MD -- Fort McHenry Natl Monument -- Pictures From Inside Fort:
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Copyrights: All pictures were taken by amateur photographer Bruce Guthrie (me!) who retains copyright on them. Free for non-commercial use with attribution. See the [Creative Commons] definition of what this means. "Photos (c) Bruce Guthrie" is fine for attribution. (Commercial use folks including AI scrapers can of course contact me.) Feel free to use in publications and pages with attribution but you don't have permission to sell the photos themselves. A free copy of any printed publication using any photographs is requested. Descriptive text, if any, is from a mixture of sources, quite frequently from signs at the location or from official web sites; copyrights, if any, are retained by their original owners.
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FTMCHI_161014_075.JPG: Dawn's Early Light
9:00am, September 14, 1814
"The enemy has been severely drubbed..."
-- Commodore John Rodgers, US Navy, 1814
At 7:30am on September 14, 1814, after 25 hours of shelling, the bomb ship HMS Volcano fires the last bursting bomb at Fort McHenry. As the silent minutes tick by and the eastern horizon brightens, the exhausted, wet defenders of Fort McHenry gaze down river and wonder if the British will resume the attack.
In Baltimore, fearful citizens wonder too.
With the British in view, the Americans assemble on the parade ground for morning colors while the flash of white sails two miles away reveals the British fleet withdrawing.
At 9:00am, the garrison hoists the Star-Spangled Banner over the ramparts as the morning salute gun fires and 1,000 defenders cheer the improbable victory.
"We all appeared in full view of a formidable and mortified enemy, who calculated upon our surrender in 20 minutes after the commencement of the action..."
-- Private Isaac Monroe, Baltimore Fencibles, 1814
FTMCHI_161014_085.JPG: In Full Glory Reflected
9:00 a.m., September 14, 1814
The bombardment has ended; the battle is over. As the rain clouds pass and the rays of the sun shine on the fort, the garrison, tired and relieved, stands upon the parade ground. All eyes stare at the large 30 x 42-foot American flag. Carefully kept dry throughout the stormy night, it is now hoisted as a special act of defiance and symbol of perseverance.
Seeing this flag from miles away inspires Francis Scott Key to write "The Star Spangled Banner".
"At this time the morning gun was fired, the flag hoisted, and Yankee Doodle played..."
-- Private Isaac Munroe Baltimore Fencibles, 1814.
FTMCHI_161014_103.JPG: Another Day on Duty... 1814:
Two soldiers have finished guard duty and should be cleaning their weapons. Instead, they talk to a servant, enslaved to one of the militia officers. A sergeant overhears their conversation and prepares to rebuke them for talking instead of working.
Some rhythms of the Army never change. Cleaning weapons, enduring stern sergeants, and serving on guard duty were part of daily life. During the summer of 1814 soldiers fought boredom and routine while preparing for an attack from the British.
Fort McHenry has changed over time. The earthen walls were reinforced with granite blocks in 1829 and a brick wall was added to shore up the parapets.
FTMCHI_161014_117.JPG: Direct Hits
2:00pm September 13, 1814
Two men died on this ground. During the afternoon of the bombardment the men on this bastion felt helpless. The mortars on the British bomb ships could fire their 200-pound shells two miles (half way to the modern bridge) while the fort's cannons could only reach a mile and a half. By 2:00pm, the defenders had endured heavy rain showers and the British bombardment for eight hours.
Soaring through the overcast sky, a shell exploded on this spot -- killing Lieutenant Levi Claggett, wounding four others and dismounting a cannon. Private Isaac Munroe who stood here wrote what happened seconds later:
"Sergeant Clemm, a young man... was killed by my side; a bomb bursting over our heads a piece the size of a dollar, two inches thick, passed through his body in a diagonal direction from his navel, and went into the ground upwards of two feet."
Total casualties for the battle: 4 killed, 25 wounded.
FTMCHI_161014_149.JPG: The Great Guns of the Fort... The Rodman Cannons
The guns in front of you are the heaviest cannons ever mounted at Fort McHenry. The largest fired exploding projectiles weighing 440 pounds. Mass-produced they represent the "coming of age" of America's iron industry. A special process developed by Thomas J. Rodman, enabled them to cool from the inside out giving them durability and their distinctive bottle-shaped appearance.
Installed in 1866, the Army improved the Rodman Guns with rifling (grooved barrel) a decade later. The Hydraulic cylinder and bumpers coated with rubber were added in 1888. Obsolete not long after they were installed, they were fired only for ceremonies such as the Fourth of July and Defender's Day.
FTMCHI_161014_300.JPG: The flag comes down
FTMCHI_161014_323.JPG: And the replacement flag goes up at the same time
AAA "Gem": AAA considers this location to be a "must see" point of interest. To see pictures of other areas that AAA considers to be Gems, click here.
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I still have them though. If you want me to email them to you, please send an email to guthrie.bruce@gmail.com
and I can email them to you, or, depending on the number of images, just repost the page again will the full-sized images.
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2016 photos: Equipment this year: I continued to use my Fuji XS-1 cameras but, depending on the event, I also used a Nikon D7000.
Seven relatively short trips this year:
two Civil War Trust conference (Gettysburg, PA and West Point, NY, with a side-trip to New York City),
my 11th consecutive San Diego Comic-Con trip (including sites in Utah, Nevada, and California),
a quick trip to Michigan for Uncle Wayne's funeral,
two additional trips to New York City, and
a Civil Rights site trip to Alabama during the November elections. Being in places where people died to preserve the rights of minority voters made the Trumputin election even more depressing.
Number of photos taken this year: just over 610,000.
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