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Marines celebrate 241st birthday; locals also

By DAVID LOUIS TODAY’S NEWS-HERALD 13 hrs ago

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Following the American Revolution, the Marines were briefly disbanded, but in July 1798 a force of eight Marines under the command of Lt. Presley O’Bannon was sent into action against Barbary pirates, a group of North African corsairs that had been raiding American merchant ships and demanding costly ransoms, Amerman said.

“They were taking our commercial ships and impressing our merchant sailors into service, and it was decided that, that needed to stop,” she said. “To do that you had to have a Navy and having a Navy you had to have Marines.”

When O’Bannon and his small contingent arrived in Egypt they formed a much larger mercenary army to overthrow the Barbary ruler in Tripoli. With their soldiers-for-hire in tow, the Marines embarked on a grueling 50-day march across the desert to Derna in modern day Libya.

With the help of a bombardment from U.S. Naval ships, the Marines seized the city and its fortifications on April 27, 1798.

That victory was the first ever battle fought by the United States on foreign soil. The Derna campaign has since been enshrined in the Marines’ Hymn with the famous line “to the shores of Tripoli.