President John Quincy Adams Appoints a “Captain of Marines,” the Future Commandant of the Marine Corps
John Harris, the appointee, served in the Mexican War and led the Corps during the Civil War
This is the first appointment we have ever carried for a Marine Corps Commandant
John Harris was the sixth Commandant of the Marine Corps. He served in the Marine Corps for over 50 years, attaining the rank of colonel. Harris was commissioned a second lieutenant in the Marine Corps on April 23,...
This is the first appointment we have ever carried for a Marine Corps Commandant
John Harris was the sixth Commandant of the Marine Corps. He served in the Marine Corps for over 50 years, attaining the rank of colonel. Harris was commissioned a second lieutenant in the Marine Corps on April 23, 1814. Two months later he was promoted to first lieutenant and, during the summer of that year, served with the forces that opposed the advance of the British on the city of Washington during the concluding days of the War of 1812. The following year he was placed in command of the Marine Guard of the USS Macedonian, which was one of the ships of the squadron of Commodore Stephen Decatur that sailed from New York in May 1815 on an expedition to punish the Barbary pirates.
Harris was then assigned to duty aboard the USS Franklin, which he joined in August 1821. He was brevetted captain in March 1825 for distinguished conduct on that vessel. He served in the Mexican War and was promoted to lieutenant colonel in 1855 and placed in command at Brooklyn, New York, where he remained until January 7, 1859, on which date he was appointed Colonel Commandant of the Marine Corps. Colonel Harris’ term as Commandant included the Civil War. At that time nearly half of his officers resigned to serve the Confederate States and Harris labored to reconstitute the weakened Corps. Also, during the early days of the Civil War, when contraband traffic began to flow from Maryland, Colonel Harris detailed an entire battalion of Marines to serve as Secret Service operators in the troubled area, with the result that the situation was well in hand within a brief period. Services rendered the Union by Marines under Colonel Harris were varied and many.
This is Harris’ promotion to captain. Document signed, Washington, March 21, 1825, naming Harris “Captain of Marines by Brevet”. The document then goes on to state: “…the said John Harris to take rank from the third day of March 1825.” It is countersigned by Samuel Southard, Secretary of the Navy. Adams had only been president for a few weeks at the time he signed this document, which is itself of interest.
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