Expeditionary· American Revolutionary War
Continental Marines in Northwest Territory (1779-1782)
Continental Marines reached the Illinois Country in 1779, when the company that Captain James Willing had taken from Fort Pitt to New Orleans came north to join George Rogers Clark at Kaskaskia.
Lieutenant Robert George probably left New Orleans in August 1778, and by June 1779 he and the Marine company had reached Clark's camp. There the company was disbanded, and a portion enlisted in a new artillery company under George in the service of Virginia. In 1782 Clark authorized a company of Virginia State Marines under Captain Jacob Pyeatt for a row galley being built at Fort Nelson, at the Falls of the Ohio. Enlisted for six months, the company numbered 20 men and one other officer, Lieutenant William Biggs. The men were designated Marines because they had enlisted for service on the water. The galley's summer patrol of the Ohio alarmed the Indians, who thought Clark was preparing an incursion. The vessel sank about September 1, 1782, and the remaining Marines were transferred to the Illinois Regiment.
Record no. 162