Colonel
(Brevet Brigadier General) Archibald Henderson, fifth
Commandant of the Marine Corps, was born in Colchester,
Virginia, on 21 January 1783. He was appointed a second
lieutenant in the Marine Corps on 4 June 1806; promoted
to first lieutenant 6 March 1807; to captain 1 April
1811; and was appointed a major, by brevet, in the
year 1814.
As
a captain during the War of 1812, he participated
in the engagements with the Cyane and Levant
on 20 February 1815. He received a silver medal and
was included in the thanks of Congress to the officers
and men of the Constitution for gallant service.
He was later presented with a jeweled sword by the
State of Virginia.
During the years subsequent to the
second war with Great Britain, until the year he was
appointed Commandant, Brevet Major Henderson was on
duty at such posts and stations as Boston, Massachusetts;
Portsmouth, New Hampshire; Headquarters, U.S. Marine
Corps; and at New Orleans, Louisiana.
On 17 October 1820, at the age of
37, LtCol Henderson was appointed as the Commandant
of the Marine Corps. He served in this position for
a little over 38 years--the longest of any officer
to hold that position. The years 1820 to 1835 were
marked by no very unusual or outstanding activities
on the part of the Marine Corps other than its part
in the suppression of piracy in the West Indies, and
the operations in the early 1830's against the pirates
of Quallah Battoo.
During the 1836-37 war with the Seminole
and Creek Indians in Georgia and Florida, in which
the Marine Corps took an active part, Col Henderson,
as Commandant, went in person into the field with
his command sharing in the dangers and exposures of
that campaign. For his services in checking Indian
hostilities, he was advanced to the brevet rank of
brigadier general.
During the Mexican War, which was
preceded by much military activity on the part of
the Marine Corps during the years 1845-46 on the West
Coast, Col Henderson ably administered the affairs
of the Marine Corps. The success attained by the Corps
during the war, including its expansion and development
from a small fighting force into a well recognized
and very formidable arm of the nation's military forces,
was due in no small measure to the leadership and
ability of its Commandant.
During the years subsequent to the
Mexican war and prior to the Civil war, the Marine
Corps, under the ever-watchful eye and direction of
its venerable Commandant, was by no means an idle
organization. In 1852-53, the Marines took part in
the famous expeditions of Commodore Perry to Japan.
In 1855 they participated in an expedition to Uruguay
as a result of an insurrection at Montevidio, and
in 1856 had an engagement with hostile Indians at
Seattle, Washington Territory. Also, during the same
year, they took part in the capture of the Barrier
Forts in China.
In the year 1857 during the "Know
Nothing" political excitement, the Marines were
ordered upon the request of the mayor of Washington,
D.C., to suppress an armed mob of "hired roughs
and bullies" that had been imported from Baltimore
to take possession of the election booths, the situation
having beyond the control of the civil authorities.
During the serious riot, when a cannon was put into
position by a large crowd of "Plug Uglies"
and others who threatened the Marines, Col Henderson
deliberately placed his body against the muzzle, thereby
preventing it from being aimed at the Marines, just
at the moment when it was about to be discharged.
Colonel Henderson passed away quietly
on the afternoon of 6 January 1859. His remains were
interred in the Congressional Cemetery in southeast
Washington, D.C. The
Navy transport, USS Henderson, was named
in his memory.
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UNITED
STATES MARINE CORPS
