It was carved in Livorno, Italy[2] in 1806 and brought to the United States on board the famous 1797 frigate USS Constitution ("Old Ironsides").

[1] From its original installation in the Washington Navy Yard at the new national capital of Washington, D.C. in 1808, it was later moved to the west front terrace of the United States Capitol facing the National Mall in 1831, and finally to the United States Naval Academy campus in Annapolis, Maryland in 1860.

[2] The white marble sculpture consists of a thirty foot high column topped by an eagle and mounted on an elaborate base adorned with allegorical figures representing Glory, Fame, History, and Commerce.

The first two paragraphs of the plaque are[1] At the conclusion of the First Barbary War (1801–1805), Captain David Porter, USN assumed the task of creating a suitable monument for the fallen officers.

[2] Completed in 1806, it was shipped across the Atlantic Ocean to Newport, Rhode Island on board the USS Constitution (famous frigate "Old Ironsides"), and then shipped south to the newly laid out national capital of Washington, D.C. After awaiting funds for assembly and erection, the structure was finally placed at the Washington Navy Yard on the banks of the Eastern Branch (now the Anacostia River) of the Potomac River, as the Naval Monument.

In 1831, it was moved to the United States Capitol on the west front facing the National Mall,[2] much to the dissatisfaction of Porter, who found it had "been placed in a small circular pond of dirty fresh water—not large enough for a duck puddle—to represent the Mediterranean Sea.