Existing comment:
A Flag for Fort McHenry:
The Star-Spangled Banner flag of Francis Scott Key's song was fittingly born amidst the Baltimoreans' preparations to defend the city.
Major George Armistead, commander at Fort McHenry, commissioned the flag a year before the British attack. Armistead was a seasoned soldier who had participated in the American capture of Fort George on the Niagara River in 1813. Aware of Fort McHenry's vital strategic and symbolic importance, he asked for a flag so large "that the British will have no difficulty in seeing it from a distance."
On August 19, 1813 a local seamstress, Mary Young Pickersgill, received the commission to make an "American ensign" measuring 30 x 42 feet and using "finest quality bunting." It was a major undertaking, for which Mary was assisted by her daughter, nieces, and possibly an enslaved servant. The flag was so large they had to assemble it on the floor of a brewery near Mary's workshop. Her total fee of $574.44 was a very large sum of money at the time and included the production of a smaller flag, which may have been the "storm flag" flown during the night of the British bombardment in 1814. |