Barrett Eastman, a Chicago journalist, was born in Chicago, January
25, 1869.
“The destruction of the _Philadelphia_, which Lord Nelson, then
commanding the British blockading fleet off Toulon, called ‘the most
bold and daring act of the age,’ was effected on the night of February
9, 1804. In the party, numbering but seventy-five officers and men all
told, were Stephen Decatur, Jr., James Lawrence, Joseph Bainbridge,
Thomas Macdonough, and many others who rose to distinction.”--B. E.
Stephen Decatur, who commanded the expedition against the
_Philadelphia_, was of French descent, and was born in Sinnepuxent,
Maryland, January 5, 1779. He first saw service against the French, was
active in the war of 1812, and chastised the Algerines in 1815. He was
killed in a duel by Commodore James Barron on March 22, 1820.