March 23, 2003
First Terrorist War
War against international terrorism - by Americans virtually alone - is a tradition harking back to the early days of the United States when the infant Marine Corps earned its proud hymn:
"From the Halls of Montezuma, to the Shores of Tripoli, we will fight our country's battles on land and on the sea."
European countries had been paying "tribute" to Barbary Coast piratical states of Algiers, Tunis, Morocco and Tripoli for years before Americans got riled up about taxation without representation.
It was considered less troublesome to pay protection money than to lose merchant ships with valuable cargo and then ransom prisoners.
The upstart United States of America, without a potent Navy, went along with the practice for a few years. However, its independent spirit -- honed by revolution and a meager treasury - grew increasingly restive as the Barbary Pirates' briberies grew larger.
H. Lee Munson, a noted Marine Corps historian, records a "treaty" with Morocco whereby a cash purse of $40,000 would guarantee no more tribute. Nine years later, though, they were paid the same amount of cash -- plus artillery, rifles and gunpowder -- for renewing the treaty.
The U.S. in 1793 gave Algeria nearly a million dollars for safe passages. Four years later Algeria demanded, and got, the 36-gun frigate Crescent. The next year a merchant ship Handullah and $8,000 in gold was delivered -- final payment for 119 American merchantman hostages, some of whom had been slave prisoners for 12 years.
"The extortionists of Tunis were probably the most imaginative," writes Munson. "They signed a treaty in 1798 giving them $107,000 plus one barrel of gunpowder for each salute they fired for incoming American ships. Needless to say, Tunisian sloops and shore batteries showered Americans with salutes in order to build their stores of gunpowder."
President John Adams appointed outspoken, Revolutionary War veteran Capt. William Eaton as Consul to Tunis. His mission was to persuade the Bey of Tunis to reduce his demands for tribute. However, demands continued to escalate.
Eaton was kept in his fruitless mission by President Thomas Jefferson who had no more desire than Adams to confront the Bey of Tunis. Eaton reported, " There is but one language which can be held to these people, and this is terror."
The Bey of Tunis in 1802 demanded of Eaton that the U.S. give him a frigate of 36 guns. Eaton refused to even forward the demand because he thought it folly to give arms to enemies. "Are we not shedding the blood of our country men?"
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For this affront, the Bey of Tunis expelled Eaton.
The Bashaw of Tripoli ordered the flag of the U.S. Consulate torn down. President Jefferson refrained from asking Congress to declare war in order to keep his options open. He sent three frigates to blockade Tripoli, but after three months the warships sailed home.
Eaton complained to James Madison - later to become president: "We may as well send out Quaker meeting-houses to float about the sea!"
The following year, Jefferson ordered the U.S.S. Philadelphia and U.S.S. Constitution to resume a blockade of Tripoli. The Philadelphia ran aground chasing a shallow-draft corsair raider. Helpless, and surrounded by Tripoli gunboats, the Philadelphia commander surrendered the ship, himself and the crew. They were promptly put to work breaking big stones into little stones.
Tripolitans refloated the Philadelphia and berthed it in Derne Harbor. There, it constituted a potent threat to the Constitution and any other U.S. naval vessels.
During the night of Feb. 16, 1804, Lt. Stephen Decatur, of the Constitution, led a small group of commandos in a tiny ketch during the night into Tripoli Harbor. They boarded the Philadelphia stealthily, overwhelmed the guards, set the American frigate ablaze and escaped. It was a daring feat, but another loss to the tiny American naval fleet.
March To Tripoli
In the meantime, Eaton returned home to lobby for a military confrontation with the Barbary Pirates. He had a plan that historian Munson describes as "bold, daring, even a bit devious -- yet intriguing enough to catch the imagination of President Jefferson.
"Bashaw Yosuf, ruler of Tripoli, had ascended the throne by deposing his elder brother, Hamet. Eaton's proposal was to back Hamet with military force, divide the country's loyalties, put Hamet back in power, and create a government favorable to the United States."
In describing the plan to Madison, Eaton wrote: "It is in concert between the rightful Bashaw of Tripoli, now in exile in Tunis, and myself, to attack the usurper by land while our operations are going on at sea."
Jefferson appointed Eaton as "Naval Agent to the several Barbary regencies" and ordered him to report to Cmdr. Samuel Barron, in charge of naval operations in the area.
Barron disdained Eaton and the plan. Nevertheless, Barron gave him $20,000 as requested, two artillery field pieces and a squad of eight Marines led by Lt. Presley Neville O'Bannon. Naval support was to consist of meetings with supply ships along the march and a bombardment of Derne, Tripoli, on the day of attack there.
Eaton located Hamet in a village near Alexandria, Egypt, where the deposed bashaw was hiding in fear of his brother's assassins.
Then, writes Munson, "Eaton hired a soldier of fortune named Lettensdorfer and paid him a $50 advance to recruit 25 mercenary cannoniers, and a company of 38 Greeks. Arab followers of Bashaw Hamet consisted of 90 cavalry and 250-foot soldiers. His accompanying caravan consisted of 107 camels and a few donkeys."
This motley army of liberation consisted of less than 400 men, only nine of which were Americans. They stepped off in March 1805 on the first 400-mile leg of their expedition. The route was across open desert to Bomba where a supply ship would re-supply them.
Munson describes the march as "one of the most arduous campaigns in American military history." Mutinies were frequent, as recorded in Eaton's journal:
"March 13 -- Our foot Arabs ... . attempted to disarm and put to death the Christians who escorted the caravan.
"March 17 -- Our Arabs refused to proceed without money. Reconciled them with promises.
"March 18 - The caravan again refused to go further without pay. The Bashaw paid them, and that night most deserted for home.
"March 20 - Last night, the rest of the camels left us.
"March 22 - All our grain for the horses exhausted.
"April 9 - In this cistern we found two dead men, probably pilgrims murdered by Arabs. We were obliged, nevertheless, to use the water.
April 10 - Nothing but rice and water, and that at half rations.
April 12 - Supplies exhausted.
April 13 - Bashaw slaughtered and issued one of his camels, and exchanged another with the Arabs for sheep.
Lt. O'Bannon maintained high spirits of his tiny squad by playing his violin in the evenings. "Wherever General Eaton leads, we will follow. If he wants us to march to Hell, we'll gladly go there."
The much reduced expedition reached Bomba on the 15th but the promised supply ship was nowhere in sight. The Arabs called Eaton a liar and threatened to quit. That night he kept bonfires burning as a beacon.
Next morning, the supply ship Argus hove to. Re-provisioned, the rag-tag army set off on another 100 miles across desert toward Derne. This time, the army swelled as it drew nearer. Hamet, indeed, was popular with Tripolitan people.
Eaton reached Derne on April 27 and found the American warships Nautilus, Argus and Hornet waiting at sea. Upon Eaton's signal, these moved in and began bombarding the city.
Upon cessation of the bombardment, Eaton launched his land attack against the Bashaw castle circled by Yosuf's cavalry.
"Eaton was shot in the wrist but did not retire from battle. Lt. O'Bannon and his seven other Marines led the way," says Munson. "They passed through a hailstorm of musket fire, took possession of the enemy's battery, planted the American flag on its ramparts and turned its fire on the enemy."
Hamet seized the opportunity to take possession of the palace. By 4 p.m. the city was secured.
Strange Aftermath
The final note in Eaton's journal was a sad one: "Of the few Christians who fought on shore, I lost 14 killed and wounded - three of whom are Marines, one dead and another dying."
Ironically the brave march to the shores of Tripoli did not achieve its objective. President Jefferson was financially unable to continue the Barbary War and cut a deal with the tyrant Bashaw Yosuf.
The sailors of the Philadelphia would be released, other American captives would be returned along with $60,000 in reparations and a promise of no further raids on U.S. shipping.
Eaton was furious. He considered that selling out an ally was a betrayal. "Abandoning him cannot be reconciled to those principles which I know actuate the national breast."
Early one morning, Eaton, Hamet, and the surviving Marines were ferried out to the Constitution and sailed away into history. Eaton retired and was given 10,000 acres of land by the Commonwealth of Massachusetts. He died there unheralded in 1811.
When in 1815 the Barbary Pirates again attacked American ships, President James Madison requested - and received -- Congressional approval to send Commodore Stephen Decatur with a task force of warships to force an end to pirating of American ships.
Author: Lindsey Williams
Cutlines
1.
battle scene, 4 col., MUST
Reproduced from color poster by Col. Charles Waterhouse, USMC (Ret.)
[ Attack on Derne, Tripoli, was led by Capt. William Eaton accompanied by Marine Lt. Presley O'Bannon after bombardment by U.S. warships. ]
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2.
ship. 3 col. OPTIONAL
U.S. Navy engraving
[ The U.S.S. Philadelphia cruising the Barbary Coast. ]
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