U.S. Civil War soldier wearing a leather neck stock. A photo of a man, Private David A. Sheldon, Company B, 4th Rhode Island Infantry, 1861–64, in civil war uniform and holding a musket with bayonet, staring into the camera.
5 April 2021
Leatherneck is a slang term for a U.S. marine. The name comes from the leather neck stock that was a part of military uniforms in the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries and was worn by both U.S. Army soldiers and U.S. marines of that period. And in the nineteenth century, U.S. and British army soldiers as well as U.S. marines were referred to as leathernecks, but the term only survives today as a nickname for the latter.
Leather neck stocks were part of the standard uniform of the U.S. Army and Marine Corps since the American Revolution. Neck stocks offered a degree of protection against sword blows and bayonet thrusts, but their chief attribute seems to have been to keep the soldier’s head erect and help him maintain a soldierly bearing. Joseph Plumb Martin, in his memoir of Revolutionary War service, notes that soldiers were supposed to be issued neck stocks, but these, like all uniform items, were scarce and only intermittently issued. And Augustus Meyers recounts being issued a neck stock when he enlisted in the U.S. Army in 1854:
The most objectionable part of the whole uniform was the leather stock or “dog collar,” as we called it, intended to serve as a cravat and keep the soldier’s chin elevated. It was a strip of stiff black shoe leather about two and one-half inches high and arranged to fasten at the back of the neck with a leather thong. It was torture to wear it in hot weather, but we found means to modify the annoyance by reducing the height of the stock and shaving down the thickness of the leather until it became soft and pliable.
But the earliest use of leatherneck as a nickname for a soldier or marine that I’m aware of is from 18 January 1871, when the New York Sun printed an interview with John Howard, a quartermaster at the Brooklyn Navy Yard, in which Howard refers to marines by that name:
A WONDERFUL APPARITION.
At this moment a magnificent apparition crossed the reporter’s vision. It was in human shape, and had a dark, swarthy complexion, and very coarse features. The figure was dressed in a new brown velvet coat trimmed most elaborately. Pearl-colored breeches of the most stylish cut adorned the nether limbs, and a watch chain resembling the cable of a kedge-anchor dangled gracefully from a brown velvet vest. Upon the head of the figure the glossiest of tiles jauntily sat, and upon the hands appeared straw-colored kids of the softest tint. As the apparition approached, Mr. Howard touched his cap respectfully; but the figure stalked by like a ramrod, without noticing the salute.
“Who is that, Mr. Howard?” asked the reporter, whose indignation was thoroughly aroused.
“Him? Oh, he’s only a leather neck. Nobody ever expects anything from leather-necks, so we don’t mind insults from them.”
THE LEATHER-NECK.
The reporter looked at Mr. Howard inquiringly.
“Don’t suppose you know what leather necks is, do you? Well, them’s poor marines. You see, them fellers ain’t any more use aboard of a ship nor a pump is in a graveyard. They’re the laziest people in the world, marines is, and all their officers thinks about is wearin’ fine clothes and a flirtin round with petticoats. Now that feller there that you got so mad at, he’s a capt’n, and his pay haint over much, but yet you seen how he was rigged out. Now, I wouldn’t be afraid to bet that that feller didn’t have a quarter in his pocket, although he did walk by us like old Astor or old Vanderbilt might have done. It’s all too-hamper with them marines. They don’t draw any water.”
“Why do you call them leather necks?” inquired the reporter.
“Oh, you know they wear them leather stocks to keep their heads up straight. It’s very funny to see a young lieutenant just come down from the country put one o’ them things on. I’ve seen ‘em before now of a hot day nearly faint while on drill. Did you ever live in the country? Well, then, you must have seen ‘em make calves fast in the spring to wean ‘em. They put a great big leather grommet on their necks and reeve a line through it. Then they yank the poor calves up to a bulkhead in the stable, and there they stand with sich a soft beggin’ look out o’ their great big eyes—a look that kind o’ makes you feel sorry that you couldn’t make their owners fast in the same way. Well, that’s the way with these poor marines, ‘cept when they got their leathers on, they ain’t over soft-like; they’re kind o’ harsh in their ways.”
But leatherneck was not restricted to marines. Army soldiers were called that as well. From an account of an incident in the Yavapai War between the United States and the Yavapai and Western Apaches in the Wheeling Daily Register (West Virginia) of 4 September 1872:
Pshaw! that’s nothing. One night at another camp some Indians stole a half dozen mules. The alarm was given before the Apaches got away, and the soldiers were turned out in a h— of a hurry, and weren’t even given time to saddle their horses. They chased the Indians five or six miles, and then a part of the Indians slunk off in the bushes alongside the trail. The others went on with the stolen mules. When the soldiers came up the ambushed Indians fired. What did my leather necks do but cut for the camp like the devil. When they got there they said they’d come back for their saddles.
And in Britain leatherneck was used by sailors to refer to army soldiers. From an article in the Pall Mall Gazette of 24 January 1890 which compares the careers of naval and army officers:
It should also be pointed out that apart from the question of income the daily conditions of a sailor’s life are far from the comparative luxury of the soldier’s. Instead of quarters which as he rises in rank are apportioned with a view to the suitable accommodation of wife and children, he has in early days a hammock, later on the dignity of one cabin; the only horse he rides is the wave; he sleeps hard, eats hard, and none but his calumniators can say drinks hard, for even that possibility, as has been shown, is curtailed. He can know no family life, he can enjoy no home. Gun-room and ward-room, the deck and the bridge, are the varieties of his daily round. Of the foreign countries which he visits he sees only the harbour fringe. His social position is as well defined and as desirable as the soldier’s; otherwise, when he despises his friend the leather-neck for a lazy and luxurious dog it must be confessed that he does so from a high vantage-ground of personal hardship and abnegation of domestic joys.
The U.S. Army ceased issuing neck stocks in 1871, with the U.S. Marine Corps following suit shortly thereafter. But in the case of the marines the nickname stuck, and marines reclaimed the term as their own. Now it is a point of pride for a U.S. marine to be called a leatherneck.
Sources:
“The Choice of a Profession: V.—The Royal Navy.” The Pall Mall Gazette, 24 January 1890, 2. Gale Primary Sources: British Library Newspapers.
“D. D. Porter’s Fancy Navy.” The Sun (New York), 18 January 1871, 3. Library of Congress, Chronicling America: Historic American Newspapers.
“Diamonds by the Bushel.” Wheeling Daily Register (West Virginia), 4 September 1872, 3. Library of Congress, Chronicling America: Historic American Newspapers.
Gaede, Frederick C. “Leather Neck Stocks, 1851–1865.” Military Images, 38.2, Spring 2020, 77. JSTOR.
Gaede, Frederick C. “Notes on Leather Neck Stocks for the U.S. Army, 1775-1871.” Military Collector and Historian, 69.4, Winter 2017, 291–98.
Martin, Joseph Plumb. Narrative of Some of the Adventures, Dangers and Sufferings of a Revolutionary Soldier. Hallowell, Maine: Glazier, Masters & Co., 1830, 205–06. Gale Primary Sources: Sabin Americana.
Meyers, Augustus. Ten Years in the Ranks U.S. Army. New York: Stirling Press, 1914, 9. HathiTrust Digital Archive.
Oxford English Dictionary, second edition, 1989, s. v. leatherneck, n.
Photo credit: Unknown photographer, c. 1862. Public domain image. Gaede, Frederick C. “Leather Neck Stocks, 1851–1865.” Military Images, 38.2, Spring 2020, 77. JSTOR.