Hero's Homecoming - 1805

“I cannot but be a little flattered with the reception I have met with here,” he wrote his wife from Manhattan, where he landed in February 1805. ‘The people are disposed to think that I have rendered some service to my country….” - Commodore Edward Preble  

When the first American officers returned home from Tripoli they were given a hero's homecoming, they were toasted at formal balls, briefed the President and were the subjects of songs, one written by Francis Scott Key. 

The Specter of Islam -  

When the warrior returns from

       The battle afar

To the home and country he

    Has nobly defended,

Oh! Warm be the welcome to

    Gladden his ear,

And loud be the Joys that his

     Perils are ended! ....

........

Where mixt with the olive the

      Laurel shall wave

And form a bright wreath for

      The bow of the brave. 

American Hero's Homecoming

Commodore Edward Preble, commander of the Mediterranean Squadron, after successfully blockading Tripoli harbor, leading five attacks against the pirates, and recapturing and burning the frigate Philadelphia, knew he would soon be replaced and wanted to take on a last, possibly decisive action, so he approved the suicide mission that sent Richard Somers to his death.  

The premature explosion of the Intrepid in Tripoli harbor and the failure of that mission left Preble despondent and depressed on his long voyage home aboard the USS John Adams.

After all, he lost the Philadelphia, and its 300 man crew were still imprisoned in the dungeons of the Tripoli castle, and the loss of the Intrepid cost him the lives of three promising, young officers.  

Arriving in New York on 25 February 1805, he was quite surprised to find himself a hero.

The activities of the Mediterranean squadron were actively followed by the press and the Barbary War, although officially undeclared by Congress, was a popular war that Americans supported and wanted to win.

The first two Commodores sent to fight the pirates held back and failed to intimidate the enemy, but Preble sent his ships out as soon as they were ready and ordered them into action. And when he got there, Preble led five assaults against the pirate fleet, each a pronounced victory, despite the loss of two other promising young officers – Caldwell and James Decatur, the younger brother of Stephen. Both of their names – Caldwell and James Decatur, are on the Tripoli Monument.

Even though the Philadelphia was lost, fighting to win the release of the captured crew gave the American public more resolve to see the conflict through, and Decatur’s early special ops mission to sink the Philadelphia made him one of the first American naval heroes in the public eye.

Preble provided the leadership and Decatur was one of “Preble’s Boys,” the young officers who served under him who continued the fight, won the war and went on to distinguish themselves in defeating the once invincible British navy during the War of 1812.

According to Commander Tyrone G. Martin, when Commodore Edward Preble reached New York, “he was less than satisfied with the fact that he had been superseded in command of the Mediterranean Squadron. During the three days he spent in the city prior to departing for Washington, however, he found that he was a hero, and as he traveled south, he learned that the sentiment was national.”

Every town and city he passed through came out to greet Preble, and he was the guest of honor at dinner balls such as the one held for him in Philadelphia. 

Arriving in Washington D.C. on Jefferson’s second inauguration day (March 3), the Navy Secretary Robert Smith took him to see Jefferson immediately to report on the situation, and Congress ordered a special gold medal struck in his honor.

“During the next two weeks,” Martin writes, “the commodore was the center of attention in Washington, spending his days in conferences relating to the prosecution of the war and the future of the Navy, and his evenings dining with Jefferson, James Madison, and  other notables.”

Ian W. Toll, in his book “Six Frigates – The Epic History of the Founding of the U.S. Navy” (W.W. Norton, 2006 p., 257-258) Chapter Ten, wrote:

“Ex-Commodore Preble came home with the bitter taste of defeat in his mouth. On his watch, the navy had lost one of its finest frigates and seen a crew of more than three hundred American officers and sailors thrown into the enemy’s hands. At the height of his squadron’s attacks on Tripoli, Preble had learned that he was to suffer the personal humiliation of being superseded by Samuel Barron. The last act of his command had been to send thirteen Americans to their deaths in the premature explosion of the Intrepid. He had assured his superiors that he would force Yusuf to capitulate. He had failed to do so. Edward Preble was forty-three years old, the third oldest captain on the active list. His health was less than perfect, and his future in the U.S. Navy seemed uncertain.”

“But to his surprise and gratification, Preble was greeted by his country-men as a returning hero. ‘I cannot but be a little flattered with the reception I have met with Here,” he wrote his wife from Manhattan, where he landed in February 1805. ‘The people are disposed to think that I have rendered some service to my country.’ In one important respect, Preble had succeeded where his predecessors had failed. He had not won the war, but he had at least carried the fight to the enemy. To a nation eager for any kind of good news from the Mediterranean, the destruction of the Philadelphia and the August 1804 attacks on Tripoli had been psychologically rewarding, if nothing else, Preble had fought hard, and honorably. In the eyes of his countrymen, who had been conditioned to expect very little, it was enough.”

“Letters from the Mediterranean left no doubt that Preble’s vigorous prosecution of the war had made its mark. For the first time in years, said William Eaton, ‘an American is no longer ashamed of an American Uniform here…and a Barbary cruiser views an American flag in this sea with as much caution as a skulking debtor does any deputy sheriff in our country.’”

“Pope Pius VII, from his seat in Rome, was said to have framed the war as a clash of civilizations. ‘The American Commander,’ he was quoted as saying of Preble, ‘with a small force and in a short span of time, has done more for the cause of Christianity than the most powerful nations of Christendom have done for ages!’ And Admiral Nelson – in naval circles a higher authority than the pope – was said to have remarked that Decatur’s mission to destroy the Philadelphia was ‘the most bold and daring act of the age.’”

“After three gratifying days in New York, Preble set out on the overland journey to Washington, where he was to debrief the Navy Secretary. He arrived March 4, the day of Jefferson’s inaugural ceremony. When Preble presented himself at the Navy Office, Secretary Smith immediately walked him across to the White House to call on the commander in chief. Jefferson had already forwarded Preble’s official dispatches to Congress with a cover message lauding ‘the energy and judgment displayed by this excellent officer, through the whole course of the service lately confided to him.’ Congress in turn, had voted a resolution to award Preble a gold medal, ‘emblematical of the attacks on the town, batteries, and naval force of Tripoli.’ Swords would be presented to each of the officers of the squadron, and the enlisted men would be paid a bonus equivalent to one month’s pay.”

“During the two weeks that Preble remained in the capital, he was eagerly sought out by administration officials and members of Congress. He spent several days with Secretary Smith at the Navy Office, poring over maps of the Mediterranean. He dined at the White House with Jefferson on the sixth and at the home of James and Dolley Madison on the twelfth. His return to Maine was a multi-city victory tour: Philadelphia, Trenton, New York, Boston – in each place he was greeted as a national hero. Banquets were given in his honor. In Philadelphia, he stayed with Stephen Decatur’s parents and had his portrait painted by Rembrandt Peale. On arriving in Boson, he was invited to Quincy for an audience with former President Adams. Rumors circulated that he was about to be appointed Secretary of the Navy.”

According to Martin, “On his way back to New England, the reception he received in Baltimore inspired a local lawyer, Francis Scott Key, to write a little ditty that was based on the melody of an English drinking song.”

"The Specter of Islam"

 It went like this:

When the warrior returns from

       The battle afar

To the home and country he

    Has nobly defended,

Oh! Warm be the welcome to

    Gladden his ear,

And loud be the Joys that his

     Perils are ended!

In the full tide of song, let his

      Fame roll along,

To the feast-flowing board let

      Us gratefully throng.

Where mixt with the olive the

      Laurel shall wave

And form a bright wreath for

      The bow of the brave. 

“During the War of 1812,” Martin notes, “the Baltimore lawyer Francis Scott Key would be inspired to write the “Star Spangled Banner,” the national anthem that is played and sung at every major event in the country.”

Indeed, and the melody of the Star Spangled Banner is appropriated from the same English drinking song, “Anacreon In Heaven,” the theme song for a centuries old British social club that still exists today.

As Robert J. Allison notes in his article on “The Specter of Islam,” the song was written by Francis Scott Key, not for the return of Preble, but for the homecoming of Lieutenants Charles Stewart and Stephen Decatur, two of the three 'Musketeers' who attended the Philadelphia Academy together, enlisted in the Navy together, and served under John Barry and Edward Preble together.

Like Preble, Stewart and Decatur were greeted as returning heroes, as were the former prisoners from the USS Philadelphia, while the remains of the 13 officers and men of the Intrepid were left behind "on the shores of Tripoli." 

Now it is time to bring home the remains of the rest of the Tripoli heroes.