News soon reached Stephen of the loss of his brother and away he went in vengeful pursuit of the slayer of James. He overhauled the boat and led his men aboard in a fierce charge. Reuben was at his heels. The Moorish captain was a powerful brute; he had all the weapons a man could carry, and he was as desperate as a treed wildcat.
Stephen Decatur, however, went at his huge foe in a way that meant death either to the Moor or himself. The infidel met Decatur's rush with his pike, while Decatur depended on his sword. Reuben James was busy disposing of an infidel. Before he tackled another, he looked to see what headway the captain was making. Imagine how taken aback he was to see Decatur staggering back from a pike stab in the breast. He slashed his way towards his leader, but, as luck would have it, a shot lodged in his right hand and a moment later a jab from a spear disabled his left arm.
Meanwhile Decatur, nothing daunted by his wound, had brought his sword into play. The blade, meeting a savage blow from the pike, broke off at the hilt. Reuben saw Decatur dart in past the Moor's weapon, and grapple with him. An Arab sneaked up in the captain's rear and aimed a blow at his head. Reuben then threw his own disabled body between Decatur and his second foe. The blow landed on his head, and he sank to the deck crippled and half senseless. He could see Decatur and the Moorish captain fall to the deck, with the infidel on top. The Moor had one arm free and with it he drew a knife. Reuben closed his eyes. Then he heard a shot and opened them again. In Decatur's hand was a smoking pistol, and the slayer of his brother lay dead at the captain's feet.
From the rest of the letter I gathered facts that gave me a fair idea of the progress of the campaign.
The third boat in Decatur's division was commanded by John Trippe, sailing master. Trippe killed a Moorish captain in much the same manner as Decatur slew his adversary. As he led his men across the side of a Tripolitan vessel, his own boat was swept away from the side before all of his party could board. Thus Trippe, with another officer and nine men, was left to face thirty-six infidels. Trippe determined, as his one hope of victory, to kill the captain, a man of great height and strength. He came as near to death as did Decatur, receiving eleven wounds. At last, when the Moor had forced him down so that he was fighting with one knee on deck, he caught his foe off guard and stabbed him to death with a pike. Fourteen of the infidels had been slain by the Americans and the remaining twenty-two now surrendered. None of the Americans were killed. Richard Somers, who commanded the other three boats, was prevented from following Decatur along the inside route he took, yet he found means to capture three Moorish gunboats and to sink three others.
Reuben James passes out of my story here, but it is due him that I skip several years and tell how when doctors were about to amputate, because an old wound had diseased a bone in his leg, he exclaimed: "Doctor, you are the captain, Sir. Fire away; but I don't think it is shipshape to put me under jury masts when I have just come into harbor."
From other correspondence we learned how Commodore Preble, while his gunboats were thus engaged, sailed into the harbor on board the Constitution, with Captain Chauncey in command, and bombarded the forts. The ship was excellently handled. Her crew tacked and made sail under the guns of the enemy with as much coolness and skill as if there were no guns trained on them. Several times the Constitution passed within three cables' length of the batteries on shore, and silenced them. But the moment the frigate passed on, the silenced batteries were manned again. The monarch had thousands of soldiers at his command and continued to drive fresh gunners to the batteries.
On another day a Tripolitan fleet of five gunboats and two galleys came out to attempt to capture or destroy certain gunboats of the American fleet lying near the harbor. Commodore Preble signaled to the brigs and schooners under his command to meet the raiders, and these ships poured such a hot fire upon the Moslem flotilla that they were forced to turn back.
The grape-shot fired by the Americans during these engagements swept the enemy's decks of men, and worried the gunmen on shore so badly that it spoiled their aim, so that the Constitution was but slightly damaged, and had none killed and only one man wounded.