William Eaton (soldier)

For other people named William Eaton, see William Eaton (disambiguation).

William Eaton.

William Eaton (23 February 1764 – 1 June 1811) was a United States Army officer, involved with the First Barbary War. He supported Tripoli's Pasha Yussif Karamanli's brother (Hamet Karamanli) to win the battle. The WWII destroyer USS Eaton (DD-510) was named after him.

Eaton was born in Woodstock, Connecticut. He joined the Continental Army in 1780 and served until 1783, attaining the rank of sergeant. In 1790, he graduated from Dartmouth College. In 1792 he accepted a captain's commission in the Legion of the United States, which he held until July 11, 1797, when he was appointed U.S. Consul at Tunis [1].

Tunis (1799-1804)

During the afternoon of Oct 11, 1800, William Eaton agreed to guarantee a six month loan for the release of captive Anna Maria Porcile who was to become a slave if no ransom was given. If at the end of the six months' Count Porcile/Count of Sant-Antioco of Settimo San Pietro, Sardinia, could not make payment, then Eaton was responsible to do so. However Eaton had no substantial funds of his own. So in June 1801 Eaton was told to pay the ransom. Which Eaton paid by borrowing the money from a Tunisian merchant named Unis ben Unis.

In Feb of 1803, Commodore Richard Morris and Captain John Rodgers arrived in Tunis with three heavily armed frigates. However, despite the presence of the fleet, Commodore Morris was arrested for Eaton's debt. The Commodore agreed to pay the debt which had ballooned to $22,000 and to replace Eaton. Eaton departed with the fleet on Mar 10, 1803 on the USS Chesapeake. Morris stated in his report: "Eaton appeared to be a man of lively imagination, rash, credulous. And by no means possessed of sound judgement." However, Eaton's observations of the Barbary ruler proved correct when on October 31, 1803, the USS Philadelphia (1799) was captured after it ran aground, and its crew made slaves or ransomed.

The Barbary Regencies

On 26 May 1804, because of his experience in the North African region, he was appointed Navy agent for the Barbary Regencies. He sailed to Alexandria, Egypt, where the former pasha of Tripoli, Hamet Karamanli, was rumored to be living. On landing, he learned that Hamet had fled Alexandria into the interior, where he'd taken up with a Mameluke rebel army in Minyeh, about 60 miles north of Cairo. Eaton's entire plan rested on forming an alliance with Hamet and marching with him on Tripoli so he set off to find the former pasha.

Egypt was suffering from a chaotic civil war following the French and British invasions. But Eaton managed to co-opt two armed boats and, with a handful of volunteers, sail up the Nile to Cairo. The local regent provided Hamet a pass through enemy lines and, after a series of exchanged letters and delays, the two united at Damanhur where they formed an official alliance.

From there, he established a group of about 20 Christian (eight of which were US Marines) and 100 Muslim mercenaries to begin the takeover of Tripoli starting with Derna. He managed to trek with a small detachment of Marines led by Presley O'Bannon and his mercenary force over 500 miles while stopping arguments, threats, and mutinies which originated from difference of opinion between his European and Arab soldiers, as well as the withholding of rations by the Christians at one point. Supported at sea by Isaac Hull, Captain of the USS Argus, in an effective "combined operation," Eaton led the attack in the Battle of Derna on 27 April 1805. The town's capture, and the threat of further advance on Tripoli, were strong influences toward peace, negotiated in June 1805 by Tobias Lear and Commodore John Rodgers with the Pasha of Tripoli.

Eaton and Hamet were disappointed by the treaty and the mercenaries and Marines were angry when they learned that Eaton had been forced to abandon the plan to capture Tripoli. Hamet was exiled to Syracuse.

General Eaton died in Brimfield, Massachusetts, 1 June 1811.

Further reading

• London, Joshua E. Victory in Tripoli: How America's War with the Barbary Pirates Established the U.S. Navy and Shaped a Nation. New Jersey: John Wiley & Sons, Inc., 2005. ISBN 0-471-44415-4
• Smethurst, David. Tripoli: The United States' First War on Terror. New York: Presidio Press, 2006. ISBN 978-0891418597
• Wheelan, Joseph. Jefferson's War: America's First War on Terror, 1801–1805. New York: Carroll & Graf, 2003. ISBN 0-7867-1232-5.
• Zacks, Richard. The Pirate Coast: Thomas Jefferson, the First Marines, and the Secret Mission of 1805. New York: Hyperion, 2005. ISBN 1-4013-0003-0.

This article incorporates text from the public domain Dictionary of American Naval Fighting Ships.