It is for Colonel Brooke to consider under such circumstances whether he has Force sufficient to defeat so large a number as it [is] saidthe Enemy has collected; say 20,000 strong. Not knowing for sure when an attack would occur, they spent months preparing for it. No, Key was a lawyer in Washington, D.C. The British Attack on Fort McHenry (Spar-Spangled Banner) - ThoughtCo Spotted something? As he (Key) went back up on board to arrange for their passage to the shore, the admiral came and he said 'We have a slight problem.' The New York Herald Tribune wrote that the song had words that nobody can remember to a tune nobody can sing.. May God bless America on our Independence Day!" The ammunition used by these ships later inspire Francis Scott Keys famous lines and the rockets red glare, the bombs bursting in air.. Francis Scott Key pens "The Star-Spangled Banner" Their bodies were removed and others took their place. During the Battle of Baltimore on September 13 and 14, 1814, heavy thunderstorms over Fort McHenry prevented the flying of the flag we know today as the Star Spangled Banner. He had successfully negotiated with the British for the release of an American prisoner but was held onboard because an assault was imminent. [16] Historians suggest that the storm flag flew through the night, and the garrison flag was hoisted in the morning, after the British retreated.[17]. For three hours, the bombardment proceeded through lashing rain, thunder and lightning. according to scholars at Washington's presidential library. [25] Preble had the flag quilted to a canvas sail, and unfurled it at the Boston Navy Yard to take the first known photograph of it. Each of its 15 stars measures about two feet across and each of its 15 stripes are about two feet wide. Armistead's report after the battle mentions four killed, 24 wounded, and "superficial" damage done to the public buildings. Spotted something? Being held by the British on a truce ship in the Patapsco River, Key observed the battle from afar. Key, a 35-year-old lawyer and amateur poet was detained on the British ship Tonnant off the cost of Baltimore when the bombardment began. "We, sir, are ready at Fort McHenry to defend Baltimore against invading by the enemyexcept that we have no suitable ensign to display over the Star Fort, and it is my desire to have a flag so large that the British will have no difficulty in seeing it from a distance.". Alanstudt.com A t 6:30 a.m., on September 13, 1814, the first of an estimated 1,800 cast-iron bomb shells were hurled at the masonry walls of Fort McHenry. Over the next several years, they clipped 1.7 million stitches from the flag to remove a linen backing that had been added in 1914, lifted debris from the flag using dry cosmetic sponges and brushed it with an acetone-water mixture to remove soils embedded in fibers. The failed bombardment of Fort McHenryforces Brooke to abandon the land assault on Baltimore. But when he sees the large flag flying over the fort on the morning of September 14, he knows the fort held. He said 'The thing that sets the American Christian apart from all other people in the world is he will die on his feet before he will live on his knees.'. [29][30], Georgiana Appleton died in 1878 and left the flag to her son, Eben Appleton. Often lost in the near-mythic symbolism attached to this moment in the American consciousness is the fact that Fort McHenrys commander, Major George Armistead, did not order the flag hoisted in a special act of triumph or defiance. The larger of the two flags would be the Great Garrison Flag, the largest battle flag ever flown at the time. Although she lived in Maryland, a Union state, her sympathies lay with the Confederate cause. The bombardment, known as the Battle of Baltimore, came only weeks after the British had attacked Washington, D.C., burning the Capitol, the Treasury and the President's house. In January of 1862, Brig. NPS. Seeing the flag flying over Fort McHenry on the morning of September 14, 1814, after the battle ended, Francis Scott Key was inspired to write the poem "Defence of Fort M'Henry". The U.S. Navy's first ship, the Constellation, was launched in Baltimore in 1797, and its namesake, the last all-sail warship built (1854) for the navy, has been moored in the city's harbour since 1955; in the late 1990s the ship underwent extensive restoration. And Key could not "scan the horizon of the sea" since he was on the river, miles from the Chesapeake Bay and the ocean. The flag currently has only fourteen starsthe fifteenth star was similarly given as a gift, but its recipient and current whereabouts are unknown.[7]. Undoing her work required unbelievable precision. After the death ofCol. George Armistead, who was commander of Fort McHenry during the Battle of Baltimore, the flag passed to his daughter Georgiana Armistead Appleton. [14][15] When the British ships were unable to pass the fort and penetrate the harbor, the attack was ended. Naval support will be required to dislodge the American forces, and Fort McHenry will have to be eliminated. He withdrew without firing a shot, but outlined a proposalfor two flanking night assaults on the vulnerable American right flank, while a third column would make a feint on the American left after midnight on September 14. It was another chapter in the ongoing War of 1812. The American Battlefield Trust and our members have saved more than 56,000 acres in 25 states! It then remained in a safe-deposit vault in New York City until Appleton loaned it to the Smithsonian in 1907. [40][41], In 1964, the flag was moved across the National Mall to the newly opened Museum of History and Technology (now the National Museum of American History). Tensions were high in the British command infrastructure. Francis Scott Key - Fort McHenry National Monument and Historic Shrine