Why the Fourth Commandant Is the Only One the Marine Corps Forgot

The 38th commandant of the Marine Corps, Gen. David H. Berger, is due to step down in July 2023. While his successor faces a confirmation struggle through no fault of his own, it's safe to say the Marine Corps is in good hands when it comes to its top post. Historically, the Corps has been very proud of those who held its top post.

Except for that one commandant.

No one knows where he's buried, his own sons forgot he served as commandant of the Marine Corps, and no one knows what he looked like, because he's the only commandant without an official portrait. Lt. Col. Anthony Gale is also the only Marine Corps commandant to be fired from the position for any reason.

Gale was the fourth commandant of the Marine Corps, serving for just under two years in 1819 and 1820. There aren't many surviving records about Gale or his service, and the ones we do have don't look good. His story starts off like that of any other American patriot, but quickly devolves and completely tanks by the time he's appointed the country's top Marine officer.

Marine Corps veteran, author and historian Robert Jordan compiled an exhaustive history of the elusive fourth commandant in a 2007 issue of Leatherneck Magazine. Gale immigrated to the United States from Ireland in 1792, during the brief time period when the Marine Corps was disbanded. When it was reformed in 1798, he was among the first to apply for a commission to the new Corps.

After brief stints as a recruiter and prisoner of war guard, he took to the fleet aboard the USS Ganges. At sea, he was a brilliant officer, leading Marines against both the Barbary pirates and the British. He rose quickly in the ranks and was promoted to brevet major (a temporary rank) while working stateside for the second commandant of the Marine Corps, Lt. Col. William Burrows.

Things weren't all they seemed to be, however. Gale might have been the senior-most captain in the Corps, but he wasn't very good at his landside job, maintaining Philadelphia's Marine barracks. He was also suspected of being a drunk and of siphoning Marine Corps funds to refurbish his house. Burrows appeared to look the other way. His successor would not.

Commandants only serve a four-year term nowadays, but back then, things were very different. Burrows held the office for nearly six years, but by the time Gale began serving under him in 1804, he was on his way out of both the Marine Corps and life in general. Burrows retired later that year and then died in 1805.

His replacement, Lt. Col. Franklin Wharton, didn't like Gale's reputation at all -- especially because Gale lived up to that reputation. Wharton ordered a court of inquiry into the accusation, but Gale proved more difficult to get rid of than Wharton expected. When the court of inquiry acquitted him, Wharton sent Gale to the far-off post of New Orleans.

Gale did what most Marines -- or most anyone -- does in New Orleans: He began drinking. Gale took it to new heights, however. He drank so much that when Wharton died in 1818, the Marine Corps rushed to disqualify him from being elevated to the job of commandant, even though he was the senior Marine Corps officer at the time. Gale just wanted to keep his head down and be left alone.

Despite everyone's objections (including his own), Gale was made the fourth commandant of the Marine Corps in March 1819. It went pretty much as one might expect. He was overwhelmed with the task of managing the Corps' 922 Marines aboard 58 warships. When Gale was able to make a decision, the secretary of the Navy usually stepped in and countermanded it.

In a final attempt to handle the role of commandant, he wrote a letter to Navy Secretary Smith Thompson, trying to define the "division of function" between their two offices, essentially saying it is impossible to function when anyone can go over his head. Thompson never sent a response, and Gale fell back into the bottle.

Just three weeks later, he was arrested and charged with drunkenness, conduct unbecoming an officer and signing false documents, among other accusations. His defense was mental instability, but his court-martial found him guilty and drummed him out of the Corps in October 1820.

Gale eventually retired to a farm in Kentucky, where he resumed a life of hard drinking and took up a life of poor farming. He was partially cleared of wrongdoing in 1835, but by then, it was much too late. He was 53 years old, and within eight years, he would die of lung cancer and be buried in a grave no one can find, even now.

-- Blake Stilwell can be reached at blake.stilwell@military.com. He can also be found on Twitter @blakestilwell or on LinkedIn.

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