I'll drop this here.
-Allen R. Millett, "The U.S. Marine Corps. 1973-2017: Cultural Preservation in Every Place and Clime" in The Culture of Military Organizations, edited by Peter R. Mansoor and Williamson Murray (Cambridge University Press: New York, 2019), 396.
For the record, Millett is a retired Marine Colonel.
Quote:
"[Commandant] Lejeune recognized that the "new" Marine Corps, which would create a Fleet Marine Force in 1933, needed to develop an elite status based on performance, not martial appearance and small numbers. He appointed Maj. Edwin N. McClellan to be the first Marine official historian. McClellan's histories, notable for what they omitted, lauded the combat heroics of the Corps in every place and clime since 1775. Lejeune and McClellan created a "Marine Corps Birthday" of November 10, 1775 out of pure imagination and made it an annual ritual wherever Marines may be. They claimed that a Continental Congressional directive to George Washington to form two Marine battalions for naval expeditionary duty is the foundation of the Marine Corps. McClellan ignored the fact that Washington did not form the battalions. Until the twentieth century, the Corps accepted a birthday of July 11, 1798, the day Congress approved a Marine Corps Act that authorized a permanent shipboard security force and barracks-based shore establishment that included Headquarters Marine Corps and a commandant. (Emphasis added) Congress recognized the Marine Corps as a separate naval service within the Department of the Navy with additional legislation in 1834."
-Allen R. Millett, "The U.S. Marine Corps. 1973-2017: Cultural Preservation in Every Place and Clime" in The Culture of Military Organizations, edited by Peter R. Mansoor and Williamson Murray (Cambridge University Press: New York, 2019), 396.
For the record, Millett is a retired Marine Colonel.