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.
