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

Key Battles of American History

History

4.7 • 861 Ratings

🗓️ 20 November 2024

⏱️ 47 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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0:00.0	War has played a key role in the history of the United States, from the nation's founding
0:10.8	right down to the present. War made the U.S. independent, kept it together, increased its size,
0:17.1	and established it as a global superpower. Understanding America's wars is essential for understanding American history.
0:23.9	Welcome to Key Battles of American History,
0:26.7	a podcast in which we discuss American history
0:29.0	through the lens of the most important battles of America's wars.
0:32.8	Here is your host, James Early.
0:43.4	Music host, James Early. Hello and welcome back to Key Battles of the Barbary Wars.
0:46.8	This is your host, James Early, or I should say co-host, because of course I am joined
0:50.9	once again by the other co-host, and that is Scott Rank.
0:55.1	So in our last episode, we saw that the Americans lost a major ship, the frigate Philadelphia,
1:02.2	and the Barbary pirate, the Trapolitanian pirates, to be specific, they, the ship.
1:08.0	And so Commodore Edward Preble designed a plan to go in and to have a force,
1:15.1	basically capture the ship and set it on fire, burn it to the ground. And that was led by the daring
1:20.3	Stephen Decatur. And the plan worked to a T. It worked perfectly. But Preble was not done. He wanted to keep fighting.
1:29.1	The war wasn't over. That was a major victory for the Americans to deny the Trapolitans,
1:33.9	this major ship. But Preble wants to keep hitting them hard and basically force them to surrender.
1:40.7	He wants to bring this thing to an end, and he wants to get the captured Americans back
1:44.7	with little or no payment having to be made. Sounds like a pretty tall order, wouldn't you say,
1:50.3	Scott? Yeah, and there's a lot going on here. I'm excited to get into this episode because there is a sea
1:56.6	battle. There's a land battle. There is an attempt by the U.S. to replace the current ruler of
2:02.6	Tripoli, Yusuf Karamanla, with his brother, Hamit Karamandla. And Yusuf, I got to say, he makes a huge
	...

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