The Barbary Wars of early 1800s, “America’s Forgotten War” as many people call the two separate wars against the Barbary States in North Africa, was completely forgotten by the American public a few decades after they ended. Along with these forgotten wars were the valiant American soldiers who fought in them, including Seth Lesser, a crew at the United States Navy frigate USS Philadelphia.

Seth Lesser was born near the Chesapeake Bay in Calvert County, Maryland on December 22, 1769. Seth rooted from a family of sailors that settled near the coastline of the Bay decades before he was born. When he turned 17, he joined the United States Navy.

Seth Lesser began as a quartermaster’s mate for the USS Constellation, one of the six frigates mandated by the Naval Act of 1794, and saw service near the island of Nevis under the command of Thomas Truxun during the Franco-American War of 1798. Mr Lesser was then transferred to USS Chesapeake in 1780 and shortly after, received order to serve at USS Philadelphia with the rank of Boatswain in the First Barbary War in Tripoli.

When the frigate sunk in 1803, Seth Lesser along with the frigate’s crewmen, officers and commander were imprisoned and were later turned into slaves of Yusuf Karamanli, the Pasha of Tripoli. What became of Mr Lesser and his men, no one ever knew. The USS Philadelphia, meanwhile, was recaptured and burned by Commodore Stephen Decatur, Jr.’s men to prevent it from being used by the Pasha’s army.