TRIPOLI COLUMN
This was the first and only monument that stood in Washington for a period of 26 years. It was erected in memory of the heroes that fell before Tripoli in 1804. It had been made at the expense of officers of the Navy and was brought from Italy in the U. S. S. Constitution to the navy yard, where it was erected in 1808 under the direction of Benjamin H. Latrobe, Architect of the Capitol. Afterwards, when in 1814 the navy yard was burned by the British, it was placed at the west side of the Capitol. During the reconstruction and enlargement of the Capitol to its present size it was removed.
In November, 1860, it was taken to the United States Naval Academy at Annapolis, where it stands to-day.
The chief motif of the monument is an artistically designed, simple Doric column, surmounted by an eagle. It was procured through the efforts of Admiral Porter, who commissioned a noted Italian sculptor of the time, Micali, of Leghorn, to execute the monument.
TRIPOLI COLUMN, AT ANNAPOLIS, MD.