Posted on 04/28/2005 11:48:53 AM PDT by robowombat
Barbary Glory, Barbary Shame
By Barr Seitz
Two hundred years ago, seven U.S. Marines at the head of a ragtag army of European and Arab mercenaries set out on an extraordinary mission to free 300 U.S. hostages and end America's first foreign war.
To do that, they first had to march almost 600 miles across the Barbary deserts of North Africa to what is the eastern part of modern-day Libya.
Those were long odds for an untested Christian-Muslim army whose soldiers were as likely to kill each other as the enemy.
Tripolitan War
The desert expedition was a quixotic chapter in what was arguably America's first war on international terrorism. The Tripolitan War, 1801-1805, was a result of President Jefferson's determination to end the centuries-old practice of piracy in the Mediterranean Sea.
The Barbary states of Tunis, Morocco, Algeria, and Tripoli built economies around confiscating foreign ships and either ransoming the crew or selling them into slavery. These nations evolved this form of extortion into a simple protection racket. In return for annual tribute from a country, they would not attack that nation's shipping.
The war with Tripoli, which had picked a fight when Washington missed a series of payoffs, went badly for the Americans at first. In 1804, the U.S. Navy suffered a major setback when the USS Philadelphia ran aground stranding 300 men who were captured and held hostage.
For a while, it seemed like the young American republic might actually lose its first war.
A Maverick at the Helm
Into the breach stepped William Eaton. A maverick army captain from the Indian Wars of the 1790s, Eaton was better known for getting into trouble with his superiors than for staging daring raids. A student of Greek and Latin, he picked up Arabic and dressed in turban and robes when he served as the American consul in Tunis. Part Lawrence of Arabia, part Teddy Roosevelt, and part George Patton, he was as colorful a character as can be found in early American history.
Jefferson, eager for a way out of the Barbary quagmire, approved Eaton's plan to ally himself with Hamet Qaramanli, the deposed brother of Tripoli's Pasha, and lead an army against the Pasha's forces. In return for his help, Hamet would regain his throne.
Anointing himself general, Eaton raised an army of Arabs, Egyptians, Tripolitans, and mercenaries from a half dozen European countries. At the core of this motley crew was Lieutenant Presley O'Bannon and his U.S. Marines, the newest branch of the military with as yet no tradition of victory or bravery.
Miracle in the Desert
Without any maps, Eaton's army marched through the desert on foot and camel, covering the same territory that German and British armies would later crisscross during the North African campaigns of World War II.
The story of Eaton's 50-day trek is an exhausting catalogue of narrow escapes and daily frustrations. A massacre almost erupted at the beginning of the march; a nighttime flash flood forced the army to move its camp or risk being swept into the sea; raiders and thieves stole horses, food, and ammunition almost daily; Arab sheikhs periodically threatened to withdraw from the mission; and a near mutiny was miraculously averted when General Eaton faced down a phalanx of charging Arab cavalry.
The expedition hit its nadir when the men reached a rendez-vous point near the town of Derna in eastern Libya to find no sign of their supply ship. The Arabs thought they'd been duped and threatened to attack their erstwhile allies. But luck was on Eaton's side -- at least for the moment -- and the next day, the ship hove into view, breathing life into Eaton's army.
Battle of Derna
Derna was supposed to be a quick stop on the way to Eaton's final destination in Tripoli, but he found it heavily fortified. Hoping to avoid a pitched battle with his untested men, he sent a note demanding the town's surrender. The governor declined with what must rank as one of the pithiest responses to an ultimatum in military history: "My head or yours."
To say the eight-hour battle for the town unfolded in three neat phases is to miss the chaos of war. In the early morning of April 27, three U.S. Navy frigates pounded Derna's heavy guns in the harbor fort and soon succeeded in silencing them. But the second phase, after some initial successes, broke down quickly.
Hamet's flanking cavalry assault stalled when he became mired in a bloody fight against a determined outpost. At the same time, O'Bannon, at the head of his Marines and a mixed Christian-Muslim force, met murderous musket fire that stopped his men cold during his attack on the town's eastern defenses.
First Lieutenant O'Bannon
Eaton rushed in his reinforcements to stiffen O'Bannon's men but was unable to break the stalemate. Facing a desperate situation and seeing his dreams of military glory fade, Eaton ordered a charge that he personally led. The gamble paid off. Outnumbered 10 to 1, Eaton and his men sent the defenders flying.
After bitter street fighting, the Marines secured the fort. Lt. O'Bannon raised the American flag to the cheers of the sailors aboard the U.S. ships, witnesses to the first time the Stars and Stripes was ever raised in victory on foreign soil.
Two Marines, John Whitten and Edward Steward, died for the honor and were buried in Derna.
Betrayal in Barbary
Eaton's victory celebration was short-lived. The pasha's reinforcements arrived the day after the battle and surrounded the town. For a month, Eaton held out against a force more than three times the size of his own. Constant skirmishes and raids kept his troops on edge. A plot to poison him was foiled only when a local Muslim mullah revealed the plan.
On June 11, the Pasha's forces launched a last furious attack. Hamet's cavalry bore the brunt during a confusing, four-hour slugfest of charge and counter-charge from which Hamet eventually emerged victorious. The road to Tripoli was open.
But the Marines never made it to the now-famous "shores of Tripoli." The next day, the USS Constellation arrived with news that the United States had signed a peace treaty with the Pasha in Tripoli. Eaton was ordered to evacuate with his Christian forces, Hamet, and a handful of the former pasha's retainers. The rest of Eaton's army was to be abandoned.
The news was a crippling blow to Hamet, whose long-held mistrust of American intentions was confirmed. Eaton protested that his orders went against his sense of "duty or decency." But in the end, Eaton obeyed his superiors. In a secret midnight maneuver, he pulled out of Derna. The story goes that when the townspeople awoke to find the Americans gone, their wails carried to the Constellation, where Eaton heard them in silent agony.
Most of those who remained in Derna either fled or were later massacred by a vengeful Pasha.
An Ignoble End
Eaton's adventure is, at its heart, a story of missed opportunities -- for Eaton to fulfill his military destiny, for Hamet to reclaim his throne, and for U.S.-Arab relations to find some common ground. While no one would claim that a successful end to Eaton's mission would have led to friendly relations with the Muslim world, it is hard to look at the midnight retreat from Derna and not see in it the kernels of a profound Arab-American mistrust that echoes through to this day.
America greeted Eaton as a hero, his daring victory credited with freeing the hostages and ending the war. But he returned an embittered man, his rants against the administration soon driving away even his closest supporters.
General William Eaton spent the rest of his days a lonely drunk in the taverns of Boston. He died in 1811 at the age of 47, and was buried somewhere in Massachusetts in an unmarked grave.
Barr Seitz is writing a book about Eaton's march and the Battle of Derna, titled "The Sword and the Scimitar." E-mail: barr.seitz@gmail.com
Your 9-year-old son was just talking about this a couple of weeks ago.
Thanks for posting this. Good read!
Still falls short of "Nuts!"
What do you do when politics mix with war. The Pasha saw the writing on the wall and signed a peace agreement. Do you accept it or still try to replace him?
Imagine if Saddam had accepted all terms at the last minute.
bump for later
Has anyone read "Jefferson's War" by Joseph Weelan?
W's response would have been, "Sorry...Your communication was garbled in transmission...Please repeat [wink wink, nudge nudge]," as the Coalition Forces poured into Iraq.
Good movie material!!
There's an old movie called, I believe "The Shores of Tripoli" with John Payne as Eaton. There's also a very well-regarded unproduced script on the subject by William Monahan, who's the writer of "Kingdom of Heaven" upcoming, that's under option to Ridley Scott.
I doubt it. There is not much loyalty to attribute to a society that cynically admits that; "the enemy of my enemy is my friend". The Americans could have stayed in Derna and been slaughtered later by their "allies". The Muslims would have been puzzled by the Americans considering such treachery unusual.
Thanks! I'm going to rent that one. Hopefully Ridley Scott goes for it.
Disclaimer: Opinions posted on Free Republic are those of the individual posters and do not necessarily represent the opinion of Free Republic or its management. All materials posted herein are protected by copyright law and the exemption for fair use of copyrighted works.