Lieutenant
Colonel William Ward Burrows, second Commandant of
the Marine Corps, was born in Charleston, South Carolina,
on 16 January 1758. He served in the Revolutionary
War with the state troops of South Carolina, but later
become a citizen of Philadelphia. On 12 July 1798,
the day following the approval of an act of Congress
establishing a permanent United States Marine Corps,
President John Adams appointed him as Major Commandant
of the newly created organization which consisted
of 881 officers, noncommissioned officers, privates
and musicians.
The Marine Corps, as well as the Navy,
had had its humble beginning a short time prior to
its actual authorization as a Corps and both were
formed to meet an impending national crisis. The first
Marine units to be organized by Major Burrows were
ship detachments for newly acquired vessels of the
American Navy, which were being hurriedly placed in
commission at Philadelphia and hurried off to sea
to fight cruisers and destroy commerce in the naval
war with France. During the first several months that
he was Commandant, his principal concern was the supplying
and keeping up to strength the Marine detachments
for the vessels of the Navy.
Headquarters
of the Corps was in camp near Philadelphia until the
national capital began its move to Washington in 1800.
A small detachment of Marines was sent to the new
capital in March of that year to protect the newly-established
navy yard, while Major Burrows, with his staff and
headquarters troops, moved to Washington in late July
and set up their camp.
Major Burrows was promoted to lieutenant
colonel on 1 May 1800. The Quasi-War with France continued
until September of that year, when matters were finally
adjusted. The insistence of Congress that the cost
of the naval establishment be immediately reduced
caused considerable embarrassment to Burrows in his
effort to establish the Marine Corps on a peacetime
basis. The wars with the Barbary States broke out
soon afterwards and the main concern of the Corps
was to supply detachments to naval vessels for duty
in the Mediterranean.
Lieutenant Colonel Burrows is credited
with beginning many of the Corps' institutions, including
most notably the U.S. Marine Band, which he financed
in part by levying contributions from his officers.
He demanded high standards of professional performance
and personal conduct of his officers and these have
become hallmarks of the Corps. Ill health forced his
resignation on 6 March 1804.
Lieutenant Colonel Burrows died in
Washington, D.C., on 6 March 1805. He was buried in
the Presbyterian Cemetery, Georgetown, in the District
of Columbia. His remains were re-interred in Arlington
National Cemetery on 12 May 1892.
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