The few, the proud. Marines had an impact on the Civil War

During the Civil War, members of the Marine Corps were primarily assigned to blockade duty aboard U.S. Navy ships, which were critical in strangling the Confederate states’ ability to continue fighting. Without the blockade, supplies, arms, ammunition, and money coming in from cotton, the South might have been able to fight on indefinitely. The Corps had an especially critical role in the 1864 Battle of Mobile Bay. -- Article