Naval Brigade

The British Naval Brigade and Royal Marines storm the stockade at Shimonoseki in September 1864. Illustrated London News, 24 December 1864.

A Naval Brigade is a body of sailors serving in a ground combat role to augment land forces.

Royal Navy

Within the Royal Navy, a Naval Brigade is a large temporary detachment of Royal Marines and of seamen from the Royal Navy formed to undertake operations on shore, particularly during the mid- to late-19th century. Seamen were specifically trained in land-based warfare at the gunnery school at HMS Excellent in Portsmouth.

The Royal Navy fought only one ship-to-ship action (HMS Shah and HMS Amethyst against the Peruvian ship Husacar in 1877) in the period from 1850 to 1914, so, for much of that period, its only active service was on shore, through Naval Brigades formed from the men aboard its vessels. Naval Brigades were used in engagements including:

• the Burma Wars (1824-85)
• the Crimean War (1854-6)
• the Second Opium War (1856-60)
• the Indian Mutiny (1857-9)
• the Maori Wars (1860-4)
• the Bombardment of Kagoshima and the Battle of Shimonoseki (1863-64)
• the Abyssinian expedition (1867-8)
• the Second Ashanti War (1873-4)
• the Zulu War (1879)
• the Transvaal War (1881)
• the 1882 Anglo-Egyptian War
• the Anglo-Sudanese War (1884-5)
• the Boer War (1899-1900)
• the Boxer Rebellion in China (1900)

Naval Brigade guns and gunners at the siege of Sevastopol, during the Crimean War.

The field gun competition commemorates the participation of a Naval Brigade in the relief of Ladysmith during the Boer War, when 12-pounder guns from HMS Terrible and HMS Powerful were dragged across almost 200 miles of rough terrain from Durban in October 1899.

A Royal Naval Division, later designated the 63rd (Royal Naval) Division, was formed in the First World War, to make use of surplus reserves of the Royal Navy who were not required at sea. It included two Naval Brigades and a brigade of Royal Marines, and fought in the defence of Antwerp in 1914, the Battle of Gallipoli in 1915, and the Battle of the Somme in 1916. Few naval personnel remained in the Division by July 1916, and it was redesignated as the 63rd Division. The division was demobilised in April 1919.

United States

In the American Civil War, both sides employed naval brigades at the Siege of Petersburg.

The Confederate Naval Brigade was commanded by Captain John R. Tucker. It was attached to George Washington Custis Lee's Division, under Lieutenant General Richard Ewell's Richmond Defense Forces. During the retreat to Appomattox, the brigade was captured at the Battle of Sayler's Creek on April 6, 1865. It was one of several units in the Army of Northern Virginia containing black servicemembers.

The United States Naval Brigade was under the Army of the James under Major General Benjamin Butler. It was commanded by Brigadier General Charles K. Graham and was not assigned to either of the two corps of the Army.

References

• Information Sheet No. 31, Naval Brigades, from the Royal Naval Museum
• Roster of Black Soldiers in the Appomattox Campaign
• Sailors of Confederacy Played Big Part in Noted Land Battles, 1936 article from the Richmond Times Dispatch
• story of the Siege of Petersburg from 1864-1865, from USGENNET.

See also

• 63rd (Royal Naval) Division
• Marine (military)
• Pearl's Naval Brigade