Key Battles of the Barbary War, Episode 6: Swashbuckling Ship Battles and 500-Mile Desert Marches Won the First Barbary War

History Unplugged Podcast

History Unplugged

Society & Culture, History

4.2 • 3.7K Ratings

🗓️ 21 November 2024

⏱️ 45 minutes

🔗️ Recording | iTunes | RSS

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Summary

In Episode 6, we dive into two pivotal battles in the First Barbary War: Tripoli and Derne. It starts with Stephen Decatur's dramatic assault on Tripoli Harbor in August 1804, where he led American gunboats against a larger Tripolitanian fleet, avenging his brother's death in single combat and shelling the city. Commodore Preble's daring attempts to destroy Tripoli's defenses are followed by the tragic loss of the USS Intrepid crew.

We then move to William Eaton’s ambitious overland march with a small band of Marines and mercenaries across the Libyan desert to Derne. Facing hunger, mutiny, and harsh terrain, Eaton's force managed to surprise Derne’s defenders, capturing the city in America’s first coordinated land-sea assault. Despite Eaton’s victory, peace talks led by Tobias Lear overshadowed Eaton’s campaign, forcing a strategic withdrawal that left Hamet Karamanli, Eaton’s ally, without power. Eaton returned home as a hero, but haunted by the treaty’s outcome. This episode captures the challenges of America’s first overseas conflict and the complicated peace that followed.

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Transcript

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0:19.3	Hello and welcome back to Key Battles of the Barbary Wars. This is your host James Early, or I should say co-host, because of course I am joined once again by the other co-host, and that is Scott Rank.
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1:47.3	So in our last episode, we saw that the Americans lost a major ship, the frigate Philadelphia,
1:54.9	and the Barbary pirate, the Trapolitanian pirates, to be specific, they the ship.
2:00.6	And so, Commodore Edward Preble designed a plan to go in and to have a force basically
2:08.4	capture the ship and set it on fire, burn it to the ground.
	...

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