18 All But Forgotten American War Heroes

18 All But Forgotten American War Heroes

Larry Holzwarth - October 15, 2018

18 All But Forgotten American War Heroes
Edward Preble trained most of the young officers who gave the United States Navy its early reputation for professionalism and valor. USNA

4. Edward Preble and his boys during the First Barbary War

Edward Preble served in the Continental Navy during the Revolutionary War, was captured and spent time in a prison ship, and eventually was released to serve in the Massachusetts Navy. Following the war he sailed on merchant ships until commissioned in the United States Navy when it was formed in the late 1790s. In 1800 he commanded USS Essex during that ship’s cruise to the Pacific, the first by an American man-o-war to those waters. In 1803, with the rank of Commodore, he sailed to the Mediterranean in USS Constitution during the First Barbary War, to take command on that station. Preble forced a peace treaty with Morocco and then sailed to Tripoli, while there completing his greatest contribution to the United States Navy.

Among the young officers he trained there – they became known as Preble’s boys – were Isaac Hull, who commanded Constitution when it defeated HMS Guerierre in 1812; James Lawrence, who gave the Navy the motto “Don’t give up the ship”; Stephen Decatur, whose heroic exploits made him a legend in his lifetime; Thomas MacDonough, who defeated the British at the crucial battle of Lake Champlain in 1814; David Porter, whose epic cruise in Essex severely damaged the British whaling industry; Oliver Hazard Perry, who won the Battle of Lake Erie; and several others. Preble instilled the fighting spirit and professionalism which became the hallmark of the US Navy, and the beginnings of most of its most cherished traditions. He has a legitimate claim of being the true Father of the United States Navy, but beyond naval tradition he is virtually unknown today.

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