On August 29, 1776, at a time when the very fabric of American liberty faced its darkest hour, an unlikely band of Soldiers, trained in the art and science of oarsmanship, crafted what was, and is, one of the most remarkable waterborne feats in the history of American warfare. The Battle of Long Island marks a dark yet hopeful period of American history. When the entire revolution faced utter destruction, the 14th Continental Regiment Marbleheaders from Marblehead, Massachusetts, staged a flawless troop evacuation across the East River under the cover of darkness.
This remarkable operation created hope at a time when defeat at the hands of the British army seemed inevitable, and it holds lessons pertinent to all modern Army mariners, particularly during uncertainty, transformation, and change. While “indispensable” often described this remarkable regiment during the war, the lessons they taught us remain indispensable among warfighters, sustainers, and mariners in 2026 and beyond.
This article explores the retreat at the Battle of Long Island and how the sustainment principles of responsiveness, survivability, and improvisation that the Marblehead Regiment displayed can be an example for today’s Army mariners. These principles will only grow in necessity as the Army builds its capacity to operate in maritime domains, such as the U.S. Indo-Pacific Command theater of operations.
The Marblehead Regiment
The 14th Continental Regiment hailed from Marblehead, Massachusetts, and fell under the command of COL John Glover. COL Glover was a sea-faring man and a successful merchant. The regiment officially joined the Revolution in the summer of 1775 when they gave GEN George Washington his first battle-ready vessel and the beginnings of a warfighting maritime force. The regiment later gained fame for its crossing of the Delaware into Trenton, New Jersey.
Originally tasked with a series of coastal missions, the regiment carried out a range of operations from plundering and intercepting British ships to procuring precious gunpowder. Initially, the Marbleheaders primarily operated from schooners, a classic merchant vessel of choice, typically suited for trading, fishing, and privateering. Regardless of the mission, Marblehead Soldiers continued to exhibit the utmost proficiency in their craft.
Becoming Indispensable
Approximately one year after joining the Revolution, Glover and his regiment executed their most consequential endeavor to date, one that impacted the war effort and set conditions for the survival and the eventual reconstitution of Washington’s army, despite finding itself in the jaws of defeat.
In August 1776, the Continental Army, stranded in Long Island, New York, found itself surrounded by 23,000 British Soldiers and 10,000 of their Hessian allies, along with hundreds of warships. The dire situation on Long Island spelled the end of the American experiment for good. A defeat was imminent unless the Continentals performed a successful river retreat on a very truncated timeline. On August 29, 1776, the Marbleheaders executed such an operation.
Though this retreat differed greatly from their typical schooner-interception mission, the Marbleheaders responded with haste and accuracy. Given their tactical situation, sailing schooners to retreat would have been entirely infeasible. Instead, they used small, flat-bottomed boats propelled by oar, with much shallower hulls, ones that were far more suited for a river crossing, to get the Continentals to safety.
Under the cover of a dark, stormy night, and surrounded by a force three times their own size, Glover and his mariners needed to evacuate 9,000 continental Soldiers and their equipment across a mile-long river without being detected by an enemy force only 600 yards away. The results were astonishing.
Following the evacuation, not a single Soldier was killed, captured, or lost to the elements. No equipment was lost, and at no point did the British army on Long Island suspect that such a movement was taking place. Due to their seamanship and tireless endurance over the course of 13 consecutive hours, the American Revolution survived what would have ended the war in England’s favor.
Sustaining Freedom’s Dream
The regiment’s actions, quick adaptability, and expert ability to operate their vessels under dreadful conditions directly saved the prospect of liberty for American colonists. Though the success of this tactical withdrawal is without question, what specific lessons must modern-day Army mariners take from their predecessors in the Marblehead Regiment? In short, the Marblehead Regiment’s tale at the Battle of Long Island is one of responsiveness, survivability, and improvisation, all of which enabled the endurance and reconstitution of the Continental Army.
Responsiveness
Army Doctrine Publication (ADP) 4-0, Sustainment, defines responsiveness as “the ability to react to changing requirements and respond to meet the needs to maintain support,” and nowhere is this principle more on display than at the Battle of Long Island. The Marblehead Regiment, having traditionally sailed a schooner-type vessel, adapted to the tactical scenario by employing flat-bottomed boats. Though not the regiment’s primary vessels, the Marbleheaders acted with expertise during the river crossing, providing exactly the support the Continental Army needed, when they needed it. The regiment’s ability to respond did not begin with the requirement to use these river-centric vessels; it began with training and building proficiency across a multitude of vessels long before the need arose in conflict.
In a field as small as the Army mariner community, today’s Army mariners must be prepared to cross-train across a multitude of platforms, from Class-A vessels, like the ocean-faring Logistic Support Vessel, the new Maneuver Support Vessel (Light), all the way to the Modular Warping Tug to provide exactly the right type of tailored support to a unit’s sustainment concept. Expertise across a manifold of vessels increases a waterborne unit’s capacity for responsiveness while preparing for global deployment, intra-theater response, and contingency operations.
Survivability
At the heart of the miracle at the Battle of Long Island is the principle of survivability. Survivability, according to ADP 4-0, involves “all aspects of protecting personnel, weapons, and supplies while simultaneously deceiving the enemy.” COL Glover and his regiment applied this principle in abundance throughout the Long Island evacuation.
For Glover’s evacuation to succeed, his mariners needed a firm understanding of their operating environment and enemy capabilities to shape their actions. Continental Army officer (and subsequent U.S. Representative) Benjamin Tallmadge noted the Marblehead Regiment’s ability to operate in complete silence, darkness, and without error.
To enable survivability in the world of 2026 and beyond, Army mariners must apply these lessons. During the Revolution, the Marblehead Regiment was concerned with noise and light discipline. However, Army mariners operating in modern-day theaters of operation must be prepared to operate under reduced cyber and electromagnetic footprints, under conditions where communication is limited or disrupted, and build and maintain the capacity to fix equipment forward, at what is potentially the leading edge of sustainment operations in theaters without the support of nearby depots or shipyards.
Improvisation
Most Marbleheaders were formerly employed in fishery and were peculiarly well qualified for their task. However, not all had the same level of experience crewing the hastily acquired flat-bottomed boats. Many of the Marbleheaders did not have significant experience with these boats and had to quickly acquaint themselves in complete darkness during a critical operation. The loads carried across the river certainly broke traditional protocol, with many vessels loaded well past their recommended capacity, and some decks floating only three inches above the waterline. To add to the complexity, given that the British forces were only 600 yards away, the Marbleheaders needed to operate the boats in synchronization with surrounding crews using only hand and arm signals instead of light and noise. Due to their need for secrecy, the mariners even resorted to wrapping their oars in dense cloth to avoid any additional noise from the wake.
These measures are indicative of what ADP 4-0 refers to as improvisation, or as the publication defines it: “the ability to adapt sustainment operations to unexpected situations or circumstances affecting a mission.” This retreat was certainly unexpected, and there was no playbook for these mariners to use. What they used, however, was their immense professional skill, their knowledge of the local waterways, and the mutual trust developed from conducting a year’s worth of operations together.
Paradoxically, improvisation very rarely takes the form of a spontaneous idea, but is instead the byproduct of rehearsals, training, and expertise. Modern-day Army mariners must ensure that the prerequisite reps and sets are trained to enable improvisation during decisive points in an operation.
Indispensable Principles
ADP 4-0 states that one of the essential reasons for the principles of sustainment is to prolong the force’s endurance. In the case of the 14th Continental Regiment these three principles won the day for the Continental Army, not only providing endurance for Washington’s campaign but endurance for an entire nation’s hope for freedom.
Army watercraft, though viewed by the Army as small and niche, can trace its history back to the actions of the Marbleheaders on the East River, where the dream of liberty endured for one day longer, largely due to the swift, accurate action from the Army’s first mariners.
The ability to respond, survive, and improvise will be paramount in the modern-day context, particularly as the Army expands its operational reach by further employing watercraft in theaters of operation not previously tested. The success of these operations hinges on an Army mariner’s ability to apply the lessons learned from the dark and stormy night in New York and to expertly tackle the very real, complex, and evolving sphere of operations that our mariners will be expected to carry out with a high degree of proficiency. In the same way this tactical retreat enabled an eventual strategic victory for the Continental Army, a mariner’s ability to tactically apply these principles can enable strategic effect across the spectrum of waterborne operations.
With growing complexity on the horizon, one must only look at the indispensables from Marblehead for lessons in how something as small and specific as Army watercraft can reignite the torch of freedom at a time when things seem darkest.
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CPT Tanner L. Cook is a Functional Area 59 officer currently assigned to the U.S. Army Student Detachment, with duty in Boise, Idaho, as he pursues his master’s degree in public administration. He previously served as the Boise Army Recruiting company commander, U.S. Army Recruiting Division, and the commander of the 331st Modular Causeway Company, 7th Transportation Brigade (Expeditionary). He originally commissioned as an Ordnance officer from Boise State University in 2016.
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This article was published with the winter 2026 issue of Army Sustainment.
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The Current issue of Army Sustainment in pdf format
Current Army Sustainment Online Articles
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