Overview

The Southern states responded to the election of Abraham Lincoln in 1860 and to the President's call for troops on April 15, 1861, by calling state conventions to vote on secession. With a war between the states imminent, many officers from all branches of Federal service tendered their resignations and offered their services to the Southern states. The Marine Corps, which consisted of 63 officers and 1,712 enlisted men on 31 October 1860, lost 20 officers to the Southern Confederacy. Six resigned and 14 were dismissed when their resignations were rejected. Twelve were citizens of southern states, five were from border states, while three were citizens of northern states. Of the 20, 19 were company-grade officers. To compensate for its losses and to increase the size of the Corps, the Marine Corps commissioned 38 new officers in early 1861 and a number of others in subsequent years. The peak strength during the war was reached on 28 February 1865 when 90 officers (including five retired but recalled for active duty) and 3,791 enlisted men were carried on the rolls for a total of 3,881. Frank L. Church was commissioned in July 1862. The Marines of the Corps with whom he was to serve saw combat primarily as members of ships' detachments, landing to fight ashore only on a few occasions. Those Marines who served ashore, did so either as part of a ships' landing force or while directly assigned to units of the Union Army. In either case, the numbers were not overwhelming. The events described in the Church journal represent only one very small incident in a much larger, wider ranging war. But this chronicle of his Civil War experiences is of interest, nonetheless, for the light it sheds on one small facet of that war.

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