The main duty of the US Marine Corps during the Civil War was enforcing the Union blockade of the Confederate ports, as part of the ships company. In one of the Marines’ most heralded boarding actions, the USS Colorado’s compliment of Marines, accompanied by a number of sailors, rowed under cover of darkness to board the blockade runner Judah moored in Pensacola harbor.

Fired upon as they approached, they nevertheless managed to board the ship, and after a fierce engagement, set it aflame. A second party successfully spiked a large gun guarding the harbor entrance, and aside from one Marine killed due to misidentification, and just over a dozen wounded, the raiders returned to USS Colorado.

(Harper’s Weekly Collection)