Rash's Surname Index
Notes for Franklin WHARTON
Lieutenant Colonel Franklin Wharton served as the Marine Corps' third commandant and was the first commandant to be court-martialed. Wharton, a native of Philadelphia, was born there on 23 July 1767. He had been commissioned as a Captain of Marines on 3 August 1798. During the naval war with France, he served on board the frigate United States, and since the close of that affair had been Commanding Officer of the Marine Barracks at Philadelphia.
At the time Wharton assumed the duties of Commandant, practically the entire Navy was involved in the war with the Barbary corsairs, which had begun almost three years before. Wharton's principal task remained the furnishing of Marine detachments for the increasing number of vessels in the war extending along the northern coast of Africa. This war was finally terminated in 1806 by the United States obtaining from three of its enemies the most favorable treaties that had yet been obtained from them by any power.
Peace having returned, Congress again insisted on rigid economy in the naval service, and, as the ships returned from the war zone, they were either placed out of commission or their crews were greatly reduced.
With the coming of the War of 1812, the difficulties facing the Marine Corps were significant. The Corps was not increased in strength during the first two years of the war, yet Wharton still was required to supply Marines for the ever-increasing number of naval vessels.
By 1814 a number of officers of the Corps were anxious to see Wharton superseded, primarily as a result of his actions during the British raid on the capital in 1814 and, upon one occasion, some of them went so far as to petition the President for his successor to be named. During that raid, Colonel Wharton gathered his headquartered remnants, the band, and the clerks with their records and marched to the Navy yard. Although instructed by Secretary of the Navy Jones to rally with the rest of the government at Frederick, Maryland, Wharton asked the yard commandant if he wanted the Marines to help either defend or destroy the yard. Captain Thomas Tingey, however, told him to leave, because the British were near the city and the yard was ready to be burned. Wharton, confused by the disaster, left by small boat.
When the Marines returned home in a couple of days, the city was a charred wreck, plagued by looters and further ruined by a severe storm. Tired, wounded, and demoralized, the Marine battalion did not realize they were heroes until the Washington newspapers resumed publication. Unfortunately, however, some Marine officers far from the scene, such as Archibald Henderson, thought that Colonel Wharton had damaged the Corps' new fame for fighting by not taking the field himself.
The dissatisfaction reached its climax three years later when Brevet Major Archibald Henderson, angered by Wharton's alleged faint-heartedness in 1814, submitted charges and specifications of neglect of duty and dishonorable behavior for failing to answer criticism of his courage against the Commandant, for which the latter was ordered by the Secretary of the Navy to be tried by court-martial. The most damaging of the accusations against him was not for any specific action or failure to act, but was for his failure to take any forceful measures to put a stop to reports and rumors injurious to his own character. Henderson argued that Wharton's conduct demeaned the Marine Corps' military reputation and encouraged other officers to ignore their duties in preference for their social lives and business ventures.
The court, consisting of senior Army officers and Marines, ruled out many specifications as being too general and refused to hear some testimony as being inadmissible under the rules of evidence. Commandant Wharton was acquitted but the episode created permanent ill feelings among the Corps' officers. His term in office, however, came to a close about a year later when he died in New York on 1 September 1818.
Wharton made a substantial contribution to the organization and efficient running of the Corps. For the first time, under his guidance, uniforms and military equipment were standardized, and military practices became uniform throughout the Corps. During his administration, the Marine Band began winning the national reputation which its still maintains today.
Commandant Wharton is buried in the cemetery of Trinity Church, New York City's oldest church. Trinity Church is located on Broadway and Wall Streets. If any of you Marines are ever in New York City, stop by and visit Lieutenant Colonel Franklin Wharton, Third Commandant of the Marine Corps.
by-Alvin Rivera, USMC (Ret.)
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