Existing comment:
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 |