Their mission was multi-purpose, but their most important duty was to serve as onboard security forces, protecting the captain of a ship and his officers.

Ordered, That a copy of the above be transmitted to the General.These two battalions were initially intended to be drawn from George Washington's army for the planned invasion of Halifax, Nova Scotia, the main British reinforcement and supply point[citation needed].

Robert Mullen, whose mother owned Tun Tavern, later received a commission as a captain in June 1776 and likely used it as his recruiting rendezvous.

There, they wrought havoc and seized naval stores of shells, shot, and cannon, but failed to capture any of the desperately needed gunpowder.

Though Hopkins was disgraced for failing to obey orders, Nicholas was promoted to major on 25 June and tasked with raising 4 new companies of Marines for 4 new frigates then under construction.

[4] In December 1776, the Continental Marines were tasked to join Washington's army at Trenton to slow the progress of British troops southward through New Jersey.

A group under Navy Captain James Willing left Pittsburgh, traveled down the Ohio and Mississippi Rivers, captured a ship, and in conjunction with other Continental Marines, brought by ship from the Gulf of Mexico raided British Loyalists on the shore of Lake Pontchartrain.

The last official act of the Continental Marines was to escort a stash of silver crowns, on loan from Louis XVI of France, from Boston to Philadelphia to enable the opening of the Bank of North America.

More likely, green cloth was simply plentiful in Philadelphia, and it served to distinguish Marines from the red of the British or the blue of the Continental Army and Navy.