second lieutenant john fitzpatrick of nicholas's marine detachment.

you see that being depicted in this painting on board the alfred making this the first marine killed in combat during the american revolution and therefore our history. on arriving in rhode island hopkins and nicholas excuse me. hopkins sent nicholas back to philadelphia with dispatches for the congress giving him the word about the successful raid in providence. congress promoted nicholas on the spot to major and they assigned him with recruiting for new companies of marines. excuse me. these companies the marines were to man the marines detachments on four of the 13 original frigates that the congress had authorized to be built to fight the war. these are warships being built from the keel up. the first in the united states navy. those warships plans were dispersed across the major seaports of the eastern seaboard

for them. the washington, the delaware, the effingham and the randolph safe were being constructed in philadelphia. nicholas was assigned to recruit those four companies, the marines, to man those ships. well, in the meantime and i apologize, this may be a little difficult to see, but in the meantime shifts his army to new york. the british evacuated boston. and now washington is being challenged once again in having a credible naval force, which would play to his disadvantage. what do you notice about this map here? this is manhattan island and this is new jersey. and long. what do you notice about this area? there's a lot of water and controls the waterways can control the war and the battle. so once again, we don't have a

credible navy to be able to engage the royal navy. so washington does what he did before. he created his own navy using soldiers, serve in the role of sailors and marines. unfortunately, it was never adequate to be able to meet the needs. and when isaac hopkins took the fleet up into rhode island they were blockade made by a british fleet located up there. so they were not successful in assisting with the fight for new york. by mid august 1776, the british had assembled a massive force of 32,000 troops supported by a fleet of 10,000 sailors. 2000 marines. men and hundreds of vessels armed with over 1200 cannons. washington 19,000 green troops militiamen that had been formed. units to become soldiers and no navy or marines.

the outcome was predictable. the army faced a string of defeats, starting with the battle of long island in august. washington a slight victory in the battle of harlem heights in september. only to defeat, face defeat at white plains in october. arnold fought valiant lee up in upstate new york during the battle bell corps island that same month. but the americans face a devasted fate and defeat at fort washington in november, followed by loss of fort lee in new jersey that same month, and washington an at this time is now being pursued by british forces is across new jersey until the 8th of december, when he crosses the delaware river south into pennsylvania pennsylvania. to make matters worse, general grant of the british forces captured newport, rhode island, that same month. so this is a difficult time for

the continental forces. disease is desertion. casualties terminate and enlistments had all dwindled. washington's 19,000 troops with those are accompanying him south of the delaware to about 2500. something needed to be done to change the tide of war, and washington knew he had to seize the initiative back from the british. or the war could be lost. but he needed more troops. enter washington's marines. so washington's marines actually consisted of four separate and distinct groups. i already mentioned to you that washington had soldiers fill in the role of marines as depicted here by. that picture of john glover that you see in the left hand side. and i mentioned that there were many out there as well. privateers were served in the role of marines as well, particular on some of the larger

ships. an example, this is a gentleman named william shippen. william shippen was a 27 year old merchant from philadelphia. and the of four. he started the war as a privateer before assuming command of the marine detachment on board the pennsylvania state flagship, the montgomery. each of the separate stage had their own navies as well because the continental congress had not yet been able to acquire the resources to build a national navy with the british international eyes now on philadelphia's doorstep ship and went ashore to fight beside the continental marines as a member of the philadelphia militia unit known as the s.o.s. unfortunately, ship would be killed in the battle of princeton in the coming weeks, making him the first state marine to be killed in the war. the pennsylvania navy consisted of 48 vessels of various sizes

to include two floating batteries, called the arnold in putnam, each with 12 18 pounds cannons manned exclusively by pennsylvania state marines like you see in this center photo. that is 29 year old thomas forest, who received a commission and a pennsylvania marines in march of 76. he commanded the arnold until transferred on october fifth to the pennsylvania state artillery to command his own company. now force play a critical role in the upcoming and the gentlemen see on the right is andrew porter. andrew porter was a schoolmaster in philadelphia when he received his commission as a continental national marine. many of the marines in his were reportedly his current or previous students. now, porter commanded the marine to task been on board the frigate f and ham and would

fight as a company under samuel nicholas in the coming battles. but there's an interesting story about this gentleman. a bit of trivia about is that he later resigned his marine commission to take on a full time army as an artillery officer. and i'll tell you how that happened a moment, but just let it be known that while he was serving as an army officer, there was another army officer named major eustace who called him out one day and said, are porter, you are nothing but a -- schoolmaster. and porter drew his sword out and said, i have not forgotten my vocation, sir, and struck him in the back with the flat of the sword. does anybody know what that designates. it's a call out to a duel. you are a disgrace to me. and i'm calling you out. so they met on the corner of ninth in arch streets in downtown philadelphia. they drew pistols and boom,

porter shoots eustace right through the heart and kills him on the spot. and because of that, he was court martialed, thinking his career was over. he was later exonerated, though promoted to major. then, given the assignment of, the gentleman he had just killed. it all works out in the end. you don't mess with a marine's honor. it doesn't end well for people. okay. so nicholas received his orders at this time from, the congress to consolidate the marine detachments on those four vessels being constructed in philadelphia to form a battalion and to move up delaware river to link up with george washington to see how they can support the continental in its greatest time of. they get to river and washington is perplexed. he does not know how to deal with these marines, but he has this gentleman named john called walter. karl walter was the brigade for

the philadelphia militia known as the associated, who also came upriver to join washington in the army. so washington turns to walter and he says, go talk to those marines and find out whether they mean to fight on land or on the water. and karl walter says they're going to fight for you, general, and washington says very well, sir, i place them under your command. the continental marine says would fight as a separate and distinct battalion under or the philadelphia associated during the ten crucial days. so before arriving at the delaware, washington had the foresight to collect all the boats up. the delaware river for 70 miles upriver from philadelphia. so when general howe, who was pursuing washington lead in the british forces, got to the delaware, they made a feeble attempt to find boats, but there were none to be found. so he did what most europe and

armies did during times of inclement weather. they went into winter quarters on december 1776. general, how established 17 separate control movements across eastern new jersey are the areas closest to the americans and. for reference, this is trenton in the middle of the map and this area that was closest to the americans who were along the shores of the delaware were commanded by a hessian named colonel carl von donner. he has his troops, the burlington and border town. and then one of his subordinates was a gentleman named colonel johann rawl, who commanded a brigade trenton proper. as the hessians settled into their winter quarters. washington began to gather what forces he could while seeking intelligence to an important stroke against the enemy in

washington knew again he had to seize the initiative. otherwise the war may be lost. but he had three preconditions he wanted to meet before he could act. the first was that consolidation of forces. and not only did he have the associated z marines come upriver from philadelphia, which is down here in the bottom of the map. but he also assigned is continental forces under general charles lee and horatio gates to come down from new york and join him and fill in pennsylvania. he also needed favorable on the ground and he accomplished this through conducting several harassment raids to where the hessian forces down in the area and the marines participated did in several of these raids. and the third thing he needed to do was to the enemy, make a mistake that he could. and that occurred when militia forces under general putnam were sent across the delaware causing.

colonel von donner to pursue them towards the other shore across from philadelphia. in doing that, what he was he removed himself from being able to mutually support role in trenton. it was 22 miles away and a full day's march away, which provided washington with a golden opportunity. so washington came up with four phase plan to capture the hessians in trenton. he lead his main effort of 2400 continental soldiers with thomas force, the former pennsylvania state marine, and his battery of across mcconkey ferry and to a nine mile march to attack rawl in trenton. from the north and from the west. and then he had three supporting efforts. the first one, and this is the history that no one knows. the first one was new jersey and

pennsylvania. who was supposed to cross right at trenton and capture a key bridge across the us and trunk? that was to prevent rawl being able to escape. once washington attacked col walder and nicholas with the brigade of philadelphia and the marines were cross in the bristol area and were to establish blocking positions to prevent von donner from able to reinforce rawl once and then the final support and effort was putting him send a more militia cross from philadelphia to fix van dam up in place of fortunately washington's was the only one of the four to successfully cross the delaware river on christmas day. if you look obviously this is the famous painting the crossing of the delaware. you see the ice in snow forming on the river. this is an actual picture, delaware river. and what the conditions look

like at that time of year. so although washington was able with john glover's help get his force across the militia, that was supposed to cross right where trenton falls is located, where facing conditions like this didn't even attempt it. the marines in philadelphia staters actually got two thirds of their force across the river before a nor'easter hit. a blizzard came in. and the conditions so dangerous that karl walder aborted the mission, bringing his forces back across to philadelphia, to pennsylvania. he thought that no one else was able to successfully cross either. and then the final forced down by philadelphia was also unsuccessful in crossing. so the next morning, karl walters in the process of writing a note to washington, saying, hey, i'm sorry, none of us were able to get across river and also and boom, he hears cannon going off in the direction of trent son of a gun. washington made it successfully

across the river. so what does he do? the marines are now animated. there's a philadelphia associated wanting to get in a fight, so they make the decision to cross back over new jersey, to join washington in the fight. unfortunately, the time they get over into the new jersey side, washington, the decision after successfully capture and nearly a thousand hessians to cross back into philadelphia because he knows that there's about 10,000 british soldiers up in the princeton. so now washington's on the south side of the river cole during the marines are on the northern side of the river. and what they are doing is they are now trying to take von dunlop's forces under pursuit out who are retreating up towards princeton, where there's a british brigade holding out. karl walter identifies that washington now re crossed into philadel into pennsylvania excuse me. and so he starts to get cold

feet and he wants to abort the mission again. the marines are having none of it. his associates are having none of it. no. ask washington. come back over the river and let's continue this fight. we have the advantage. we have the initiative. so washington does make the decision to cross over once more into new jersey and now wants to try and consolidate his forces to see how he might explore the advantage they now have and that result in a second battle known as the second battle of trenton or more commonly known as the battle of us in pink creek, washington recross the delaware at the end of december and he was able to now consolidate 6000 troops outside of trenton to include the continental marines. but the americans were not the only ones preparing for a fight because lord cornwallis was directed by general how to assume overall command of

approximately 10,000 troops outside of princeton and attack and finally defeat. the americans now held up in trenton. now the british is thought was the delaware river had washington boxed in in the trenton area. and what washington did was used his natural barrier at the us and pin creek to slow british forces and he occupied the high ground across the creek and for miles upriver in order to block the british and make them attack him. and the strength lies in the defense because has now dug in prepared positions and he's able to put nearly 40 cannons under the command. henry knox on the high ground overlooking this one key bridge at the us pink creek, the marines and walder. any associates are initial

highly placed on the right flank to be able to block any british attempts to cross the creek and what washington does to buy time in order to allow forces to consolidate and dig in is he sends a gentleman named edward hand and virginia and maryland riflemen up north in order to conduct delaying tactics against british as they depart and fight their way south all the way to trenton. and you can see these little burst represent each of the engagement points where edward hand successfully delayed the british sufficiently to allow washington to get his forces in place. the british and hessians tried times unsuccessfully that evening to force the bridge and to defeat the americans dark sets in. they've several casualties. cornwall ellis decides to pull back and occupy the high ground

above trenton, and he don't worry about it. we'll bag fox in the morning. the fox being in washington and one of corn wallace's journal officers, a gentleman named erskine, says, general, if washington's half the general i think he is, he won't there in the morning cornwall will said don't worry about it. but bergstein knew what was up washington's sleeve because washington knew at this point really had four choices to choose from. he could remain in place and british would eventually cross the creek. at some point. and knowing the british tactics likely cross north and then roll the americans flank with the delaware blocking any escape. so he didn't want to do that. he could take the initiative and himself across the river. but the british outnumbered. him 10000 to 6000. they could retreat south towards

bordentown, burlington, but the british would just pursue them and eventually catch them. and he had one other option. does anybody what it was to attack deeper into enemy held territory? so what he does in the middle of the night using guys in the sea, he leaves 3 to 400 men in these lines, making a racket like they're digging in. they're preparing positions and stoking the fires to make the british believe that the americans are remaining in place. but in fact, what they do in the middle of the night and throughout the evening is they slowly pull their forces out and they start moving north a 11 miles further north is the town of princeton, remember. that's where cornwallis from. there's a brigade there of approximately 14 to 1500 men. cornwallis gives that brigade the order to. come south and join him for the

final to defeat the americans the next morning and then the us head reconnaissance elements out and spies out at the time. and this map that you see hand-drawn here was drawn by karl walder of the british defenses at princeton, based off of spies report he provides us to washington and washington uses to devise a plan for attack so this that you see depicted here is the americans march 11 miles throughout the night they have now been awake for nearly 40 hours without a hot meal in the middle of a blizzard. but they have to do what's to continue to fight and keep the american revolution alive. washington's plan was you had princeton located in this area where the british were held up. his plan was to split. his forces have general nathaniel green's division block

a bridge here to prevent cornwallis from coming back up from trenton to reinforce this force. while his main effort conducted a flanking attack on princeton. unfortunately, as the sun is beginning to rise, the americans are moving this sunken road along the creek bed and they see british forces just crossing this bridge and moving up this hill. that's the british brigade under a guy named marwood that cornwallis had ordered to come south to reinforce him before the final attack against washington and trenton. it's what we call in military a meet, an engagement where two forces didn't expect to see each other. but now it's a matter who can gain fire superior already first in order to get the advantage and win the battle. so what happens is a gentleman named hugh mercer takes his unit up and he engages the british here on the princeton battle. unfortunately, mercer didn't

know how many forces he was going up against, and he only sends about 100 folks up there. 100 as who are 200? 100 riflemen and 100 infantrymen. but they're going up against 700 british forces. the british take the advantage and actually shoot mercer off of his horse. they bayonet several times and mercer brigade turns and starts to retreat. while that's happened in, col walder, the associate towers and the continental marines come out of the sunken road and they hear the sound of battle, and they want to join the battle. they come up in this area and they start to form with the is on the left in the continental marines on the right, and they start to forward to engage the british. but just as they're doing that under fire, mercer's brigade retreating right into their face, creating confusion and forces start to fold and

basically retreat back about 150 yards at that decisive moment. general george washington shows up on the scene. he wasith the main force effort during the flank, an attack against princeton. and he conveys with confersith karl walder and nicholas and says let's reorganize the men in attack. they listen to general and the continental marines with those forces attack straight into the british with the help of now excuse me with the help now of edward's hands forces coming in from the right and general mifflin's force coming in from the left. the british are overwhelmed and they retreat. the americans win the. battle of princeton. another huge and third critical battle in a short ten day period that becomes known as the ten crucial days, which turns the tide of the war. now, what happens at this?

okay, as the british forces are retreating, there are some holdouts are left. in this building here. anybody know is that's nassau hall in the university of princeton. there are approximately 230 to 250 british soldiers held up here. and there's a young captain from new york named alexandra hamilton, who is a battery commander with the continental who sets his cannons up right here and starts firing straight into the front door to nassau hall and. the legend is that there was painting of king george on the wall and one of the cannonballs decapitates the king. whether true or not, i don't know. it makes for a good story. militiamen rushed building and the british here surrender. and in the battle of princeton

princeton. so the british sustained about 450 killed, wounded or missing. and the americans sustained about 30 casualties during the battle of princeton. wa william ship in thereminder, privateer marine who is now fighting side by side with the continental marines. so as the battle ends. washington, henry knox in charge of the continental artillery. others, they wanted to continue the attack toward brunswick, new jersey, because they knew in brunswick. that is where the british were holding charles lee, who had been captured earlier and had 70,000 pounds of sterling in a war chest that washington critically needed. but his men have reached what, we call, the culminating point. a culminating point is that point that if you go beyond it, you will start to have diminishing returns. it could turn victory into a defeat. his men have been up for over 40 hours, no sleep.

many of them had no shoes. you've heard the stories about being able to track their progress through the bloodstream teams on the on the snow covered ground. so washington made the wise choice instead of continuing to attack up to brunswick, he takes a left instead of a right, and he goes up to morristown new jersey where he establishes winter quarters and begins what's called the forge war against the british. the british had abandoned eastern new jersey and are holding up now in three key cities in northern new jersey, close to new york and the royal fleet support them. they have to out to forage for supplies, their horses and for their men. and when they do, the continental marines and others come out of morristown and they have skirmishes over the course of the winter. during that time, henry knox now that he has more cannon than he has soldiers to be able to man

them more desert, more casualties, more terminating enlistments. so looks around the area d he goes, wait a minute, now those marines know how to operate ships cannons. the difference is had a ship's cannon is on a different carriage and has a bit of a shorter barrel, but very similar to a ground based cannon that you need two large wheels for maneuverabilit with and have a little bit longer cannon barrel so that you can get accurate fire. so knox very wisely turns a general washington and says general, can i please have the continental ttalion assigned to me to be the continental army's corps of artillery? washington approves the plan, and the continental marines now become the corps of for the continental ar. they would continue to serve in this role for approximately four

months until they called back to the sea. and it started with captain mullen and his company being tasked with escorting prisoners back to philadelphia here, being reassigned to his ship, and then eventually the rest would follow. so by war's end, 231 officers and approx may 2000 enlisted men had served honorably as continental marines and many more serving as state in soldier marines. 49 continental marines gave their lives in the service of our country, with another 70 being wounded in action. they established a legacy that those of us in uniform today strive emulate. the operation surrounding the ten crucial days camp comprised marines first sustained land campaign. but it would certainly not be our last in every conflict. for the last 247 years, marines have served critical roles.

when in new laurels, in peace, and in war and their honorable service continues today. thank you. god bless you all. and fidelis. and i'll be happy to take your questions. the dog just woke up. going back to the early part when a commercial ship was converted to navy, ship was simply a matter of putting guns on the deck rather than putting them below deck and creating a firing port. that's in fact, the continent, old navy and continental congress, made a conscious decision when we built our frigates, we did not have the or the resources build large european like ships of war. so what we did is we made a

conscious decision to build frigates that maintained their cannons. the main decks. and so the original merchant men, to your question, more directly, only put place cannons on the main decks not below decks, and all had to do with the center of gravity and how you can maneuver those cannons around. but that is accurate, sir. are the questions. yes, ma'am. listen, if you're down in every division except the marines, do you have any comment on that? so the question that was asked was this woman understands every one of the services except. the marine corps has missed their recruiting missions today. well, i can say with all confidence that, my last assignment before my current one was the commanding general of marine corps recruiting. and yes we are the only service for two years running now that have successfully accomplished our mission. and that has to do with the

ethos of the marine corps. we're war fighters. we hold no qualms about why exist. we exist to win our nation's battle and our brand, if you will, is tough, elite warriors. so we attract a certain type of young man, woman who know what they're getting in. and when i meet with young men and women, i ask myself, why did you join the marine corps? you knew your boot camp was going to be twice as long. you knew you were going to be challenged and asked to do more. you knew you would be sent to austere locations, where you had very little support and you would be put in dangerous situation. why did you choose to become a marine in 99.9% of all will answer by saying, because i wanted to be the best. well, my point to them is, if you want to be the best, you have to earn that reputation every single day. it all started here with the

continental marines, and that ethos of what it means to be a marine just as strong today as it was back then, because we rely on our and tradition and, refuse to allow to fail to live up to the legacy of those who went before us. so it's that overall mentality of why we exist to defend our great nation. that equates to how we attack our recruiting mission. well. we refuse to, fail. we will work as long as we need to. and won't mention what service it was. but once i went and i visited some recruiting stations in different state and i looked the other services display window and they had ours posted on their door and it said you know basically we work from 9 to 5 the recruiters time on there from this other service. and then i looked at our marine recruiters door, they had a similar sign up. but instead of saying 9 to 5, it said any time, any place, any

time, any place, any time, any place for every day of the week, seven days a week, 365 days a year. we our mission. and i think that is probably the principal genesis is being true to who we are, what we stand for. that still attracts men and women who want to serve our nation. when you dealing with all of the other stuff, you lose your your place. you lose your focus. you lose your brand and it confuses people. they're not sure whether they want to be part of that or not. answer question, ma'am. thank you. his starkly. when did the concept of the marines begin? that's a great question, sir. and what we do know is we don't who the first marines were, but that can't ship. the marines goes all the way back ancient time the greeks,

the romans, u.s. marines. so, for example, the strength of the roman forces was their allegiance soldiers. so in order to exploit that strength, what they was in essence, they used soldiers to serve as marines and the way they that is, they took their galleys and they had something called corvus think a large plank of wood with a hook at the end it and they would row their boats in close proximity to the enemy's ships and they would drop corvus and hook the ship in and then their soldiers would run across that board and basically attack and take over the enemy ship. so those are some of the first marine like activities that you could point to in our history. the museum here got an exhibit that said what of the ultimately

went by war. so would. of course. was drive. you'd be interested in right things as be true so if you didn't hear the question washington had learned to be cautious in fighting british forces and he learned some valuable lessons in the new york campaign. he could not with his american novice army, face the british on open battlefield and use traditional european tactics against them. they, the continental army, proved that that's not their desired of fighting until they had gentleman named baron von steuben who showed up in valley forge in 1778 and helped train the american army to be able to fight head to head against a

european army like had been done over the european continent. so washington was doing what's called the war of post. he wanted to pick the time and the place of engage in the british, only to win it was to his advantage, not into the hand of the british advantage. so as i mentioned, there were those three preconditions that he set in order to take a bold and stroke. because what i didn't mention is that out of that 2005 continentals he had left. when he crossed into philly excuse me, into pennsylvania, many of their enlistments going to terminate within a week. so the army was going to cease to exist in great part with that force that he had with him. so he knew he had a very limited time frame to able to set the conditions and take a bold move. otherwise, the revolution could be over. and so absolute and i respect

general washington to the umpteenth degree for his his courage in being to make that decision and persevere during those very difficult times. did that answer your question, sir? thank you. that's all we're going to have time for in terms questions in the forum. but if you'd like to speak further with general boehm, he's to be available to answer any questions you might have and sign books in the commonwealth hall immediately. this talk. let's give another round of applause. thank you