William Eaton, an American soldier, born in Woodstock, Conn., Feb. 23, 1764, died in Brimfield, Mass., June 1, 1811. At the age of 16 he enlisted in the revolutionary army, from which he was discharged in 1783. In 1790 he graduated at Dartmouth college, and two years later received a captain's commission in the army. In the summer of 1797 he was appointed American consul at Tunis, arrived there in March, 1799, and for several years was engaged in a series of negotiations and altercations with the bey, having reference to the annual payment of tribute money. In this he acted with a boldness and tact which secured to the commerce of his country an immunity from the attacks of Tunisian cruisers. In 1803 he returned to the United States, received the appointment of navy agent of the United States for the Barbary states, and accompanied the American fleet to the Mediterranean in the summer of 1804. Learning that Hamet Cara-melli, rightful bey of Tripoli, with which the United States were then at war, had taken refuge in Egypt, he sought him out, and in the early part of 1805 assisted him in assembling a force of about 500 men, four fifths of whom were Arabs, the remainder being Christian ad-venturers, principally Greeks, with nine Americans. Having secured the cooperation of the American fleet, the little army, under the command of Eaton, took up its march across the Libyan desert for Derne, the capital of the richest province of Tripoli, a distance of about 000 miles.

On several occasions the mutinous disposition of the Arab sheiks and the irresolution of Hamet imperilled the safety of the handful of Christians belonging to the expedition; but the forces were brought in safety to Bomba, on the coast, where the American ships Argus and Hornet were in waiting. On April 27, with the assistance of the ships of war, Eaton attacked and carried Derne after a furious assault, in which he was wounded. A few days later an army of several thousand Tripolitans, despatched by the reigning bey, approached the town, and for several weeks occasional sharp skirmishes took place between the opposing forces, Eaton's army having meanwhile been considerably augmented. On June 11 a general engagement was fought, and the enemy was totally routed and driven back to the mountains. At this moment, when Eaton was preparing by a rapid march to fall upon Tripoli, reinstate Hamet on the throne, and release the American captives detained there without ransom, intelligence arrived that a peace had been concluded by Col. Tobias Lear, the American consul general at Algiers, one of the conditions of which was that $60,000 should be paid the bey for the ransom of the Americans. Eaton soon after returned to the United States, where he received many marks of popular favor, the legislature of Massachusetts voting him 10,000 acres of land.

The remainder of his life was passed in Brim field, Mass., which town he at one time represented in the state legislature. A memoir of him was published in Brookfield, Mass., in 1813; and another, by C. C. Felton, is contained in Sparks's "American Biography."