In the Beginning

In the Beginning. . , 1500s , .Northern part of Quantico inhabited by Manahoac Branch Algonquin Indians. , , 1600s , .Captain John Smith of Jamestown explored the Quantico area and found the Potomac River watershed teeming with fish, crabs, oysters, bald eagles and ospreys. Smith successfully traded with local Indians, but after his departure, relations deteriorated and many settlers died from famine and disease. , .Pocahontas, Daughter of Chief Powhatan, married English tobacco planter, John Rolfe, on April 5, 1614, in Jamestown, Virginia. The marriage ensured peace for several years between the Jamestown settlers and the Powhatan Indians., 1700s , .The United States Marine Corps began, by order of the Continental Congress, with the founding of the Continental Marines on November 10, 1775 to conduct ship-to-shop fighting, provide shipboard security, enforce discipline and assist in landing forces. Military presence was first established at Quantico during the Revolutionary War, when the Quantico Creek village became a naval base., 1816 , .Area first visited by Marines after ice in the Potomac grounded their ship and forced them to disembark. They marched through Dumfries, where a young Captain Archibald Henderson hired a wagon to help them on their way to Washington. Henderson became the 5th and longest serving Commandant of the Marine Corps, 1820-1859., 1861 , .Union and Confederate troops engaged in the Battle of Bull Run (Manassas), one of the earliest conflicts in the U.S. Civil War, just 25 miles west of Quantico., 1864 , .The Battle of Spotsylvania, fought May 8-21, was the last major Civil War battle fought in the Quantico area., 1891 , .Colonel Commandant Charles Heywood established The School of Application at the Marine Barracks, Washington, DC. The School of Application opened July 1, 1891, with Capt D. Pratt Mannix at its helm with recent Naval Academy students., 1898 , .Class hastily graduated because of the impending war with Spain; school closed until Nov. 1900.