I can't believe that I forgot William Eaton!!!

While the Europeans were just paying tribute to the Barbary Coast pirates the US had Him and 8 marines recruit=a force of 200 christian and 300 muslim mercs in Alexandria and try to overthow the sultanate of tripoli and replace him with his pansy older brother. They marched 500 milies across the sahara desert to the town of Derne and attacked it. They defeated a force of over 4,000 with only a few dozen casualties. Unfortunately Jefferson had to be a pansy and use "diplomacy" with the Sultanate so Eaton had to hop on a ship and return to the US. He may have been an arrogant pompous *** but he makes my list of the top 10 most bad*** commanders of all time.

The part of the marine anthem that goes "to the shores of tripoli" refers to this little expedition.