RC (DNA: RG 233, PM, 8th Cong., 2d sess.); endorsed by a House clerk. PoC (DNA: RG 46, LPPM, 8th Cong., 2d sess.); endorsed by a Senate clerk. FC (DLC); in TJ’s hand, signed, dated 21 Feb. Notation in SJL: “messsage. Preble’s letter.” Enclosure: Edward Preble to Robert Smith, from Malta on 18 Sep. 1804, a lengthy letter detailing the actions undertaken by the Mediterranean squadron against Tripoli between July and September 1804; on 14 July the frigate Constitution rendezvoused at Syracuse with the schooners Nautilus and Enterprize and six gunboats and two bomb vessels loaned by the king of Naples; the fleet sailed from Syracuse to Malta, and then to Tripoli by 25 July, where the brigs Siren, Argus, and Scourge and the schooner Vixen were added to Preble’s fleet; Preble describes the preparations for an attack on Tripoli harbor, defended by a city wall and fortifications mounting 115 heavy cannon, 25,000 “Arabs and Turks,” a brig, two schooners, two galleys, and nineteen gunboats; the navy’s attack on 3 Aug. resulted in three Tripolitan gunboats captured as well as three gunboats sunk in the harbor, along with numerous casualties, while the U.S. Navy suffered the death of Lieutenant James Decatur and the wounding of 13 seamen and marines; Preble details a second attack of 7 Aug., during which the bomb vessels lobbed 48 shells into the city while the other vessels silenced a battery; the fleet was resupplied from 9 to 22 Aug.; an attack on the night of 24-25 Aug. by the bomb vessels against the city yielded uncertain results; an attack on the night of 28-29 Aug. resulted in the silencing of the “castle and two of the batteries,” the sinking of a “large Tunisian galliot,” and the damaging of several Tripolitan galleys and gunboats, as well as a Spanish vessel, while the U.S. Navy only suffered four casualties and minor damage to its vessels; Preble passes along information from the captain of a Spanish poleacre on 2 Sep. that the recent bombardment “had made great havoc and destruction in the city, and among the shipping, and that a vast number of people have been killed”; Preble describes the final attack on 3 Sep., during which the navy again engaged the Tripolitan fleet and fortifications; the fire ship Intrepid was on the night of 4 Sep. lost with all hands and “one hundred barrels of powder, and one hundred and fifty fixed shells” during an attempt to “destroy the enemy’s shipping, and shatter the Bashaw’s castle and town”; most of the fleet returned to Syracuse on 5 Sep.; on 10 Sep. the frigates President and Constellation, under the command of Commodore Samuel Barron, rendezvoused with Preble’s fleet and command of the squadron transferred to Barron; Preble escorted to Malta two vessels captured on their way to Tripoli with wheat; Preble has given command of the Constitution to Captain Stephen Decatur and intends to return to the United States in the frigate John Adams (Tr in DNA: RG 233, PM, 8th Cong., 2d sess.; Tr in DNA: RG 46, LPPM, 8th Cong., 2d sess.; also printed in ASP description begins American State Papers: Documents, Legislative and Executive, of the Congress of the United States, Washington, D.C., 1832-61, 38 vols. description ends , Naval Affairs, 1:133-8).