Ah yes, more history. This stuff never slips into the conversation about our early history here in the US, and I thought this little factoid is certainly relevant to today’s discussion. Using security contractors to defend ships is possible, is not that crazy of an idea, and we even took the concept a little further back in the day when we were dealing the Barbary pirates with this land assault. I also wrote a Building Snowmobiles deal, that talked about PMCs combined with Special Forces to fight a conflict, and that is worth a look if you are interested in exploring the concept. So with that said, here is the Battle of Derne and Semper Fi. –Matt
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The Battle of Derne
The Battle of Derne was a decisive victory of a mercenary army led by a detachment of United States Marines over the forces of the Barbary coast nation of Tripoli during the First Barbary War.
Background
The former Consul to Tunis, William Eaton returned to the Mediterranean with the title of ‘Naval Agent to the Barbary States’ in 1804. Eaton had been granted permission from the United States government to back the claim of Hamet Karamanli, the rightful heir to the throne of Tripoli, who had been deposed by his brother Yussif Karamanli. Upon his return Eaton sought out Hamet, who was in exile in Egypt, and made a proposal to reinstate him on the throne. Hamet agreed to Eaton’s plan.
Forces
Commodore Samuel Barron, the new Naval commander in the Mediterranean gave Eaton naval support from Nautilus, Hornet and the Argus commanded by Captain Isaac Hull, which were to provide off shore bombardment support. A detachment of U.S. Marines was given to Eaton under the command of Lieutenant Presley O’Bannon. Eaton and Hull made their base of operations at Alexandria, Egypt, and there with the help of Hamet, recruited about 500 Arab, Greek and Berber mercenaries. Eaton named himself General and Commander-in-Chief of the combined force.
The desert trek
General Eaton now led his army on a 500 mile trek across the Libyan desert. Their objective was the port city of Derne, the capital of the province of Cyrenaica. Supplies and money were promised to the largely mercenary force when they reached the city. During the 50 day trek Eaton became concerned with the relationship between the Christians and the roughly 200 or 300 Muslim mercenaries in his force. On several occasions mutiny threatened the success of the expedition. The force finally reached the port city of Bomba in late April, up the coast from Derne, where Argus, Nautilus and Hornet along with Captain Hull were waiting. There Eaton and his force received supplies and money to pay the mercenaries.
The battle
On April 27, two days after arriving at Bomba, Hull’s ships opened fire and bombed the city’s batteries for about an hour. General Eaton divided his army into two separate attacks. Hamet would lead the Arabs southwest to cut off the road to Tripoli and then attack the left flank of the city and storm the governor’s palace while Eaton with the rest of the mercenaries and Marines attacked the harbor fortress. At 2:45pm the attack began with Lt. O’Bannon and the Marines in the lead. The harbor defenses had been reinforced and the attackers were momentarily halted, this however allowed the Arab mercenaries sent to cut the road to Tripoli to ride unopposed into the western section of the city.
Eaton, grabbing a rifle and shouting “charge!”, led the force over the walls while being seriously wounded in the wrist by a musketball. The defenders fled in such haste that they left their cannon loaded and ready to fire. O’Bannon raised the U.S. flag over the works as Eaton turned the captured batteries on the city and opened fire. Hamet’s force in the meantime had seized the Governor’s Palace and secured the western part of the town. Many of the defenders of the harbor fortress continued retreating through the town and right into Hamet’s force. By 4:00 the entire city had fallen. For the first time a U.S. flag was flown over fortifications on that side of the Atlantic.
Yusuf was aware of the attack on Derne and had sent reinforcements to the city. By the time this force arrived the city had fallen. Still they dug in and prepared to retake the city. Eaton immediately worked on fortifying his new position. Hamet had taken up residence in the Governor’s Palace and his Arab forces patrolled the outlying areas of the city. The reinforcements dug in south of the city and waited. On May 13 they attacked the city and drove the Arabs back almost capturing the Governor’s Palace. The Argus and Eaton’s captured batteries pounded the attackers, who fled under continued bombardment. By nightfall both sides were back to their original positions. Skirmishing and several other minor attempts were made on the city in the following weeks but the city remained in American control. From Derne, Eaton now planned to march across the desert and attack Tripoli from the land. During his march he was informed of the treaty signed between Tobias Lear and Yusuf Karamanli. In the middle of his trek Eaton was ordered to return to Egypt with Hamet.
Aftermath
The Battle of Derne was the first recorded land battle of the United States on foreign soil. The battle was the decisive action of the First Barbary War, although Eaton was angered by what he called a ‘sell-out’ between Consul Lear and the bey. Hamet returned to Egypt and the mercenaries were never fully paid. William Eaton returned to the United States as a national hero. 1st Lt. O’Bannon was presented a Mameluke sword from Prince Hamet and later awarded a sword of honor patterned on the Mameluke design by his home state of Virginia (which led to adoption of the sword by all U.S. Marine officers to this day) [1]. The attack on the city was the inspiration for a portion of the lyrics of the Marines’ Hymn that mention “to the shores of Tripoli”.[1]
The Marines finally were authorized their own regulations and became permanently established in 1834. After WWI, the Commandant moved the Marine Corps Birthday from July 11th, 1834 to the date when recruiting of Marines for the Continental Navy began in Tun Tavern. Before the Marines had their own regulations, they operated under US Navy regulations afloat, and under US Army regulations ashore. Lt. O’Bannon therefore conducted his campaign under US Army Regulations.
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