Combat· U.S. Exploring Expedition (Wilkes)
Drummond's Island punitive landing
The last of the expedition's reprisals, carried out in the remote Gilbert Islands far from any trade route.
While the Peacock lay off Drummond's Island, a crewman went ashore and failed to return; after waiting two days, Lieutenant Hudson concluded the man, a sailor named Anderson, had been murdered, and resolved to punish the town. He landed a force of Marines and sailors, which advanced through a crowd of six to eight hundred islanders. When the natives pressed in and an attack developed, the landing party opened fire with muskets and rockets, driving them off and setting the town ablaze until every hut was consumed. Some islanders were wounded in the fighting, including a chief in traditional armor. No clear American death is recorded in the action beyond the missing man who prompted it. The destruction of the town closed the expedition's record of armed landings in the Pacific.
Record no. 319