When Stephen Decatur received his commission to captain after the firing of the Philadelphia, he had little time to bask in glory. The spring of 1804 saw the bloody continuation of the Tripolitan Wars, and the bashaw of Tripoli was not about to give up Mediterranean piracy and forced tributes without a battle. And battle was precisely what the U.S. Navy had in store for him. Before the merciless summer sun surrendered to an arid Barbary autumn, Captain Stephen Decatur would lead one of the most brilliant gunboat attacks ever logged in the annals of naval history.