Security· Civil Aid and Humanitarian Operations
Massachusetts State Prison riot suppression
One of the most famous instances of Marine discipline in the face of a civil disturbance.
When the convicts of the Massachusetts State Prison at Charlestown rose in revolt, the authorities called on Major Robert Wainwright and his Marine detachment from the Boston Navy Yard. Wainwright marched his men into the prison, formed them before the massed and defiant inmates, and ordered them to load. He then told the convicts plainly that he would give them a short time to return to their cells, and that if they did not, he would fire, and that not one of them would leave the hall alive. The Marines stood with leveled muskets while the seconds passed. The convicts, reading the major's resolve, submitted, and the revolt collapsed without a shot. The episode became a celebrated example of firmness short of bloodshed and was retold for decades in school readers. No casualties resulted.
Record no. 296