Security· American Civil War
Cairo, Illinois Naval Station occupied
The establishment of the Marine guard at the upper-river logistics base.
In July 1862 a detachment of three officers and seventy-five enlisted Marines occupied the new naval station at Cairo, Illinois, the town at the junction of the Ohio and the Mississippi that served as the principal base for the Federal river squadron. From Cairo the gunboats were fitted out, repaired, and supplied for the campaigns down the great river, and the Marine detachment furnished the guard for the station and its stores. The duty was garrison and security rather than combat, and no casualties were involved. Cairo was the northern anchor of Union naval power on the western rivers, the depot from which the war on the Mississippi was sustained, and the posting of a substantial Marine guard there reflected its importance to the whole river campaign that was steadily prising the Confederacy apart along the line of the Mississippi.
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Record no. 447