See Also: Decatur, Stephen(encyclopedia)
Decatur(encyclopedia)
Decatur Airport(tourism)
Eighter from Decatur - Craps(gambling)
Emmett, Daniel Decatur(encyclopedia)
Decatur Memorial Hospital(health)
Decatur County Hospital(health)
Stephen II(encyclopedia)
Stephen I(encyclopedia)
Stephen(encyclopedia)

Decatur, Stephen (sh)




born Jan. 5, 1779, Sinepuxent, Md., U.S.
died March 22, 1820, Bladensburg, Md.

U.S. naval officer.

He entered the navy in 1798. In the Tripolitan War, he led a daring expedition into the harbour of Tripoli to burn a captured U.S. ship. In the War of 1812 he commanded the USS United States and captured the British ship Macedonian. In 1815 he commanded a squadron in the Mediterranean that forced a peace with the Barbary states on U.S. terms. At a banquet on his return he gave a toast that included the words "Our country, right or wrong." In the same year he was made a navy commissioner, an office he held until he was killed in a duel.


Stephen Decatur, detail from an engraving by Henry Meyer after a portrait by John Wesley Jarvis.

U.S. Navy photo