United States Marine Corps

===War of 1812 and afterward===
[[File:Wiki Capture Penguin.jpg|thumb|British and U.S. troops garrisoned aboard ''Hornet'' and ''Penguin'' exchanging [[small arms]] musket fire with Tristan da Cuna in the background during the [[Capture of HMS Penguin|final engagement]] between British and U.S. forces in the [[War of 1812]]]]

During the [[War of 1812]], Marine detachments on Navy ships took part in some of the great frigate duels that characterized the war, which were the first and last engagements of the conflict. Their most significant contribution was holding the center of General [[Andrew Jackson]]'s defensive line at the 1815 [[Battle of New Orleans]], the final major battle and one of the most one-sided engagements of the war. With widespread news of the battle and the [[Capture of HMS Cyane and HMS Levant|capture of HMS ''Cyane'', HMS ''Levant'']] and [[Capture of HMS Penguin|HMS ''Penguin'']], the final engagements between British and U.S. forces, the Marines had gained a reputation as expert [[marksman|marksmen]], especially in defensive and ship-to-ship actions.<ref name="Simmons" /> They played a large role in the 1813 [[Second Battle of Sacket's Harbor|defense of Sacket's Harbor]], New York and [[Battle of Craney Island|Norfolk and Portsmouth]], Virginia,<ref>[[Theodore Roosevelt|Roosevelt, Theodore]], ''The Naval War of 1812'', Random House, New York, {{ISBN|0-375-75419-9}}</ref> also taking part in the 1814 [[Battle of Plattsburgh|defense of Plattsburgh]] in the [[Champlain Valley]] during one of the final British offensives along the Canadian-U.S. border. The [[Battle of Bladensburg]], fought 24 August 1814, was one of the worst days for American arms, though a few units and individuals performed heroic service. Notable among them were Commodore Joshua Barney's 500 sailors and the 120 marines under Captain Samuel Miller USMC, who inflicted the bulk of British casualties and were the only effective American resistance during the battle. A final desperate Marine counter attack, with the fighting at close quarters, however was not enough; Barney and Miller's forces were overrun. In all of 114 marines, 11 were killed and 16 wounded. During the battle Captain Miller's arm was badly wounded, for his gallant service in action, Miller was brevetted to the rank of Major USMC.<ref>Sharp, John G., ''Register of Patients at Naval Hospital Washington DC 1814 With The Names of American Wounded from the Battle of Bladensburg'', Naval History and Heritage Command, 2018, https://www.history.navy.mil/research/library/online-reading-room/title-list-alphabetically/r/register-patients-naval-hospital-washington-dc-1814.html {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20210318070833/https://www.history.navy.mil/research/library/online-reading-room/title-list-alphabetically/r/register-patients-naval-hospital-washington-dc-1814.html |date=18 March 2021 }}</ref>[[File:Chapultepec.jpg|thumb|Marines [[Battle of Chapultepec|storming Chapultepec Castle]] with a large American flag during the [[Mexican-American War]]]]

After the war, the Marine Corps fell into a malaise that ended with the appointment of [[Archibald Henderson]] as its fifth commandant in 1820. Under his tenure, the Corps took on expeditionary duties in the Caribbean, the [[Gulf of Mexico]], [[Key West]], West Africa, the [[Falkland Islands]], and [[Sumatra]]. Commandant Henderson is credited with thwarting President Jackson's attempts to combine and integrate the Marine Corps with the Army.<ref name="Simmons" /> Instead, Congress passed the ''Act for the Better Organization of the Marine Corps'' in 1834, stipulating that the Corps was part of the Department of the Navy as a sister service to the Navy.<ref>{{cite web|author=U.S. Congress |author-link=Congress of the United States |title=An Act for the Better Organization of the United States Marine Corps |date=30 June 1834 |url=http://www.tecom.usmc.mil/hd/Docs_Speeches/Establishingamarinecorps.htm |access-date=3 August 2008 |url-status=dead |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20101007205958/http://www.tecom.usmc.mil/HD/Docs_Speeches/Establishingamarinecorps.htm |archive-date= 7 October 2010}}</ref> This would be the first of many times that the independent existence of the Corps was challenged.{{Citation needed|date=March 2021}}

Commandant Henderson volunteered the Marines for service in the [[Seminole Wars]] of 1835, personally leading nearly half of the entire Corps (two battalions) to war. A decade later, in the [[Mexican–American War]] (1846–1848), the Marines made their famed [[Battle of Chapultepec|assault on Chapultepec Palace]] in Mexico City, which would be later celebrated as the "Halls of Montezuma" in the Marines' Hymn. In fairness to the U.S. Army, most of the troops who made the final assault at the Halls of Montezuma were soldiers and not marines.<ref>Eisenhower, John S. D (26 September 2018). "So far from God: the U.S. war with Mexico 1846–1848". Easton Press. Retrieved 26 September 2018.</ref> The Americans forces were led by Army General [[Winfield Scott]]. Scott organized two storming parties of about 250 men each for 500 men total including 40 marines.{{Citation needed|date=March 2021}}

In the 1850s, the Marines engaged in service in Panama and Asia and were attached to Commodore [[Matthew C. Perry|Matthew Perry's]] [[East India Squadron]] on its historic trip to the Far East.<ref name="Moskin">{{Cite book |last= Moskin |first= J. Robert |title= The U.S. Marine Corps Story |publisher= McGraw-Hill |year= 1987 |location= New York}}</ref>