Editing Samuel Nicholas (section)

==Military service==
[[File:Samuel Nicholas.png|thumb|right|Historic Marine Corps portrait of Nicholas]]
On November 28, 1775, Nicholas was commissioned a "Captain of Marines" by the [[Second Continental Congress]],<ref name="DHF">Destroyer History Foundation biography.</ref> which was the first commission issued in the Continental Naval Service.<ref>Marine Corps biography.</ref><ref name="DHF"/><ref name="Commission">{{cite web |url=http://www.ussnicholas.org/commission.html |access-date=March 3, 2007 |title=Marine Captain Samuel Nicholas commission |url-status=dead |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20061231110844/http://www.ussnicholas.org/commission.html |archive-date=December 31, 2006}} Photograph of commission, signed by John Hancock.</ref> Eighteen days afterwards, the Continental Congress resolved on November 10, 1775, <blockquote>That two battalions of Marines be raised consisting of one Colonel, two Lieutenant-Colonels, two Majors, and other officers, as usual in other regiments; that they consist of an equal number of Privates with other battalions; that particular care be taken that no persons be appointed to offices, or enlisted into said battalions, but such as are good seamen, or so acquainted with maritime affairs as to be able to serve by sea when required; that they be enlisted and commissioned to serve for and during the present war with Great Britain and the Colonies, unless dismissed by order of Congress; that they be distinguished by the names of the First and Second Battalion of Marines.<ref>{{cite web|access-date=3 March 2007 |url=http://hqinet001.hqmc.usmc.mil/HD/Historical/Docs_Speeches/Continentialcongressestmarines1775.htm
 |title=Resolution Establishing the Continental Marines
|author=Continental Congress
|date=10 November 1775
|work=Historical Documents, Orders and Speeches
|publisher=History Division, United States Marine Corps
|archive-url = https://web.archive.org/web/20070806012808/http://hqinet001.hqmc.usmc.mil/HD/Historical/Docs_Speeches/Continentialcongressestmarines1775.htm |archive-date = 6 August 2007}}</ref></blockquote>

Captain Nicholas no sooner received official confirmation of his appointment to office than he established recruiting headquarters in Philadelphia. By January 1776, having recruited a sufficient number of Marines for the vessels that comprised the [[Continental Navy]] in the waters of Philadelphia, Capt. Nicholas assumed command of the [[Marine Detachment]] on board the [[USS Alfred (1774)|''Alfred'']]. With Commodore [[Esek Hopkins]] in command, the ''Alfred'' set sail from Philadelphia on the morning of January 4, 1776.