United States Marine Corps A decade later, in the Mexican–American War (1846–1848), the Marines made their famed assault on Chapultepec Palace in Mexico City, which would be later celebrated as the "Halls of Montezuma" in the Marines' hymn. In the 1850s, the Marines would see further service in Panama and Asia, attached to Matthew Perry's East India Squadron on its historic trip to the Far East. The Marine Corps played a small role in the Civil War (1861–1865); their most prominent task was blockade duty. As more and more states seceded from the Union, about a third of the Corps' officers left the United
Sergeant Major of the Marine Corps 1899 five Marines held the rank of sergeant major. This continued until 1946, when the rank was abolished, only to be re-introduced in 1954 as part of the Marine Corps rank structure. The post of Sergeant Major of the Marine Corps was established in 1957 from the order of Assistant Chief of Staff for Personnel at Headquarters Marine Corps, Brigadier general James P. Berkeley, as the Senior Enlisted Advisor to the Commandant of the Marine Corps, the first such post in any of the five branches of the United States Armed Forces. In 1970, the rank insignia of the Sergeant