The First Barbary War, also called the Tripolitan War, was the first foreign war the United States fought and the first major overseas campaign of the Marine Corps.
It began after Yusuf Karamanli, the Pasha of Tripoli, demanded heavier tribute from American shipping in the Mediterranean and declared war by chopping down the flagpole at the American consulate in 1801. Marines served aboard every American warship of the Mediterranean Squadron, fighting from the tops and quarterdecks in actions against Tripolitan corsairs and gunboats, manning boat parties that burned enemy shipping, and joining the bombardments of Tripoli itself. Two feats stand out: the Marines' part in the burning of the captured frigate Philadelphia in Tripoli harbor under Stephen Decatur, and the overland march from Egypt to Derne with William Eaton, which ended in the capture of the city on 27 April 1805. The war's memory survives in the Marines' Hymn: "to the shores of Tripoli."
Engagements in this conflict (14) Podcast episodes on First Barbary War
Record no. 192