The January 15,
2025, meeting was a Zoom meeting. Members of the University of Richmond’s Osher
Lifelong Learning Institute also participated.
Mark Lender, committee
chair of The Harry M. Ward Book Prize announced the 2024 prize has been awarded
to Revolutionary Roads: Searching for the War That Made America
Independent . . . and All the Places It Could Have Gone Terribly Wrong,
authored by Bob Thompson and published by Twelve, 2023.
The evening’s
presentation was made by Major General Jason Q. Bohm, USMC (Retired), author of
Washington’s Marines: The Origins of the Corps and the American
Revolution, 1775-1777, published by Savas
Beatie, 2023. After thirty-four years of distinguished military service to our
country, General Jason Bohm retired from his career in the Marine Corps to
become the new Dean of the Helms School of Government at Liberty University in
Lynchburg, Virginia. Prior to his retirement, he served as Inspector General of
the Marine Corps (2022-2024), Commanding General of the Marine Corps Recruiting
Command (2020-2022), Chief of Staff for the Naval Striking and Support Forces
NATO (2018-2020), Commanding General of the Marine Corps Training Command
(2016-2018), and Director of Expeditionary Warfare School (2015-2016).
The fighting
prowess of United States Marines is second to none, but few know of the Corps’
humble beginnings and what it achieved during the early years of the American
Revolution. Jason Bohm’s book tells the story of the origin and activities of
the Corps in colonial America and its bearings on the American Revolution from 1775
to 1777.
He began his
presentation describing the difficult days of British oppression that led
America into a conflict for which the Colonies were ill-prepared. Thirteen
independent colonies commenced a war against the world's most powerful military
with nothing more than local militias, privateers, and other ad hoc units. The
Continental Congress quickly formed an army and placed George Washington in
command. Washington realized that America needed men who could fight on both land
and sea. Enter the Marines.
Bohm told the
story of the creation of the Continental Marines and the men who led them
during the early successes and failures of the Revolutionary War. As General
Washington struggled to preserve his command after defeats in New York and New
Jersey, the newly created U.S. Navy, consisted of merchant ships converted by
placing cannons on the main decks, and infantry soldiers were deployed aboard. On
December 3, 1775, the U. S. frigate Alfred went into commission with Captain Samuel
Nicholas commanding her Marines. Esek Hopkins was appointed Commander in Chief
of the Continental Navy, December 22, 1775, and authorized by the Continental
Congress to protect American commerce. Congress had developed a plan to conduct
a naval campaign to capture the British principal naval base at Halifax, Nova
Scotia but Washington balked at this idea. Hopkins, the first admiral, had
orders when the fleet set sail to destroy the British fleet at Chesapeake Bay, to
proceed to the Carolinas and then to engage and destroy the British fleet off
the Rhode Island coast. The orders contained a caveat that allowed Hopkins to
use his judgement to follow an alternate course--which he did. Having received
an intelligence report that there were gunpowder and weapons being held in the
Bahamas he decided instead to sail there instead. The Marines landed in New
Providence, defeated two forts, captured naval supplies, and took the Royal
Governor prisoner. During this, the first amphibious operation the Marines, 88
cannons, 15 mortars, and other ordinance, needed by Washington’s forces, were
captured. Upon the fleet’s return, Marines were detached from the fleet and
attached to the Army to join Washington's army at Trenton to slow the progress
of British troops southward movement through New Jersey. The Marines assisted
at the battles of Trenton, Assunpink Creek, and in the decisive American
victory at Princeton. Because of their familiarity with naval guns, Marines were
tasked into artillery units of Washington’s reorganized Army, at Henry Knox’s
request, to fill the depleted ranks of the army’s artillery. As a side note
Bohn touched on the Continental Congress passing Continental Marine uniform
regulations which specified green coats with white facings having a high leather
collar to protect against cutlass slashes and to keep Marine’s heads erect which
gave birth to the slang term “leatherneck.”
The book
highlights the Marines' involvement in turning-point victories and their
expertise with naval guns during the "Forage War" between January and
March 1777, following the battles of Trenton and Princeton. Bohm’s "Washington's
Marines" weaves together the men, strategy, performance, and personalities
of the Corps' formative early years into a single account.
Fred Sorrell
