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THE MARINES. Just the name brings so many associa- tions to those of us living in this area. Iraq--Fallujah. Vietnam--Da Nang, Hue, Khe Sanh. Korea--Frozen Chosin. World War II--Guadalcanal, Tarawa, Iwo Jima. World War I--Belleau Wood.

"The Marines went into that battle four times, which means they got their noses bloodied three times and came back for more."

Which of those preceding battles is the speaker referring to? None of the above.

Author David M. Sullivan was actually speaking about the U.S. Marines who fought at the Battle of Bull Run (or Manassas) on July 21, 1861. He was speaking at the third annual Civil War Naval Symposium in Columbus, Ga.

Not only did the Union have marines, the Confederates did as well. The Confederate States Marine Corps numbered 536 at its peak in the Civil War, according to Sullivan. Most of them served at Drewry's Bluff on the James River, a fortified position that never fell, but had to be abandoned when Richmond was evacuated on April 2, 1865.

"Their only real battle was at Sailor's Creek at the end of the war," Sullivan said. The Confederate marines formed a unit called Tucker's Naval Battalion and were part of Ewell's Division when it retreated from Richmond, as Sullivan explained. Ewell, the marines and nearly one quarter of Lee's army were cut off and surrounded at Sailor's Creek, near Appomattox. In a foreshadowing of the end of the war in Virginia, they surrendered three days before the rest of Lee's army laid down their arms at Appomattox on April 9, 1865.

As for the Union marines, they were dispersed among the ships in the Union fleet. "Each vessel would have [U.S.] Marine guards and one or more guns [on a warship would be] manned by marines," Sullivan remarked. Considered the pre-eminent authority on the subject, he has written a four-volume series titled "The United States Marine Corps in the Civil War," published by White Mane Publishing Co.

Part of the guard role the marines played on ships was illustrated by a photograph Sullivan displayed. One of John Wilkes Booth's fellow conspirators, Lewis Payne, is shown on the deck of the monitor USS Saugus, moored in the Potomac River after President Lincoln's assassination. Payne stands in front of the turret with a marine guard next to him.