William Eaton

William Eaton 1764-1811, U.S. army officer, celebrated for his exploit in the Tripolitan War, b. Woodstock, Conn. Captain Eaton was sent to Tunis as consul in 1798 and learned much about the Barbary States . When he returned to the United States in 1804, he had a scheme to win the war against Tripoli by supporting the claimant to the rule of Tripoli, Hamet Karamanli. Somewhat reluctantly, Congress appointed him "navy agent to the Barbary States" and allowed him to try his plan. In Egypt, Eaton persuaded the claimant to undertake the venture and gathered a mixed army of 400 men, including Greeks, Italians, Arabs, and others. With this small band he set off on the long march overland to take Tripoli from the rear, took the seaport of Derna, and might have taken Tripoli if the Tripolitan War had not ended with a truce (1805) before he arrived.

Bibliography: See biographies by F. R. Rodd (1932) and N. B. Gerson (1968); L. B. Wright and J. H. Macleod, The First Americans in North Africa (1945, repr. 1969); R. Zacks, The Pirate Coast (2005).

Porden, William (c.1755–1822). English architect, he trained under James Wyatt. He was employed by the Prince of Wales (later King George IV (1820–30) ), for whom he designed the stables, riding-house, tennis-court, and other buildings at the Royal Pavilion, Brighton, Sussex (1804–8), where he introduced the Hindoo style (he is said to have worked with S. P. Cockerell). He had a reputation as an architect of Gothic buildings, and he built the competent Eaton Hall, Ches. (1804–12—demolished in the 1870s).

Bibliography

Colvin (1995);
Conner (1979);
H. Roberts (1939)

Barbary Wars (1801–1816).The term “Barbary Wars” refers to a series of limited military clashes between the United States and the North African kingdoms of Tunis, Tripoli, Algeria, and Morocco, collectively known as the Barbary Coast. Precipitated by attacks on American merchant vessels and the ransoming of American citizens and cargoes by Barbary Coast pirates, the conflict led to the rebirth of the U.S. Navy and Marine Corps.

The crisis began in 1784 as a by‐product of American independence. Deprived of the protection of the British Navy, American merchant shipping fell prey to piracy by the North African kingdoms. In 1787, the Continental Congress ratified a treaty with Morocco providing for the payment of tribute in exchange for a cessation of the attacks. Depredations by Tripoli and Algiers continued. New England merchants, irked by ship seizures and rising insurance rates, pushed Congress to pass the Naval Act of 1794, which reestablished the U.S. Navy and authorized the construction of six naval frigates to defend U.S. interests in the Mediterranean.

In 1801, President Thomas Jefferson, without consulting Congress, dispatched a naval squadron to the Mediterranean to protect American lives and commerce. The campaign suffered a setback in 1803 when Tripoli seized the USS Philadelphia and captured its three hundred–man crew. In 1804, Lieutenant Commander Stephen Decatur led sixty men on a daring raid into Tripoli harbor to board and burn the Philadelphia, although its crew remained hostage. In March 1805, Lieutenant William Eaton led a squad of seven Marines and four hundred mercenaries to victory at Derna, on the shores of Tripoli. The pasha of Tripoli soon agreed, in exchange for a sixty‐thousand‐dollar payment, to release the American prisoners and to commit no further acts of piracy against American vessels. The Barbary Wars concluded in 1816 when a naval squadron commanded by Decatur shelled Algiers into submission, thereby ending U.S. conflicts with the North African states until the later twentieth century.
See also Military, The.

Bibliography

Ray W. Irwin , The Diplomatic Relations of the United States with the Barbary Powers, 1776–1816, 1931.
Michael L.S. Kitzen , Tripoli and the United States at War, 1993.

William Earl Weeks