Tripoli

In the spring of 1805, the United States and the Barbary state of Tripoli had been fighting a stalemated war for four years. William Eaton, a former army captain, marched a makeshift force of Greeks, Arabs and American Marines roughly 500 punishing miles through desert heat from Alexandria in Egypt to Derna, a port fortress defended by Tripoli. Facing odds of ten to one, his parched and worn-out men launched an assault on the stronghold, an action that found its way into both the history of the Marine Corps and its anthem.

David Smethurst traces the Barbary War and Eaton's central role in it, presenting him as a soldier, diplomat and provocateur. The account begins with Eaton's 1799 appointment as consul to the Barbary Coast and moves through the enemy's seizure of the USS Pennsylvania and its crew of three hundred sailors, leading to the Derna attack and what followed.

The book suits readers interested in early American military and diplomatic history, the conflicts with North African states, and the figures who shaped the young republic's foreign policy.