16 February 1804 A.D. LT Stephen Decatur, USN, Leads Expeditionary Forces into Tripoli, Libya
16 February 1804 A.D. LT Stephen Decatur, USN, Leads Expeditionary Forces into Tripoli, Libya Editors. “ 1804 – During the First Barbary War, U.S. Lieutenant Stephen Decatur leads a military mission that famed British Admiral Horatio Nelson calls the “most daring act of the age.” History.com. N.d. https://thisdayinusmilhist.wordpress.com/2014/02/16/february-16/ . Accessed 14 Feb 2015. 1804 – During the First Barbary War, U.S. Lieutenant Stephen Decatur leads a military mission that famed British Admiral Horatio Nelson calls the “most daring act of the age.” In June 1801, President Thomas Jefferson ordered U.S. Navy vessels to the Mediterranean Sea in protest of continuing raids against U.S. ships by pirates from the Barbary states–Morocco, Algeria, Tunis, and Tripolitania. American sailors were often abducted along with the captured booty and ransomed back to the United States at an exorbitant price. After two years of minor confrontations, sustained action began in...