Existing comment:
The Battle for Baltimore:
On the morning of September 12, 1814, 5,000 British troops landed at North Point. That afternoon, they engaged Brigadier General John Stricker's Third Brigade of Maryland Militia at the Battle of North Point. Stricker pulled his 3,000 men back to the American lines defending the city. The next day, 16 British warships equipped with long range 13-inch sea mortars and 32-pound Congreve rockets began a 25 hour naval bombardment of Fort McHenry. These weapons posed the greatest thread to Baltimore. An eye-witness wrote, "to this scene of devastation, the rain fell in torrents -- the thunder broke in mighty peals after each successive flash of lighting." On the morning of September 14th, the the [sic] British army withdrew from Baltimore. The naval and land attack had failed. |