Confederate States Marine Corps

        The Confederate States Marine Corps (CSMC) was established by an act of the Confederate Congress 16 Mar. 1861. Corps strength was authorized at 46 officers and 944 enlisted men but actual enrollment never came close to that number. (A figure for 30 Oct. 1864 lists only 539 officers and men.) Though the officers were mostly former U.S. Marine officers, the head of the corps, Commandant-Col. Lloyd J. Beall, was a former U.S. Army paymaster with no marine experience.
        The CSMC was modeled after the U.S. Marine Corps, but there were some differences: the Confederates organized themselves into permanent companies, replaced the fife with the light infantry bugle, and wore uniforms similar to those of British marines. Ashore they provided guard detachments for Confederate naval stations at Mobile, Savannah, Charleston, Charlotte, Richmond, and Wilmington and manned naval shore batteries at Pensacola, Hilton Head, Fort Fisher, and Drewrys Bluff. Seagoing detachments served aboard the various warships and even on commerce destroyers.
        Confederate marines saw their first naval action aboard the CSS Virginia (Merrimack) off Hampton Roads, Va., 8-9 Mar. 1862, and near wars end were part of the naval brigade that fought at Sayler's Creek, Va.
        Despite desertions and even near-mutinies, most marines served well and deserved Navy Sec. Stepehen R. Mallory's praise for their "promptness and efficiency." The corps weakness was due largely to internal squabbles over rank, shore duty, and administrative assignments. And, with no funds for bounties, the corps could not easily enlist recruits. Until 1864 the monthly pay of enlisted men was $3 less than that of equivalent army grades. Only late in the war were the marines allowed to draw from army conscripts to augment their ranks.