Battle of Derna

27 April 1805, Derna, Cyrenaica

American victory; Derna taken

William Eaton, the former American consul at Tunis, planned to put the pasha's exiled brother Hamet on the throne. With eight US Marines under Lieutenant Presley O'Bannon and some 500 Greek, Arab and other mercenaries, he marched 500 miles across the desert from Alexandria and met three American warships at Bomba with supplies. On 27 April, while Argus, Hornet and Nautilus bombarded the shore batteries, Eaton's force stormed Derna; O'Bannon raised the American flag over the fort, and the town was held against counter-attacks for weeks. The threat helped bring the pasha to make peace in June, and the march is remembered in the Marines' hymn: "to the shores of Tripoli".