Bryan,

I meant to say that they commonly served on smaller vessels, not just on flag or capital ships. Most of my information comes from two books devoted to the CS Marines [I'll try to get the names/authors tomorrow, for reference purposes.] Some of my information, mainly the information on the ships themselves, comes from the book "From Old Navy to New, 1776 to 1897; Picture History of the U.S. Navy", by Theodore Roscoe and Fred Freeman, 1956. I have looked up many of the ships that these men served on, and it was not at all unusual or out of the ordinary to find them serving on *very* small vessels.

Here's one example that I happen to have at hand [and it just happens to be a man with both Alabama and Arkansas ties!]:

LAWLESS [LOLLIS, LAWLEY], William Henry
Enlisted as a Private with Company B (Van Benthuysen’s Company) of the Confederate States Marines, which was organized at Pensacola. One source notes that he probably enlisted at Wilmington, N.C., but does not offer a reason for this assumption. Was assigned as Marine Guard to the CSS Raleigh, 4/19/1864-5/31/1864. However, the CSS Raleigh was sunk earlier in May, so he did not serve out this entire assignment. He reported to the CSS Arctic on 6/1/1864 and served until 9/30/1864. Captured 1/15/1865 at Ft. Fisher. Held as POW at Camp Hoffman POW Prison, Point Lookout, Md. Released on oath 5/13/1865. Moved from Pickens Co., Ala. to Johnson Co., Ark. about 1880. [Son-in-law of WOODARD, James Polk of the 5th Ala. Inf., Co. H.]

The Arctic was a 500 ton ironclad floating battery! The Raleigh was a little ironclad sloop, at about 600 tons. For comparison, full size Confederate ironclad rams were of the 2000-3200 pound class. Knowing little about naval terms and classifications I may be mistaken, but this doesn't seem to fall into what I understand to be the definitions of flag or capital ships. The records are absolutely full of Marines serving on simarly small vessels.

My reference to the "floating barracks" comes directly from one of the two books about the CS Marines. I can only assume that the author of that book knows a lot more about it that I do. And, "floating barracks" is his terminology, not mine. But, if you will re-read my post, I didn't say that they were permanantly assigned to these barracks. As to the example that I mentioned, as I recall, these Marines were housed there for some months...maybe a year...after which they were housed at Mobile and Pensacola Naval Yards (or nearby). But those were not transient troops, they were stationed for duty at those Naval yards, while being housed off-duty on the floating barracks...according to the author.