The Stars & Stripes over Tripoli

 

Raising the Stars & Stripes over Tripoli

It was May 14, 1801 when the Bashaw of Tripoli Yusuf Karamanli ordered the Stars & Strips flag at the American consulate at Trippoli cut down, thus being the first country to declare war on the United States.

A few years later, William Eaton, Lt. Presley O'Bannon, USMC and their small squad of Marines led the overland attack against Derna, a port city east of Tripoli, and after capturing the town, they raised the Stars & Stripes for the first time over a foreign land. (US consulates are considered US territory).

A few days later Karamanli capitulated, and sought terms of a truce that was ratified in June, 1805, releasing the prisoners of the USS Philadelphia from the dungeons of the old castle fort, ending the war, but leaving outstanding issues that are still being rectified today. Including the repatriation of the remains of the men of the Intrepid.