Combat· First Barbary War
Defense of Derne, 13 May 1805
On May 13, 1805, the reigning Bashaw's army attacked Derne, which Hamet Bashaw and William Eaton had taken on April 27.
Captain Isaac Hull of the Argus put the enemy at about seven hundred horsemen and three hundred foot. They came down from the heights and drove back about one hundred of Hamet's cavalry. Their horsemen pursued into the town under fire from the Argus, the schooner Nautilus and Eaton's battery, reaching Hamet's palace. Townspeople fired on them from loopholes in their houses. Too weak for a sortie, Eaton turned his guns on the town; a nine pounder shot killed two riders in the palace courtyard, and the enemy retreated. Hamet's cavalry chased them under the vessels' fire, and the town was quiet before three in the afternoon. Eaton put the enemy's loss at twenty eight killed and fifty six wounded, and Hamet's at twelve or fourteen. A week later Lieutenant Presley N. O'Bannon of the U.S. Marines joined Eaton's officers at Derne in swearing to fight on under him.
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Record no. 899