In Philadelphia, a Warrior at Peace

"He seems to have been right at the center of America's struggle for independence," said Pope, a medical researcher at the Department of Veterans Affairs hospital in Portland, Ore. "An amazing guy, on the one hand steeped in [Quaker] pacifism and, on the other, drawn to defend his country."

If the historical records are correct, Nicholas came from a wealthy family on both sides, graduated from what became the University of Pennsylvania and married into another well-off Quaker family. Among the cream of Philadelphia society, he was a founding member of the city's elite fox-hunting club.

When it came time to establish the first Marine Corps uniform, he used the club's required hunting attire -- dark tunic, dragoon pockets, white buttons, tight waistcoat and leather-trimmed collar -- as the pattern. That's how the Marines got the nickname "leathernecks," according to the Marine Corps Gazette.

Nicholas oversaw the Marines ferrying Washington's troops across the Delaware, fought at Trenton and Princeton, and returned after the war to civilian life, according to the Gazette. Washington signed his membership card in the Society of the Cincinnati, a fraternal group of officers who fought for American independence.

Nicholas died of yellow fever at age 46 in 1790, and even though the Quakers had thrown him out for "taking up arms," they allowed him burial at Arch Street.

"This place needs a national historic marker or something to let people know about Nicholas," said File, himself a convert to Quakerism.

Even the marble chunk where the young trainees lay a wreath every Nov. 10 is a bit misleading, he said. "Quakers don't have headstones, so I led them to the stone so they'd just have a focal point, a place to stop and remember the history here.

"But the Nicholas story is much more interesting and complex than that," said File.