History of The Royal Marines - Nineteenth Century - French Revolutionary and Napoleonic Wars

French Revolutionary and Napoleonic Wars

See also: Royal Marines Battalions (Napoleonic Wars)

The Royal Marines served throughout the Napoleonic Wars on-board Royal Navy ships in every notable naval battle including St Vincent, Camperdown, the Nile, Copenhagen, Trafalgar, the Dardanelles, Cape Lissa and Aix Roads. The marines also saw action in various amphibious operations.

The number of marines on board Royal Naval ships depended on the size of the ship and was generally kept at a ratio of one marine per ship gun with officers. For example: a First Rate Ship of the Line contained 104 marines while a 28 gun Frigate had 29. Between 1807 and 1814 the total marine establishment number was 31,400 men. Manpower (recruitment and retention) problems saw regular infantry units from the British Army being used as shipboard replacements on numerous occasions. One result of the Royal Navy's dominance of the seas in Europe, and the blockading of the French Navy's ports did mean that manpower constraints became less of an issue at the end of the Napoleonic Wars. From 1812, such maritime supremacy meant the Mediterranean and Channel Fleets were assigned additional marines for use 'in destroying signal communications and other petty harassing modes of warfare'. The British established several Royal Marine raiding battalions at this time.

In the War of 1812, the participation of the Royal Marines was not limited to battles at sea. Royal Marines in the raiding battalions harassed the coasts of Maryland and Virginia in 1813, and participated in the Chesapeake campaign (Jul-Sep 1814), including the following actions:

Battle of Bladensburg - the use of Congreve rockets by the detachment of Royal Marine Artillery commanded by Lieutenant John Lawrence resulted in the rout of the US militiamen.

Burning of Washington - performed by those men, of the Royal Marines battalion and the 21st Foot, in the 3rd Brigade.

Battle of Baltimore - Royal Marine Artillerymen aboard HMS Erebus (1807) illuminated Fort McHenry with the "rockets' red glare", as mentioned in The Star-Spangled Banner

Also present on shore during the Chesapeake campaign was a composite battalion of Marines, formed from ships' Marine detachments, frequently led by Captain John Robyns. A smaller composite battalion of about 100 men (23 officers, 2 of whom (John Wilson 1787-1850 & John Alexander Phillips 1790-1865) were Trafalgar veterans, and 80 other ranks) also took part in the Battle of New Orleans, under the command of Brevet Major Thomas Adair. The only British success at New Orleans was an attack on the west bank of the Mississippi River by a 700-man force, consisting of the 100 Royal Marines, 100 sailors under Captain Rowland Money, and 3 companies of the 85th Foot. A Corps of Colonial Marines existed from May 1814 to 20 August 1816, and was formed from volunteer escaped slaves. It served on the Atlantic coast.