Combat· American Civil War
Ship Island, Mississippi seizure
The first land action of the Confederate States Marine Corps.
In July 1861 Captain Reuben Thorn led a provisional company of about a hundred and forty Confederate Marines in taking Ship Island, off the Mississippi coast, from the small Union naval party holding it. The seizure was a minor affair, but it holds a particular place as the earliest ground operation carried out by the newly formed Confederate Corps of Marines. The Confederate hold did not last: Union forces, recognizing the island's value as a base for operations against the Gulf coast and New Orleans, retook it in September 1861, and it became a staging point for the Federal Gulf campaign. No casualties are recorded for the July seizure. For the Confederate Marines, however, the brief capture of Ship Island remained a foundational moment, the first time the young corps acted as a landing force in its own right.
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Record no. 433