Key Date Chronology Updated 2013

                         The Front Gate to Old Protestant Cemetery, Tripoli, Libya - September 2013

Key Date Chronology

1778 September – Richard Somers born in Somers Point, NJ.
1778 October 15 - Battle of Chestnut Neck included Col. Richard Somers, father of Master Commandant Richard Somers.
1783 March. Algierian Barbary coast pirates seize two American merchant ships.
1784 October 11 Morocco pirate corsair seize American brig Betsey.
1785 June Henry Wadsworth born in Falmouth, Mass., now Portland, Maine, next door neighbor to Captain Edward Preble.
1785 Feb Algerian pirates seize two U.S. vessels, demand tribute; Pres. Jefferson deploys gunboats to the Mediterranean. “Millions for defense, but not one cent for tribute.”
1785 US opens diplomatic relations with Morocco, Algiers, Tunis and Tripoli.
1789 April 30 George Washington sworn in as President.
1793 December 16 President Washington notifies Congress that Barbary pirates were again seizing ships, consults with John Barry and Philadelphia shipbuilder Joshua Humphreys about building a fleet of warships.
1793 15 year old Richard Somers, first mate on family schooner in West Indies, takes command upon the death of the captain and returns ship safely home.
1794 Navy Act of 1794.
1794 March 19 John Barry requests command of the proposed fleet.
1794 March 27 an act of Congress orders building six new frigates.
1794 June 14 Washington orders John Barry “to form and train a class of midshipmen who would then be commissioned as Ensigns, and form the nucleus of a new American navy.” Barry commissioned first Captain, United States Navy.
1794 Richard Somers attends private Philadelphia Free Academy with schoolmates Charles Stewart, Steven Decatur, Jr., Richard Rush, and James Caldwell.
1794 September Captain John Barry supervises the construction of USS United States.
1794 October 22 Richard Somers, Sr. dies.
1795 December 21 US treaty with Morocco, Algiers “automatically under the clause in the Navy bill,” halts work on the six frigates.
1796 Jan. Sec of War McHenry reports that all six frigates could still be completed.
1796 April Congress approves the completion of three ships at Philadelphia, Boston and Baltimore, the United States, the Constitution and the Constellation.
1796 September 19 Estimate for outfitting the frigate United States with 305 officers and men, fifty-four marines, for one month $7, 285.
1796 Gheretti/Mastico, a French built Ketch launched (later to become USS Intrepid).
1797 February 3 Richard’s mother Sophia dies.
1797 February 22 Washington, on his birthday, issues Commission No. 1 in the American Navy to John Barry, backdated to 1794. .
1797 March 4 John Adams becomes president.
1797 June 7 Treaty of Tripoli Approved by Senate.
1797 June 10 Treaty of Tripoli Signed by President Adams
1797 June 17 Notice of Treaty of Tripoli published in Pennsylvania Gazette.
1797 June 23 President Adams message to Congress re: Algiers/Barbary States.
1797 July 10 the USS United States is launched, John Barry Captain.
1797 350 applications for 59 commissions in new U.S. Navy.
1798 January 26 US counsel Richard O’Brian arrives in Algiers.
1798 March 9 Charles Stewart commissioned Lieutenant.
1798 April 30 Congress establishes Department of Navy, directed by secretary of cabinet rank, Maryland merchant Benjamin Stoddert.
1798 April 30 Midshipman warrants issued to Richard Somers and Steven Decatur.
1798 May 7 President John Adams appears in Philadelphia at rally.
1798 May 8 Richard Somers takes oath of allegiance.
1798 May James R. Caldwell appointed Midshipman.
1798 May 30 Richard Somers returns to Egg Harbor to get his affairs in order.
1798 June 8 Sloop Delaware (20 guns) under Commodore Stephen Decatur, Sr., takes a French prize, Le Croyable off Egg Harbor.
1798 July 7 USS Untied States gets underway under Capt. John Barry with Decatur, Jr., Charles Stewart and Somers as Midshipmen, head for the West Indies.
1798 Nov 4 Congress agreed to pay a yearly tribute to Tripoli.
1799 January 20 Richard Somers commissioned Lieutenant.
1799 June 2 Richard Somers writes will.
1799 June 22 Richard’s brother Constant dies in Russia in boating accident.
1799 Schooner Nautilus built as merchant vessel on Maryland’s East Shore.
1800 Nov. James Caldwell promoted to lieutenant, serves on USS United States.
1801 Somers appointed first lieutenant Boston (28 gun) 250 man sloop sent to the Mediterranean.
1801 James Caldwell assigned to the USS Constellation.
1801 Treaty of Tripoli violated by Yousuf Karamanli, pasha of Tripoli.
1801 January 21 Boston off Tripoli. Somers gets first view of Tripoli Harbor.
1801 May 14, After learning that Pres. Jefferson refused to pay a renewed tribute of $225,000 the Pasha of Tripoli declared war on the US by cutting down the US flagstaff in front of the US Consulate.
1801 May 22 Captain Richard Dale takes command of Med. Squadron.
1801 June – US Consul William Eaton contacts Hamad Karamanli, deposed pasha of Tripoli, and older brother of Yousuf and encourages him to return to Tripoli.
1801 July USS Enterprise under Lt. Andrew Sterrett defeats pirate ship Tripoli.
1802 Congress orders the construction of four schooners, the Siren, the Argus, Nautilus and Vixen with Somers given command of the Nautilus.
1802 February 6 Congress recognizes Tripoli has declared war against USA.
1803 April 11 Richard Somers launches schooner Goard Blossom at Mays Landing.
1803 May 13 Richard Somers ordered to oversee the refurbishing of schooner Nautilus.
1803 May 21 Captain Edward Preble given command of the Mediterranean squadron, with flagship frigate USS Constitution (44 guns).
1803 June 24 Somers’s schooner Nautilus ordered to join the Mediterranean squadron under command of Captain Edward Preble.
1803 September 13 Commodore John Barry dies.
1803 September 14 Somers and Nautilus reach Gibraltar.
1803 Preble obtains understanding in Tangier from the emperor of Morocco.
1803 Oct 31 frigate USS Philadelphia, Captain Bainbridge in command, runs aground off Tripoli, surrenders with full compliment of crew, 300 men.
1803 Nov 7 the Argus, with Stephen Decatur, joins Nautilus and Constitution.
1803 Dec 23, Lt. Stephen Decatur, commanding the schooner Enterprise, captures a Barbary pirate ketch, which is entered into the US Navy logs as the USS Intrepid.
1804 February 16 Decatur leads mission aboard Intrepid into Tripoli Harbor and successfully scuttles the captured frigate USS Philadelphia.
1804 June 2 USS Constitution, Enterprise, and Intrepid, a floating hospital, anchor off Syracuse. Siren, Agrus, Vixen and Scourage (also a pirate prize) blockade Tripoli.
1804 July Mediterranean squadron heads for Tripoli, lead by Preble’s flagship, the Constitution, four brigs, the Argus, Siran, Vixen and Scourge, two schooners, Nautilus (Somers) and Enterprise (Decatur) and eight gunboats (156 guns in all).
1804 July 25 Battle of Tripoli begins.
1804 August 3 Somers and Decatur lead flotillas of gunboats against Tripoli fleet, win decisively, though Decatur’s younger brother James Decatur is killed; Caldwell distinguishes himself in boat action; three enemy gunboats captured.
1804 August 7 Attack made against Tripoli fleet; Caldwell killed in Gunboat #9.
1804 Sept 3 Attack made against Tripoli fleet.
1804 Sept 4 Intrepid explodes in Tripoli harbor killing Somers, Wadsworth and ten volunteer sailors, whose remains wash ashore and are recovered.
1804 Sept 5 Intrepid crew buried in two nearby graves, by Dr. Cowdery and other American prisoners, “one cable’s length” (720 feet) from the walls of the old castle fort.
1805 Lt. David Porter takes up collection for Tripoli Monument, which includes the names of all the officers killed in the first Barbary War.
1807 Feb Henry Wadsworth Longfellow is born and named after Lt. Henry Wadsworth
1812 British take Washington. The Tripoli monument is damaged, repaired and relocated to the grounds of the US Capitol.
1830 Wife of British Counsel to Tripoli dies and is buried near existing graves, believed to be American sailors, and a wall is built around the cemetery.
1842 Alleged mutiny aboard USS Somers II, a training vessel, results in hanging of Midshipmen, and the end of training officers at sea.
1845 US Naval Academy established by Navy Secretary George Bancroft and the Tripoli Monument is relocated there.
1850 James F. Cooper writes biography of Richard Somers and suggests that someday the captain of an American cruiser should return with his remains so that he can be reburied in his native land among his friends and loved ones.
1905 President Theodore Roosevelt orders the repatriation of the remains of Captain John Paul Jones from a Paris crypt and reburied in the chapel at the Naval Academy.
1911 Italians begin occupation of Libya. Take over port and create the Plaza/Square.
1930 Italian Army road work crew uncovers the remains of five men from the original grave site and they are reburied at Old Protestant Cemetery.
1938 President Franklin Roosevelt orders a search for the location of the graves of the men of the Intrepid in Tripoli. Mustafa Burchis, a Libyan working for the Italians at the port of Tripoli investigates and learns some of the men of the Intrepid are buried at Old Protestant Cemetery.
1940 World War II. Burgis’ report is lost at the American Embassy in Rome.
1948–49 Muastafa Burchis informs the new US Consul Orray Taft, Jr. of his research and the members of the State Dept, US Navy, British embassy and local Libyans hold memorial ceremony and place historic markers at the Old Protestant Cemetery in 1949.
1950-1956 Two reports are published in the US Naval Proceedings journal.
1955 USMC study determines that no Marines are among the Intrepid victims.
1950-1969 The Officer Wife’s Club of Wheelus Air Force base maintain the cemetery.
1977 Two women from New Jersey discover the displaced graves at the cemetery, overgrown with weeds, and write about it in American Legion Magazine.
1980 Rep. William Hughes (D. 2NJ) introduces legislation in Congress to reserve graves for the 13 men of the Intrepid at Arlington in anticipation of their repatriation.
1988 Pres. Ronald Reagan orders the US military to bomb Tripoli in retaliation for terrorist attacks. Two US Navy pilots are shot down, and the remains of one recovered.
1991 Chris Stevens posted to Riyadh, Saudi Arabia with US State Dept.
2002 Members of the Somers family and Somers Point, N.J. civic leaders petition US government and the Gadhafi Charities Foundation for repatriation. US State Dept. says there is no diplomatic relations with Libya.
2004 Gadhafi renounces terrorism, gives up Weapons of Mass Destruction and the US reestablishes formal diplomatic relations with Libya.
2004 Libyans excavate the original grave site and discover “bones and buttons.”
2004 US Dept. of State opens liaison office in Tripoli.
2004 Libyan guards tell US regional security officer Dan Mehan about American graves at cemetery, overgrown with weeds and in disrepair.
2006 March LTC Robert “Kyle” Carnahan arrives in Tripoli as defense attaché and meets with Dr. Giuma Anag, director of Antiquities.
2006 May Memorial Day ceremonies held at cemetery graves.
2007 Chris Stevens begins serving as Deputy Chief of US Mission to Libya at Tripoli (2 years)
2007 May Memorial Day ceremonies held at cemetery graves.
2008 “Secrets of the Old Protestant Cemetery” book is published in Arabic in Libya.
2009 Gadhaif celebrates the 40th anniversary of coup with a parade at Green Square.
2009 Sept 5 Sec of State Condi Rice visits Gadhafi on the 105th anniversary of the burial of the men of the Intrepid.
2010 March Chief of Naval Operations Adml. Gary Roughead determines that the Old Protestant Cemetery is to be the final resting place for those men of the USS Intrepid, but does not mention the original unmarked mass grave site outside the old castle walls.
2011- February 17 Revolution in Libya begins, which Gadhafi violent suppresses.
2011 March UN & NATO prevents Gadhafi’s military from attacking Benghazi.
2011 April 5 Chris Stevens arrives in Benghazi as US Representative to the rebels
2011 April 15 Delegation from Somers Point meets with Rep. Frank LoBiondo (R. NJ), Mike Rogers (R. Mich) and the American Legion in Washington DC.
2011 April Rep. Rogers introduces House Resolution 1497 to repatriate the remains of the men of the Intrepid from Tripoli, co-sponsored by LoBiondo.
2011 May 26 Rep. Rogers attaches the Rogers/LoBiondo repatriation resolution to the 2012 Defense Authorization Act (DAA) as an amendment, which passes the House.
2011 August Green Square is liberated and renamed Martyrs Square.
2011 Nov. Sen. Dean Heller (R. Nev.) introduces complimentary Senate bill.
2011 Dec. Sen. John McCain (R. Arizona), ranking Republican on the Sen. Armed Services Com. (SASC) removes Repatriation Amendment before DAA is approved.
2011 Dec. 6 SASC and HASC Conference irons out differences in the DAA and ten US Senators sign letter requesting the Repatriation Amendment be reinserted in the DAA. 2011 Dec. 17 Sec. Defense Leon Panetta visits Tripoli and Intrepid graves at Old Protestant Cemetery.
2011 Dec. 31 President Signs Defense Authorization Act that includes a provision requiring the Navy to evaluate the feasibility of repatriating the remains of the men of the Intrepid from Tripoli and report back with recommendations in September 2012. 

2012 Christopher Stevens quietly appointed US Ambassador to Libya. Media excluded from ceremony.
2012 Feb. 4 Intrepid Project meets at Somers Point Historical Society to consider options. 

2012 May Chris Stevens appointed US Ambassador to Libya.
2012 May US Ambassador Chris Stevens leads Embassy delegation for Memorial Day ceremony at Intrepid graves at Old Protestant Cemetery.

2012 September Film farce "Innocence of Muslims" incites anti-American protests in Arab countries. 

2012 September 11 US Ambassador Stevens and three other Americans killed in attack on US mission at Benghazi.

2012 September 12 US intelligence agencies determine that attack coordinated by al Qaeda linked militia

2012 September 12 40,000 Libyans protest the attack against Americans and storm militia HQ.

                              President Obama meets the remains of US Ambassador Chris Stevens

2012 September 18 UN Ambassador says Benghazi attack spontaneous  response to film. 

2012 October Navy/DOD Report on Intrepid remains recommends they not be repatriated, but does not mention the radical Islamic threat to graves.

2012 October Tripoli Project issues rebuttal and reportedly meets with Armed Services Committee in DC

2012 November Benghazi becomes an election issue during debates. 

2013 January Secretary of State Hilary Clinton testifies before Congress about Benghazi.

2013 January Former Sen. John Kerry nominated for Secretary of State
2012 January Islamic Militants, some from Libya, of the same stripe as those who killed Stevens, retreat fromTimbucktu after imposing Islamic law for six months, but not before destroying most of the historic, centuries old manuscripts, books, mausoleums and graves of Sufi Saints and holy men. 

Latest Photo of Old Protestant Cemetery, Tripoli

                                     Connecting Rays between Tripoli and Somers Point

Latest photo of the Old Protestant Cemetery, Tripoli. 

My friend Nuri, who sent the photo, notes: ‘It is looking west at sunset.  The frame captures three things at once.  1- The wall of the cemetery, final resting place of some of your men, on the left hand of the frame , 2- the place were the Intrepid blew up which is on the right side of the frame ( in the far back of the water you see just in front of the bow of the ship at port.  3 - The setting sun which at that time was early morning in their hometowns in the USA almost connecting them through its rays.”

He also says: “I would like to give you my belated condolences on the loss of Ambassador Chris J. Stevens.  He was a much liked and respected by most Libyans.  What happened to him in Benghazi was tragic and shameful.  40,000 people marched in Benghazi against his killers a week after his death.  He will be missed.”

The Salafist Threat to the Intrepid Graves in Tripoli

Here Lies An American Sailor
Who Gave His Life In The
Explosion of the United States Ship Intrepid
Tripoli Harbor
September 4, 1804

The Salafist Threat to the Intrepid Graves in Tripoli

–        By William E. Kelly, Jr.

Two recently released official government reports on American interests in Libya clearly show the disparity in our government’s policies, one ignoring the radical Islamic threat and the other examining it in detail.

On the night of September 4, 1804 Lt. Richard Somers of Somers Point, New Jersey commanded the USS Intrepid as it sailed into Tripoli harbor outfitted as a fire ship in a special mission to destroy an anchored pirate fleet. Instead the ship exploded killing all three officers and ten men, whose bodies washed ashore and were buried by American prisoners from the captured frigate USS Philadelphia.

The recent Department of Defense study on the feasibility of repatriation of these remains of US Navy heroes from Tripoli fails to even mention the threat to them posed by the radical Islamic extremists while the Benghazi report on the assassination of US Ambassador Chris Stevens clearly identifies the threat they pose and the continued lack of security in a revolutionary and lawless land.

The DOD report on the Tripoli graves concludes with the unreasonable, outdated and obstinate Pentagon policy of not treating the remains of all Americans killed in action abroad with the same honor and respect.

The feasibility of repatriating the clearly identified remains of the men from the USS Intrepid is very easy, what is difficult is changing the Pentagon policy of not repatriating those who were killed abroad in combat before the 20^th century.

Their tired excuses of why they don’t want to repatriate the Tripoli remains have all been adequately addressed, especially the unfounded fears that if these men are returned, as the families of the officers have requested, there will be a flood of requests from other families who want the remains of their kin returned as well.

But as Chris Dickon documents in his book “The Foreign Burial of American War Dead” (McFarland, 2011), there are no other families who would seek such repatriation. Dickon also notes that there are only a few other examples of Americans buried abroad in marked graves that are not secured and cared for by the American Battle Monuments Commission, as those are in Flanders and Normandy.

The military claims that it was “a fine Navy tradition” to bury the dead on a shore near where they died, but that is not the case today and the Somers family has always expected the remains of Master Commandant Richard Somers to be someday returned to Somers Point, NJ, and they still expect that to happen, hopefully in our lifetime.

It was never a matter of if he would be returned, only when, and now it is not the Libyan government preventing it but the US Department of Defense. With the re-establishment of diplomatic relations and with a Libyan government in transition, the graves clearly threatened and the current window of opportunity presents a time and reason to make that move.

The Navy’s lack of confidence in their own conclusion that the remains of the Intrepid men are buried in the clearly marked crypts in the corner of the Old Protestant Cemetery is a question that can be easily answered by simply opening the crypts, counting the remains, identifying them as the men of the Intrepid and attempting to positively identify the officers through DNA testing. The same procedures are used every day by the dedicated and committed DOD POW/MP forensic officers, some of whom recognize the significance of the Tripoli case and want to take on the mission.

The Navy’s determination that the Old Protestant Cemetery in Tripoli is “the final resting place” for those men is belied by the facts presented in the recently published Libyan history book “Secrets of the Old Protestant Cemetery,” which notes that more than half of those interred there have been removed and reburied elsewhere. It says the cemetery was only meant to be a temporary resting place for those mainly European diplomats and their families who unexpectedly died there.

More recently, the remains of many dozen – nearly a hundred American service men and their families buried in the Italian cemetery near the former US Wheelus Air Force base were exhumed and quietly repatriated home. Attempts were made to identify them and notify their families and they were reburied in a cemetery near Dover, Delaware, even though their Tripoli graves were intended to be their “final resting place.” But now they are safely home, unlike the Intrepid heroes.

Most significantly, the DOD report on the Tripoli graves fails to even mention the most serious threat to them from the radical Islamic extremists, known as Salafists, who have already desecrated the graves of British soldiers in Tobruk and exhumed and made off with the remains of Sufi Muslim saints buried in the floors of Tripoli mosques.

Mohammad Ali al-Zahawi – commander of Ansar al-Sharia, Libya’s largest Islamist brigade said, "Our brave youths will continue their struggle until they impose Sharia."

The brigade has an ultra-conservative interpretation of Islam, and Zahawi confirmed in a BBC interview that his brigade had demolished and desecrated Sufi shrines in Tripoli and Benghazi, which they regard as idolatrous. He said, "It is a religious duty to remove these shrines because people worship the deceased and this is prohibited. It is not me who says so but rather our religion."

While most Libyans seek democracy and like Americans for their assistance in ousting Gadhafi in the earliest days of the revolution, a small minority of orthodox Libyan Islamists want to impose Sharia law, suppress the rights of women, forbid music, prevent the veneration of Muslim saints or keep anyone from honoring the dead. These grave robbing Islamists are the same radical extremists who support al Qaeda and the Taliban, attacked the US consulate in Benghazi and killed Ambassador Chris Stevens and his aides.

Last Memorial Day 2012 Ambassador Stevens led a delegation from the US Embassy to honor the men buried in the Intrepid graves in the cemetery during an annual memorial service. When Stevens was killed, his remains weren’t buried there where he died, as the Intrepid men are, but Stevens’ body was returned home and met by President Obama and Secretary of State Clinton. 

When the remains of John Paul Jones were discovered under a Paris street, they were ordered returned home by President Teddy Roosevelt and honorably reburied in the chapel at the US Naval Academy at Annapolis. Nearby is the Tripoli monument, America’s first monument dedicated to those who died fighting for this nation, which is inscribed with Somers’ name and the names of those officers who died with him. It was meant to be a gravestone and include their remains. 

Instead the remains of these heroes still lie in a cemetery near the shores of Tripoli harbor, each crypt clearly marked: “Here lies the remains of an American sailor from the USS Intrepid destroyed in Tripoli harbor September 4, 1804.

Some Islamists, including the Salafists, believe that tombs are a corruption of Islam's teachings because they turn graves into shrines and distract from the worship of God. In Misrata the Salafists destroyed the 400- year old tomb of holy man Sidi Nasr Azzi with anti-tank guns. In Derna, which William Eaton and Sgt. Presley O”Bannon had captured in 1805, Salafists demolished the tomb of Sidi Nasr Aziz, a sheikh reputed to have been a companion of the Prophet Mohammed. In Tripoi, the Sidi Nasr mosque was broken into at night and destroyed two tombs, including one holy man who died in 1760.

According to Islamic scholar Giles Kepel, Salafist jihadism combined "respect for the sacred texts in their most literal form,...with an absolute commitment to jihad, whose number-one target had to be America, perceived as the greatest enemy of the faith."

If the American grave stone markers aren’t attacked and desecrated and the crypts robbed of their bones as soon as the radical Salafists discover their location, they will surely be targeted whenever an anti-American demonstration is called for, which is only a matter of time.

Who will get to them first? Will it be an American forensic team who brings them home to be properly buried with full military honors, or radical Islamic extremists who will desecrate their graves and give their bones to the dogs?

William Kelly is the author of “300 Years at the Point” and “Birth of the Birdie.” He resides in Browns Mills, New Jersey.

20 Columbine Ave.
Browns Mills NJ 08015

609-425-6297

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. 

Tim McGrath on Richard Somers & John Barry

Richard Somers Day at Somers Point, NJ - September 9, 2012

Speaker: Tim McGrath

Author of John Barry: An American Hero in the Age of Sail

Bring Richard Somers Home

It's an honor to be here with you all today.

George Washington's decision to ask John Barry to serve as senior officer of the United States Navy in 1794 was an easy one for the president to make. Washington had known Barry for 18 years, and was well aware of the Irishman's skills as a sailor and courage as a warrior. During the dark days of December, 1776, Barry led his crew into the Continental Army where they saw action at the Battle of Princeton.

Captain and General corresponded with each other throughout the war, the most memorable dispatch being one of Barry's to Washington during the Valley Forge winter. After Barry captured three British ships off Reedy Island in the Delaware, he sent Washington a list of the engineering tools and other goods taken from the ship's hold, sending his letter by courier along with two other items of plunder: a large cheese and a "jar of Pickled oysters which crave the general's acceptance."

After Barry agreed to serve as first among the navy's captains he spent three long years overseeing the construction of the first frigates, including his flagship, the United States, a twin sister of the Constitution. Once she was launched, the commodore required junior officers.

For two of these positions he didn't have to look far, enlisting his friend Stephen Decatur's son, Stephen Junior, and that youngster's best friend from Episcopal Academy, Richard Somers, who also happened to be related to Barry's wife, Sarah.

Sadly, the John Barry of 1798 was no longer the dashing hero of the American Revolution. He was plagued with chronic asthma and also suffered from the gout. But he made sure that the United States was both a tight and happy ship. She was, in fact, a floating naval academy.

Under Barry's watchful eye, young Somers and Decatur, along with James Barron, Charles Stewart, and others, learned navigation, mathematics, and gunnery skills. And he set for them a visible example of how a commanding officer carried himself and treated his men. More officers were promoted up the ranks from the United States than from any other ship during the Quasi-War, the naval conflict fought between America and France under the administration of John Adams.

Below decks, "Barry's boys" were obsessed with the code duello - the practice of fighting duels over the slightest offense. Most of you are familiar with the story of how Somers and Decatur engaged in playful banter while Decatur was dressing for shore leave. With three other midshipmen present, Somers kidded Decatur over his foppish dress, while Decatur called Somers a fool. Afterwards, when Somers asked his colleagues to partake in a bottle of wine, they refused. In letting Decatur call him a fool, Somers was in their eyes a coward, and they refused his wine. Upon returning to ship, Decatur called their accusation ridiculous, but only an apology to Somers would mollify them. Somers might be Decatur's best friend, but he wasn't about to lose face - or honor - by apologizing. Accordingly, Somers challenged all three to a duel, just like D'Artagnan in The Three Musketeers - except their weapons would be pistols, not rapiers. Of course, Decatur served as his second.

The next morning they were rowed ashore, where Somers faced each boy at twenty paces. The first, shot him in the arm; the second, wounded him so severely in the hip that he could not stand to face his third accuser. Instead, Decatur knelt beside him, holding Somers' right arm steady enough to graze his last opponent. His courage more than proven, they were rowed back to ship. Hopefully they drank that wine.

I mention this affair because Barry had to know about it, either before or afterwards. Barry's wife, Sarah - a remarkable woman in her own right - was devoted to both her husband and her extended family. Her letters to John, while always loving, are at times an 18th century version of "you never write, you never call…" One can only imagine the letter Barry would have received from her if her relative had been more seriously hurt.

Over the next three years Somers sailed aboard the United States. She flew the broad blue pennant Barry's rank entitled him to as senior commander. Richard Somers saw more than his share of action, as the United States captured a fistful of French ships, and sailed through several severe storms. On one diplomatic visit to Portugal, the officers hiked up a high hill to enjoy the splendid view the crest provided, only to watch in horror as Barry was stricken with a debilitating asthma attack that left them all wondering if he was dying.

Somers participated in two incidents with his captain during the Quasi-War that he later wrote of in detail. While the United States was being refitted in Philadelphia, word reached Barry from Newcastle that several sailors were confined in irons after being accused of mutiny. He sent Lieutenant Somers downriver to investigate. Somers, convinced of their innocence, went back to Barry and wisely suggested that he personally obtain their release. The commodore accompanied Somers back to Newcastle where, as Somers reported, Barry "ordered them out of Irons, who had been confined for 6 weeks, the poor fellows on their being relieved and seeing the Commodore gave him three Cheers."

At the end of the Quasi-War, Barry was ordered to sail the United States to Washington with a skeleton crew. She was to be "laid up." He took Somers as his senior officer. Once docked, Barry made his report to the Secretary of the Navy, Samuel Smith, who informed Barry he could return to Philadelphia "whenever it was agreeable." The United States could be placed in Somers' capable hands. Tired and careworn, that very hour was agreeable to Barry. He returned to his cabin, packed his belongings, and came on deck. Somers had the bosun pipe all hands and then ordered Barry's pennant lowered for the last time. Barry never went to sea again.

For the last two years of the commodore's life it was mainly Richard Somers who kept Barry informed on naval affairs. When a second-in-command position became available upon the frigate Boston, Barry happily recommended Somers for the post to her captain, his old friend Daniel MacNeill, who gratefully told Barry that, as Somers "has served under your command & to your satisfaction" the position was his.

Somers was in Philadelphia in early 1803 when a terminally ill Barry declined the offer to command the American squadron fighting the Barbary pirates in the Mediterranean.

He was one of the witnesses to Barry's last will and testament. Later that year, while serving aboard the Boston, his brother-in-law, William Jonas Keen, wrote Somers that Barry was "now thought to be on his last tack." Barry died on September 13, 1803, leaving behind an exemplary record of service and accomplishment. Tragically, Somers died less than a year later, his death at so young an age presaging the countless other American heroes who to this day are taken from home and family far too young in life for us to ever fully comprehend.

What we can do is what we are doing here today: remembering a true hero and patriot, and taking time each day to say a prayer that those servicemen and women who chose to follow Richard Somers' example come home to us safe and sound in heart and mind, body and soul. Thank you.

---

A Brief History of the Tripoli Project

A Brief History of the Tripoli Project

The Tripoli Project officially came into being shortly after the Arab Spring revolutions reached Libya in February, 2011, when the turmoil in the region suggested that a new effort to repatriate the remains of Richard Somers and the men of the Intrepid could be successful.

Where other, similar efforts in the past failed, the Tripoli Project has come closer than ever before of obtaining the repatriation of the remains of the American Naval heroes from Tripoli, but it too is fighting the Pentagon’s outdated policies.

The brainchild of Michael Caputo, a Florida based public relations specialist, Caputo convinced the effort so far advanced by the Somers’ family and the citizens and officials of Somers Point, New Jersey, had to be expanded to include the families of the others as well as national veterans groups and Congress. 

Caputo first came to Somers Point, the home of Intrepid Captain Richard Somers, representing a century’s old major building and construction firm that was chosen by the city to develop the hospital garage and other projects. The Republican mayor Dan Reilly and city council had already endorsed the repatriation effort and wrote letters to the State Dept., Congress and the Libyans, but Caputo would shift that effort into high gear.

Caputo hired a Libyan lawyer/lobbyist who made contact with the Gadhafi Charities Foundation, that made the multi-million dollar payoffs to the victims of the Lockerbe terrorist attack. He also began to negotiate with Dr. Anag, the director of Libyan antiquities whose office is in the old castle fort that overlooks Green Square. After the success of the Feb. 17^th revolution it was renamed Martyr’s Square, but the only real martyrs buried there are those of the American navy heroes.

While the Gadhafi family had no qualms about repatriation, the US military did, so Caputo further explored the private repatriation through his lobbyist, who one day reported that some Libyans had excavated a mass grave with buttons and bones. Caputo said they were relieved when told them they had been buried by US navy men from the captured frigate USS Philadelphia, but then they recovered them.

The international situation flared up at the time and the Libyans broke off contact with Caputo, who announced in an Atlantic City Press newspaper article that they had gone as far as they could and were going no further at that point in time, and the remained of the funds were returned to the anonymous benefactor and the effort ended.

Then with the Arab Spring revolutions and unrest in Libya a new effort was launched and Caputo helped organize it. This new campaign began with a new internet petition, a web site and a trip to Washington DC to lobby Congress. I was invited to go on the trip in June, 2011, which was led by Somers Point Mayor Jack Glasser and included Dean Somers of the Somers’ extended family, Somers Point Planning Board member Greg Sykora, Walt Gregory of the Somers Point Business Association, Sally Hastings – president of the Somers Point Historical Society and a veteran who is making a documentary film of the repatriation effort.

Jack Glasser, an Air Force veteran of many years, is the best mayor Somers Point has had in a long time. A no-nonsense guy with fortitude and good sense, he is committed to the repatriation of Somers.

Walt Gregory first got me interested in the subject in the early 1990s when he asked me to write a cover-story article on Somers for the Somers Point Business Association tabloid. Greg Sykora had asked me to address the SPBA one day over a decade later, which I did at a breakfast meeting at the Greate Bay Country Club, where I stressed the economic and tourists benefits the city and entire area would get with the repatriation.

Dean Somers, a Somers Point native, had only recently learned that he was related to the same branch of the family as Richard Somers and was learning more every day about the history and the previous, failed repatriation attempts.

In Washington, we first met with Michael Caputo and Annapolis, Maryland historian Chipp Reid at a Congressional cafeteria, before being escorted to the office of our representative Rep. Frank LoBiondo (R. NJ). Frank has always been a big supporter of Somers Point and repatriation, and always gives a speech on the annual Richard Somers Day event.

LoBiondo explained that he was a member of the House Intelligence Committee wh.ose chairman Mike Rogers (R. Mich) supported the repatriation efforts and was recruited to help. Shortly thereafter, Rogers himself showed up at LoBiondo’s office and invited us over to his office where he explained how he was an Army veteran who had been to the Tripoli graves and was going to introduce a bill in Congress that calls for the repatriation. He also introduced us to his chief military aide, an Army Reserve officer who did all the hard work to make it happen.

After the meeting in Congress, we got into the van and proceeded to the other side of town to the offices of the American Legion. Sitting around the table in their board room, we took turns telling the national commander of the Legion and his aides, what we were trying to do and why they should support repatriation. When it was my turn, I told them a previous effort that failed was sparked by an article in the American Legion magazine by two women from New Jersey who stumbled across the neglected graves at Old Protestant Cemetery and commented on their sad state. That effort led to the formation of a committee, a petition and Congressional resolution and went no where. But they tried.

The Legion decided to help us, and at their next national convention approved a resolution calling for the repatriation of the Tripoli heroes and they made an excellent documentary film that was presented on their web site to over 2 million veterans.

One of the veterans who saw the video, A. J. Castella, from Massachusetts, immediately contacted his Senators and made appointments to meet with them personally, did so, and got them to support the Rogers/LoBiondo bill in the Senate.

The Maine family of Captain Richard Somers’ second officer Henry Wadsworth, contacted by Caputo, also began to lend their support to the effort, and the Senators from Maine also voiced support for repatriation.

Then, in a master-stroke of political machinations, Rep. Rogers pulled a fast one, and rather than get hundreds of co-sponsors on his bill and pass it through the House and Senate, he attached the repatriation bill to the 2012 Defense Authorization Act as an amendment.

While hundreds of other amendments were also attached to the DAA, when it came down to the joint House-Senate Armed Services Committee sub-committee to hash out the details, LoBiondo sat on the committee, and when it got to the Tripoli Amendment, Rogers himself made an appearance and was given five minutes to make his case, which he effectively did.

Meanwhile, the Congressional liaison officers at the Pentagon were taken by surprise, and in an attempt to scuttle the amendment, had one of their biggest supporters in Congress – Sen. John McCain pull the amendment. McCain said he didn’t know what it was all about, and seemed to be just following orders.

Now it was Frank LoBiondo’s turn, and if the amendment was going to be pulled by McCain without giving adequate reason, he was going to replace it with an order to have a study conducted on the feasibility of repatriation of the Tripoli remains. That study was ordered in six months after the passage of the act, or by October, 2012. 

That study, recently released and posted at the Intrepid Project web site [see: www.intrepidproject.org/SEC_598_2012_NDAA_Report_INTREPID.pdf ] reiterates all of the problems and objections to repatriation of the Tripoli remains, but does not address the most significant issue.

In the months since the ordering of the study, the success of the revolution not only changed the name of Green Square to Martyrs Square, but also led to the dissolution of the Libyan army and civil authority, so gangs of militias now controlled different neighborhoods. In addition, radical Islamic extremists, while only a small percentage of the total population, were armed and violent and desecrated the graves of British soldiers at Tobrok and robbed the graves of Sufi saints from their graves under the floors of Tripoli mosques. They also led an attack on the American consulate in Benghazi that killed four Americans, including two former Navy SEALS and US Ambassador Chris Stevens.

Since the clearly marked graves of American Navy heroes in the cemetery, if these extremists knew were there, would be immediately targeted, the grave markers desecrated and the remains destroyed, its quite clear these remains are not safe.

The US State Department has recommended that the Old Protestant Cemetery be named a protected United Nations historical site, but similar sites, such as those in Syria, have been destroyed in the Civil War and turmoil sparked by the Arab Spring revolts, and the American graves in Tripoli are now threatened by the same forces. \

Who will get there first? Will American forensic archeologists retrieve the remains of these heroes, attempt to positively identify them and return them home for proper burial with full military honors – or will Arab extremists knock over the marked crypts and throw the remaining bones to the desert dogs?

It is only a matter of time before one or the other happens.

The DOD Report on the Tripoli Graves

The DOD Report on the Tripoli Graves 

As expected the DOD report on the Tripoli graves is against repatriation of the remains, mainly because the US military is unsure the remains are actually those of the Intrepid men, they want to use the cemetery to work with the Libyans and use the graves as a memorial site for those Americans visiting Tripoli. And they don’t want to go beyond the current policy of not repatriating the remains of Americans killed before World War I.

If they were combat fatalities in any other military engagement since World War I the families would have a say, but since they were killed over two hundred years ago, the military is not legally bound to return them. And the top brass do not want to break that policy even though they have done it on previous occasions. 

Regardless of the conclusions of this official report, the US military, specifically the Navy has an obligation to at least try to identify the remains of the Intrepid officers and if they can be positively identified, return them to their families.

Thanks to the Intrepid Project, an organization that represents the families of two of the Intrepid officers - Richard Somers and Henry Wadsworth, for posting the DOD Report on the Tripoli graves as the DOD should have done. http://www.intrepidproject.org/SEC_598_2012_NDAA_Report_INTREPID.pdf.

The one and only question is whether this report addresses the threat to the graves posed by radical Islamic extremists who have robbed the remains from graves in Tripoli mosques, desecrated the of British graves at Trobuk and killed US Ambassador Chris Stevens and other Americans in Benghazi? Does the report do mention that?

That's the only issue that matters today and Chipp Reid answers the question in his response to the DOD Report, http://www.intrepidproject.org/home.php :

“The DoD report makes no mention of the possibility of an anti-American government or fundamental Islamic government taking control of Libya. It makes no mention of the desecration of the Commonwealth Cemetery in Tobruk, a cemetery that holds the remains of British, Australian and New Zealand troops killed in action in Libya during World War II. Should an anti-American or anti-Western government come to power in Libya, there can be no guarantee of safety for these American graves in the heart of Tripoli. Indeed, it is safe to believe just the opposite would be true – that the same mob-mentality that led to the desecration of the Commonwealth cemetery, that the same terrorist cells that murdered the United States Ambassador to Libya, Chris Stevens, would seek to destroy the graves of any American military in Libya, especially so since the United States Navy still regards Richard Somers and Henry Wadsworth as heroes.”

But they don't need an anti-American or Islamic government to come to power in Tripoli since the current situation, with no law enforcement, makes the situation ripe for anyone to completely destroy the graves before the remains can be secured and put out of harm’s way.

Since current events have overtaken the report’s conclusions since the report does not mention the immediate and present danger to the remains, the threat to the graves must be addressed immediately.

There is a constant military guard standing over the graves of the Unknowns at Arlington National Cemetery, where one of the remains, at the request of a family of a soldier Missing in Action (MIA), was positively identified, removed and reburied separately in a marked grave and his remains replaced by those of a truly unknown soldier. The policy is to identify those who can be identified. 

There are no military guards or even a US flag flying over the cemetery in Tripoli, where the clearly marked graves of the Intrepid men are waiting to be desecrated.

The small walled cemetery near the harbor has been nominated by American state department officers to be given international historical status  s  UNESCO World Herit ge site, but that did not save similar sites that have become victims of the Arab Spring civil wars, like Aleppo, Syria Ancient City of Aleppo - UNESCO World Heritage Centre.

The Tripoli cemetery once contained the graves of over one hundred mainly Christians who served at the European embassies in Tripoli, but most of them, more than half, have been repatriated or reburied elsewhere. If the cemetery was not meant to be a permanent gravesite for anyone else, why should it be for the American Naval Heroes?

Most of the objections to repatriation raised in the report have been effectively answered, and the military should recognize that it is in everyone’s best interest, including the Navy, that these remains be rescued and returned home and if positively identified, given a proper burial with full military honors.

Just as Commodore Preble, Steven Decatur and the prisoners of the USS Philadelphia were honored on their return home from the Barbary Wars, the remains of John Paul Jones were retrieved from under a Paris street, and the men of the Henley were recovered, identified and reburied, it is now time for the men of the Intrepid to end their duty in Tripoli and return home to a the hero’s welcome and the proper burial they deserve.

At a time when the US military could use some good public relations, the return of the remains of these men can be conducted publicly with a formal repatriation ceremony held on the deck of the namesake USS Intrepid in New York Harbor and the men escorted  by veterans to their final and permanent  resting place. That ceremony would call attention to our longstanding mutual history with Libya, honor the men who have died in combat in every war, focus a spotlight on the men and women of the POW/MP Office who routinely repatriate the honored dead from their wayward graves abroad, and give veterans and the rank and file, especially those in special operations, something to be proud of being a part of.

Now is the time, after two hundred years, to bring the remains of the men of the Intrepid home. It’s a mission that can and should be done before it is too late. Just do it.