Star-Spangled Banner • Star-Spangled Banner 2018 • Baltimore & Vicinity

A few weeks after invading America’s capital city and leaving some of its buildings in ashes, British invaders set their sights on the busy seaport of Baltimore. Unlike the situation in Washington, however, Baltimore’s defenders were ready for a fight.

The British planned a two-fisted punch by land and sea, but enemy ground forces were dealt quick setbacks when a bloody battle delayed their progress and left their commander dead. The British sea assault didn’t fare much better — despite warships in the Patapsco River bombarding Baltimore’s Fort McHenry for 25 hours, the fort’s defenders never flinched.

Onboard a truce ship alongside the British fleet, American attorney Francis Scott Key spent an anxious night watching the spectacle. What Key saw by dawn’s early light inspired him to write lyrics for the quintessential song of American patriotism.

June 1812 – A Republican-inspired mob sacks the offices of a Baltimore anti-war newspaper as a prelude to even more vicious rioting a month later.

May 3, 1813 – Most of Havre de Grace is destroyed during a major British raid despite the heroism of John O’Neill.

August 19, 1813 – Mary Pickersgill delivers the finished Star-Spangled Banner to be flown above Fort McHenry.

September 11, 1814 – A hostile fleet of 30 ships is sighted from North Point, about 15 miles east of Baltimore. September 12, 1814 – Though a tactical victory for the British, the Battle of North Point proves costly in that it delays the land force’s advance on Baltimore and results in the death of Major General Robert Ross, “the Man who captured Washington, D.C.”

September 13–14, 1814 – Fort McHenry withstands an intense naval barrage during the Battle for Baltimore. After the bombardment ceases, a large, 30-by-42-foot garrison flag is raised triumphantly inside the fort.

September 17, 1814 – Printed versions of Francis Scott Key’s manuscript, “Defence of Fort M’Henry,” are circulated among the men at the fort and the citizens of Baltimore. Within weeks, 17 newspapers across the nation publish the piece under its new name, “The Star-Spangled Banner.”

Baltimore & Vicinity

Dressed in high-collared wool coats and plumed hats despite the oppressive summer heat, American infantrymen stood with their muzzle-loading muskets at the ready. Enemy troops had come ashore near present-day Fort Howard [1], intent on marching the 15 miles into Baltimore as part of a land assault that would be coordinated with a waterbased attack on the city.

British Army commander Major General Robert Ross, accompanied by almost 5,000 soldiers and sailors, expected to push right past the militia that stood in his way. The British did score a tactical victory during the ensuing Battle of North Point, eventually forcing the Americans to retreat. But the advancing force suffered a greater number of casualties: almost 350 dead, wounded and missing compared to 213 Americans. Among those killed in action was General Ross, shot from his horse in an area known as Godly Wood.

An annual Defenders’ Day at North Point celebration takes place in the Fort Howard area and features an encampment, flag-raising ceremony, re-enactment and various living-history displays.

North Point State Park [2], located a short distance from the fort, is known for its fishing and flat-water paddling in tidal waters. The park also has a visitor center containing history-themed exhibits.

In between Fort Howard and the state park, a simple house known as Todd’s Inheritance [3] served as a horse courier station reporting British movements to American troops. Though torched by the invaders, the house was soon rebuilt on its original foundation.

Two traces of the actual North Point battlefield still remain. One is the nineacre North Point State Battlefield, under development by the Maryland Department of Natural Resources and dotted with wayside markers. The other is Battle Acre Park [4], which was dedicated in 1839 and added a cannon-topped granite monument during the battle’s centennial celebration.

Though often overlooked at the intersection of Old North Point and Old Battle Grove roads, the modest Aquila Randall Obelisk was one of the first monuments ever erected on an American battlefield when it was placed here in 1817. Randall was a 24-year-old private who was the only member of his Maryland militia unit killed during the action.

As British troops marched northwest, they were confronted by a formidable American defensive position inside what is now Patterson Park [5]. A bronze and granite Star-Spangled Banner Centennial Monument was erected in 1914 with the support of funds collected by local students.

The climactic moment of a journey along the Star-Spangled Banner National Historic Trail is a trip deeper into Baltimore, which at the time was the third largest city in the United States and among the young nation’s most important seaports. Swift-sailing topsail schooners utilized as privateers to harass British vessels were built, manned and equipped in the neighborhood of Fells Point [6], which is now a National Register Historic District that stands out for its numerous pubs, shops and links to Baltimore’s proud maritime past.

Amid this “nest of pirates,” as the British termed the city, stood the star-shaped Fort McHenry [7]. Located on land now preserved as a national monument and historic shrine, the fort held up against a 25-hour naval bombardment — an achievement that contributed to the outcome of the war.

The Battle for Baltimore began on a gray and wet morning as the British fleet, positioned in the Patapsco River, unleashed a ferocious barrage on the fort. The 1,000 American defenders behind the ramparts held their ground and manned about 60 cannons that kept the enemy at bay.

At one point, 22 Royal Navy barges and an armed schooner attempted to maneuver up the Ferry Branch of the river, but they retreated in the face of six 18-pound cannons manned by about 50 veteran members of Commodore Joshua Barney’s U.S. Chesapeake Flotilla.

Francis Scott Key was a 35-year-old attorney who witnessed the main battle’s “rockets’ red glare” and “bombs bursting in air” from a unique vantage point — having just negotiated the release of a prisoner, Dr. William Beanes, Key was detained onboard a truce ship anchored alongside the British fleet.

By “dawn’s early light” the next morning, the British fury was spent and the bombardment was called off. The coordinated land and sea attack never materialized — Baltimore was safe.

As enemy ships withdrew, a 17-by-25- foot “storm flag” that had been flying at the fort was lowered and replaced by a grand garrison banner measuring 30 feet wide by 42 feet long. This is what inspired Key to put pen to paper. He wrote some lines on the back of an envelope during the bombardment and then completed his work later in a Baltimore hotel room. His covers 32 acres. Students can often be seen participating in sailing and rowing activities along the Severn River, and a popular annual croquet game is played between St. John’s and the U.S. Naval Academy.

The Maryland State House [18], situated a couple of blocks from campus, was completed in 1779 and is recognized as America’s oldest state capitol that has remained in continuous legislative use. During the War of 1812, spotters stationed in the structure’s wooden dome could observe British ship movements on the Chesapeake Bay.

Well-traversed waterways around Maryland’s capital city serve as scenic avenues for narrated boat tours, canoe outings and charter fishing trips. One of the most photographed sights in the state is the Thomas Point Shoal Lighthouse, an offshore, screwpile-type lighthouse that is still being used by the U.S. Coast Guard. Summertime tours leave from the Annapolis Maritime Museum.

Annapolis is also home to one of the state’s leading repositories of African- American history, the Banneker-Douglass Museum.

Look for roadside signs throughout the area identifying the Roots & Tides Scenic Byway, a 47-mile route that explores the timeless traditions of Chesapeake Bay watermen. Sites include the Smithsonian Environmental Research Center in Edgewater and the Captain Avery Museum, a restored, 19th-century waterman’s cottage in Shady Side.

The byway is part of a larger Four Rivers Heritage Area that extends from Sandy Point State Park at the Chesapeake Bay Bridge down to the small community of Rose Haven. Out on the water, the Captain John Smith Chesapeake National Historic Trail and the Star-Spangled Banner National Historic Trail feature “smart buoys” that relay local historical information, as well as climate and environmental data. (Get more details in the “Intersecting Trails” section beginning on page 50.)

Annapolis

ANNAPOLIS SERVED AS THE LEGISLATIVE center of Maryland’s government, the location of a military camp and the heart of bustling water trades. It was the bestfortified city in the state until Baltimore was threatened in late 1814. Protection was provided by at least four forts, and though threatened by the British on several occasions, Annapolis was spared from attack.

The U.S. Naval Academy [15] didn’t exist until 30 years after the war, but it was built on the former 10-acre site of Fort Severn. A visit to the Academy, which has since swelled to cover more than 300 acres, reveals a superb museum with paintings, exhibits and artifacts tied to the war. One prized piece is the original “Don’t Give Up the Ship” flag flown by Captain Oliver Hazard Perry during his victorious engagement with the British at the Battle of Lake Erie in September 1813. Local tour companies provide guided walking and bus tours of the campus and the Annapolis historic district.

Two carronades taken from an enemy frigate in 1815 after its capture by the USS Constitution rest just outside the Academy’s Armel- Leftwich Visitor Center.

Along with its tree-shaded streets lined with brick walkways, Annapolis boasts the largest collection of 18thcentury buildings in the nation. Many historical structures house cafés, contemporary clubs, pubs and chic boutiques surrounding the City Dock. Visitors will also find homes linked to four signers of the Declaration of Independence. Among these, the Chase-Lloyd House [16] is where Francis Scott Key held his wedding in January 1802.

Key spent several years in Annapolis. He attended one of the nation’s oldest institutions of higher learning, St. John’s College [17], which was founded in 1696 as a prep school and received its collegiate charter in 1784. The campus occupied just a few acres at the time of Key’s graduation in 1796, but now words were set to the tune of a popular British song, and “The Star-Spangled Banner” was born. It officially became the national anthem in 1931.

Today, Fort McHenry is the most visited War of 1812 site in North America, annually welcoming more than 700,000 visitors. Its visitor center features exhibits, interactive displays and a life-size statue of Key. An orientation film is shown on a large screen that slowly rises like a curtain at the film’s dramatic conclusion, thus revealing a broad view of the fort.

Fort McHenry’s flagship event is Defenders Day–The Star-Spangled Banner Weekend. Held each September to commemorate the defense of the city and the penning of “The Star- Spangled Banner,” the event features re-enactments, parades, music, fireworks and a symbolic ship-to-shore bombardment.

The heavy, woolen banner that Fort McHenry’s defenders raised at the conclusion of its “perilous fight” was sewn in Baltimore by Mary Pickersgill, her 13-year-old daughter and other helpers, including Grace Wisher, an indentured African-American apprentice. Each of the 15 stars on the flag was roughly two feet across. Pickersgill’s Baltimore property, preserved as the Star-Spangled Banner Flag House [8], showcases a full-sized glass replica. (The original hangs at the Smithsonian Institution’s National Museum of American History. Learn more in the Washington, D.C., Region section beginning on page 18.)

To see the oldest known version of Key’s original manuscript, travel a few miles up the road to the Maryland Historical Society Museum [9]. The museum’s Star-Spangled Banner Gallery also contains artifacts such as an unexploded “bomb” that had been fired at Fort McHenry and a cane made from the wood of a poplar tree under which British General Ross was killed during the Battle of North Point.

During a visit to the city in 1827, President John Quincy Adams called Baltimore “the Monumental City” for its many statues, including the 52-foot-tall War of 1812 Battle Monument [10] that is represented on the city’s official seal and incorporated into its flag.

A stunning view of the Inner Harbor is available atop Federal Hill, where monuments honor both Major General Samuel Smith, who was in charge of the defense of Baltimore, and Lieutenant Colonel George Armistead, commander of Fort McHenry. Meanwhile, the 157-foot-long Pride of Baltimore II [11], a working example of an 1812-era topsail schooner, is docked in the Inner Harbor area when it’s not sailing the globe as the state’s Goodwill Ambassador. Just to the south is Leone-Riverside Park [12], the former site of Camp Lookout, which played a supporting role in the repulse of a British nighttime flanking maneuver.

Beyond Baltimore’s northern border (19 miles from Fort McHenry), Towson’s Hampton Mansion (nps.gov/hamp) [13] is considered to be one of the finest and largest surviving examples of Georgian architecture in the United States. The mansion belonged to Charles Carnan Ridgely, whose foundry supplied cannons for privateers.

The defense of Baltimore, coupled with an American victory on Lake Champlain, signaled that the end of the war was in sight. The United States and Britain agreed upon the Treaty of Ghent in December 1814.

Back in Baltimore, a somber reminder of the high price America paid to preserve this “land of the free” is found at Green Mount Cemetery [14]. The remains of more than 300 War of 1812 veterans are among 65,000 individuals buried here.

Upper Chesapeake Bay – West Side

THE NAME HAVRE DE GRACE TRANSLATES as “harbor of grace.” But, in May 1813, it was a harbor filled with enemy soldiers intent on laying waste to the town. British marines and sailors overran two earthen forts at the water’s edge, and then turned the Americans’ own cannons on the village. Militiaman 2nd Lt. John O’Neill and some companions briefly manned a cannon, but only O’Neill kept to the task of defending Havre de Grace until he was captured and carried off to a British frigate. He later became the first keeper of the Concord Point Lighthouse [19]. A monument to his heroics was erected in 1914.

Without anyone standing in their way, British troops poured into the all-butabandoned town. About two-thirds of the 62 private homes in Havre de Grace were burned.

Commodore John Rodgers hailed from Havre de Grace and is said to have fired the first shot of the War of 1812. His U.S. frigate President, having sailed from New York harbor in June 1812, chased down the frigate HMS Belvidera and struck it with a bow chaser cannonball. He later led efforts to build stout land and harbor defenses in Baltimore that were centered on Hampstead Hill (now Patterson Park). The 18th-century Rodgers House [20], recognized as the town’s oldest structure still standing, was set on fire three times by the British but survived.

Walking-tour map guides are available from the Havre de Grace Visitor Center and highlight attractions such as the Havre de Grace Maritime Museum and Havre de Grace Decoy Museum. Havre de Grace’s boardwalk promenade runs a half-mile along the waterfront between the Concord Point Lighthouse and a popular park overlooking the City Yacht Basin. Easy Susquehanna River access is available via Jean S. Roberts Memorial Park.

Another raid resulted in the destruction of the Principio Furnace [21] near Perryville, but the iron-manufacturing operation was quickly restored and remained active well into the 20th century. A trip through this area along the Lower Susquehanna Heritage Greenway and Scenic Byway leads to land and water trails for optimum hiking, biking and kayaking enjoyment. Bird-watchers should keep an eye out for bald eagles and great blue herons.

Other Maryland Scenic Byways include the easy-going Mason & Dixon Byway just south of the Pennsylvania border and the Horses & Hounds Byway in an area traditionally known as “Hunt Country.” Charlestown [22] was the only Maryland town to officially surrender to the enemy during the War of 1812. Though never really threatened, Charlestown seemed vulnerable to the same devastating British raids going on all around the area. Today, an impressive historic district actually predates the war.

WHILE YOU’RE IN THE AREA

BALTIMORE DESTINATIONS RANGE FROM historic to hip, charming to trendy and world-famous to completely unexpected. It is a city built on distinctly different, fun-filled neighborhoods: visitors can dine at a quaint Little Italy eatery or Fells Point seafood restaurant before exploring the Inner Harbor area; stroll amid an array of unique stores in Harbor East; immerse themselves in cultural attractions throughout Mount Vernon; and become one with the “hons” who sport beehive hairdos and cat’s-eye glasses in kitschy Hampden.

The Baltimore National Heritage Area, encompassing 18.2 square miles, highlights numerous historic and natural sites within the city’s oldest neighborhoods. Guided walking tours are available, as well as War of 1812 boat tours on the waters around Fort McHenry.

Baltimore’s grandest and best-known thoroughfare, Charles Street, is the star attraction of a 12-mile-long national scenic byway that incorporates impressive architecture, fine ethnic dining and worldrenowned museums. Two acclaimed cultural destinations, The Walters Art Museum and Baltimore Museum of Art, offer free general admission. The Basilica of the National Shrine of the Assumption, which became America’s first Catholic cathedral when built in the early 1800s, stands nearby. Performing-arts venues featuring some of the nation’s hottest musical acts and coolest theatrical productions are also in the area.

Water taxi service links boater-friendly Canton Waterfront Park to Fells Point, Fort McHenry and the Inner Harbor. Featured attractions alongside the harbor include the National Aquarium, Maryland Science Center, American Visionary Art Museum and Port Discovery Children’s Museum. The U.S. sloop-of-war Constellation, a Civil War-era vessel recognized as the last allsail warship built by the U.S. Navy, is docked just around the corner from three other vintage vessels: a U.S. Coast Guard cutter that saw action during Japan’s attack on Pearl Harbor, a submarine that sank three enemy ships and a “lightship” that once guided maritime traffic in and out of the Chesapeake Bay. All of these attractions and more are connected by Baltimore’s seven-mile Waterfront Promenade, which hugs the shoreline from Canton Waterfront Park to Tide Point and incorporates Fort McHenry.

The Historic National Road is another national scenic byway with ties to the area. It follows the nation’s first federally funded highway from the Baltimore waterfront, through the Appalachian Mountains of Western Maryland and on to its terminus in Ohio.

More history is ready to be discovered around town at such destinations as the Baltimore & Ohio Railroad Museum, Frederick Douglass-Isaac Myers Maritime Park and Reginald F. Lewis Museum of Maryland African American History and Culture. As part of the Camden Yards sports complex, a Sports Legends Museum shares space with a repository for pop culture paraphernalia.

In other corners of the city are antiques shops, art galleries and the world-famous Lexington Market, a Baltimore tradition for more than two centuries.

Linking the city to the rolling, green countryside beyond its northern border is the Falls Road Scenic Byway.

Perryville Outlet Center, 68 Heather Ln. Ste. 43, Perryville 1-800-CECIL-95 (232-4595)

Star-Spangled Banner - Star-Spangled Banner 2018

Baltimore & Vicinity

Victory in Battle: A STAR-SPANGLED STAND

Baltimore & Vicinity

Annapolis

Upper Chesapeake Bay – West Side

WHILE YOU’RE IN THE AREA

Issue List

Star-Spangled Banner 2018