Existing comment:
The Defense of Fort McHenry:
Fort McHenry stood between the British and their intended destruction of Baltimore. If they took the fort, the city would fall.
The fort's location and heavy guns meant it guarded the entrance to the city harbor up the Northwest Branch of the Patapsco River. Ships sunk across this entrance helped blocked access, and they were supporting gun batteries at other nearby forts. Under the command of Major George Armistead, Fort McHenry was defended by over 1,000 men, including many citizens of Baltimore.
British bomb and rocket ships under Admiral Cochrane began shelling Fort McHenry at 6am on September 13, 1814. They fired over 1,500 bombs and rockets during a 25-hour period, 400 of which landed near or in the fort.
Despite the ferocity of the bombardment, only four American defenders were killed.
Early on September 14, Cochrane launched an attack up a different branch of the river, the Ferry Branch, hoping to draw off American forces facing the British troops outside the city. When this failed under heavy American return fire, British hopes faded.
Around dawn, the British withdrew American soldiers at Fort McHenry took down their small "storm flag" and hoisted the larger flag that Francis Scott Key saw and immortalized as "The Star-Spangled Banner." Through Key's stirring words, the resolve shown in this successful defense of homeland came to symbolize a national spirit.
"Between their loved home and the war's desolation!"
-- Francis Scott Key, "The Star-Spangled Banner," 1814 |