Birthplace of Lt. Presley Neville O’Bannon, USMC
Just north stood the home of William and Ann (Neville) O’Bannon, where their son, Lt. Presley Neville O’Bannon, was born about 1776. O’Bannon, a Marine, was the first American to command U.S. forces on foreign soil and the first to raise the American flag over a fortress in the Old World. His success at the Battle of Derne, Tripoli (present day Libya) on 27 Apr. 1805, ended a four-year war against the Tripoli pirates, and inspired the phrase “to the shores of Tripoli” in the Marine Corps Hymn. He settled in Kentucky about 1807, served in its legislature, and died in 1850.
Marker is on Grove Lane (Virginia Route 185), on the right when traveling west.
Courtesy hmdb.org
