Battle of Baltimore
In the
Battle of Baltimore, one of the turning points in the
War of 1812, American forces warded off a combined British land and sea invasion of the busy port city of
Baltimore.The American defense of Baltimore's
Fort McHenry in this battle inspired
Francis Scott Key to compose the poem which would become the national anthem of the United States,
The Star Spangled Banner.
On August 24,
1814 the British army had overrun confused American defenders at the
Battle of Bladensburg and marched into the nation's capital of
Washington, D.C.. After
burning and looting major public buildings there and forcing President James Madison to flee to
Brookeville, Maryland, they turned their attention north to Baltimore, where they hoped to strike a knockout blow against the demoralized Americans. Baltimore was not only a busy port, but was thought by the British to harbor many of the privateers who were raiding British shipping. The British planned a combined operation, with
Major General Robert Ross launching a land attack at North Point, and Vice Admiral
Alexander Cochrane laying siege to Fort McHenry, which defended the harbor.
The British army of 5000 landed as planned, marched toward Baltimore, and first met heavy resistance at the
Battle of North Point, where Ross was mortally wounded on
September 12. Col. Arthur Brooke took over the command, pushed the American defenders back, and advanced to within two miles of the city. The city's defenses were under the command of
Major General Samuel Smith, an officer of
Maryland militia and also a United States Senator. Baltimore had been well fortified, with excellent supplies and some 15,000 troops. Brooke knew that the success of his attack depended upon receiving reinforcements and assistance from the British Navy. He therefore halted his advance and awaited the results of the sea campaign.
At
Fort McHenry, some 1000 soldiers under the command of Major
George Armistead awaited the British naval bombardment. Their defense was augmented by the sinking of a line of American merchant ships at the adjacent entrance to Baltimore Harbor in order to further thwart the passage of British ships. The attack began on the morning of
September 13, as the British fleet of some nineteen ships began pounding the fort with rockets (from
rocket vessel Erebus) and mortar shells (from
bomb vessels
Terror,
Volcano,
Meteor,
Devastation, and
Aetna). After an initial exchange of fire, the British fleet withdrew just beyond the 1 1/2 mile range of Fort McHenry's cannons, and continued to bombard the Americans for the next 25 hours.
After nightfall, Cochrane ordered a landing to be made by small boats to the shore just west of the fort, away from the harbor opening on which the fort's defense was concentrated. He hoped that the landing party might slip past Fort McHenry and draw Smith's army away from the main British land assault on the city's eastern border. Operating in darkness and in foul weather, this diversionary attack failed. On the morning of
September 14, the oversized
American flag, which had been made the year before by local flagmaker
Mary Pickersgill, flew over Fort McHenry, and Cochrane and Brooke knew that victory had eluded them.
In the aftermath of the battle American lawyer
Francis Scott Key, who watched the proceedings from a truce ship in the Patapsco River, was inspired to write the poem which eventually would become the national anthem of the United States, "
The Star-Spangled Banner."Meanwhile Col. Brooke's troops withdrew, and Admiral Cochrane's fleet sailed off to regroup before his next assault on America at the
Battle of New Orleans. Armistead was soon promoted, to Lt. Colonel. Much weakened by the arduous preparations for the battle, he died at age 38, only three years after the battle.
The battle is commemorated in the
Fort McHenry National Monument and Historic Shrine*
History of Brookeville
