The War of 1812 has been mostly forgotten in the US. At the time, it was a war that many thought should not have been waged. It was also a war with an ambiguous end and no clear winner—and the United States of America does not like to celebrate or remember wars it did not win. With the exception of New Orleans and the National Anthem, the War of 1812 is completely forgotten by Americans.
"Hidden History" is a diary series that explores forgotten and little-known areas of history.
In 1814, the war had been going on for two years. The US had tried several times to invade Canada, and had been driven back each time. After landing troops in Maryland and burning Washington DC, the British then turned to their next objective—Baltimore. This city was both a political and military target: not only would its capture be a blow to American morale and weaken the resolve to continue the war, but the port of Baltimore was home base to many of the American privateers that had been harassing English shipping throughout the war, and capturing the port would put them out of action.
At 3am on September 12, 1814, British General Robert Ross landed a force of 4500 men at North Point, a small peninsula on Chesapeake Bay just outside of Baltimore. He planned a two-pronged attack on the city, with his land troops engaging the American garrison under General Samuel Smith while a Royal Navy fleet under Vice Admiral Alexander Cochrane moved up the Patapsco River and into Baltimore Harbor to eliminate the American position at Fort McHenry. The Americans had already been alerted to the movement, and General John Stricker was sent with 3200 men and 6 cannons of the 3rd Maryland Militia Brigade to fight a delaying action, holding the British back just long enough for the Americans to complete their defenses around Baltimore. Stricker formed a defensive line across the narrowest portion of the North Point peninsula. Ross was killed by sharpshooters just before the fighting, but the Americans retreated back to Baltimore. Tactically, the Battle of North Point was a British win, since they had taken possession of the battlefield and had pushed the Americans back. But strategically, the fight had accomplished what the Americans wanted it to—they had delayed the British advance an additional day, long enough to complete their defenses around the city. And the unexpected loss of General Ross—an experienced commander who had fought under Wellington against Napoleon—was a major blow to British morale.
The morning after the Battle of North Point, as the Americans withdrew, the British troops, now under Col Arthur Brooke, continued their advance. Within hours he was two miles away from Baltimore, and it looked as though that city would meet the same fate that Washington DC had.
But when the British reached the outskirts of Baltimore, they found that it was much more heavily defended than Washington DC had been. Brooke thought he had defeated and driven off the main American force the day before at North Point—now he was shocked to find himself confronted by some 12,000 American troops and 100 cannon entrenched in a string of fortified positions, including Fort McHenry. With its 20 long-range cannons and its garrison of 1,000 men, this Fort dominated the entrance to the harbor as well as the approaches to the city. It was further protected by a line of scuttled ships that blocked off part of the harbor and by several surrounding cannon redoubts. Brooke, who was under orders to attack only if he had an overwhelming advantage, was forced to halt his advance. If he was to capture Baltimore, Fort McHenry and the American fortifications around it would have to be put out of action first.
That task fell to Vice Admiral Alexander Cochrane and the 19 Royal Navy warships in his fleet. At dawn on September 13, Cochrane moved his fleet in. Almost immediately he found that the water in the harbor was too shallow for his largest frigates, and he began his bombardment with ten gunships, five small vessels armed with “bombard mortars” (which fired large hollow exploding shells) and one ship that fired batteries of gunpowder-filled Congreve rockets. All of these were carefully kept out of range of the Fort’s own cannons.
For the most part, the British barrage was ineffective. The Americans were protected by thick earthen ditches and bombproof shelters. At one point the British got lucky and hit the Fort’s powder magazine—but the shell failed to explode, and the American defenders quickly dispersed their gunpowder to a number of safer locations.
Late that afternoon, though, Cochrane decided that the Fort and its guns must have been heavily damaged by now, and moved his fleet in closer. To his surprise, the Americans responded with a brisk fire. The British ships were forced to pull back out of range.
At about midnight, after pounding the fort all day (firing over 1,500 shells in the process), Cochrane attempted to break the stalemate with a ground assault, by landing a detachment of Brooke’s troops where they could sweep down the shoreline and take out some of the American batteries and then assault the Fort itself. But, in the dark, things went wrong. Some of the troop-carrying rowboats went up the wrong inlet and got lost, and were captured by the Americans. The boats that did reach their goal were subjected to heavy fire from the American gun positions, and were quickly forced to withdraw. They suffered over 300 casualties.
With the failure of the Army’s ground attack and the Navy’s inability to force the Fort’s surrender through bombardment, Cochrane realized that he could not win the fight. At about 7am on September 14, his cannons ceased firing, and the British fleet pulled back from the harbor. Brooke and his troops, unable to advance, also retreated back to their ships. The assault on Baltimore was abandoned, and the British withdrew through Chesapeake Bay and set sail for their next target—New Orleans.
Inside Fort McHenry, the American defenders had, despite the heavy 27-hour bombardment, lost only a handful of casualties. Now they watched and cheered as the English sailed away, then triumphantly unfurled the large garrison flag and flew it from the top of the flagpole, while the garrison band played “Yankee Doodle”.
The British fleet was accompanied by a number of prison ships which contained some of those Americans who had been captured or arrested in Washington DC. One of these prisoners was a doctor named William Beanes, who had treated some of the wounded from both sides after the Battle of Bladensburg. As the British bombardment began, an American lawyer named Francis Scott Key was aboard one of the prison ships attempting to secure Beanes’ release, offering as evidence the written statements of several British officers who had been treated by the doctor. The British agreed to release him, but then refused to allow either of them to leave until the bombardment was over. So Francis Scott Key watched the mortar shells and Congreve rockets exploding over Fort McHenry until it got dark.
In the morning, when the “Stars and Stripes” still flew over the Fort, Key knew that the Americans had not been forced to surrender. Inspired by the sight, he took an envelope from his pocket and began jotting down the verses for a poem, which he titled “The Defense of Fort McHenry”. It was published as a pamphlet by the Baltimore American newspaper. Later, the poem was set to music, using the melody of “To Anacreon in Heaven”, an English drinking song popular in America that was the official anthem of the Anacreatic Society in London, a fraternal organization of amateur musicians. This new version was re-titled “The Star-Spangled Banner”. In 1931, it was adopted as the National Anthem of the USA.
After the War of 1812, Fort McHenry was strengthened and expanded, and during the Civil War it was used to hold captured Confederate spies as well as Southern sympathizers who were arrested and held without trial. During the Spanish-American War the Fort was expanded further, and became a hospital site when the US entered World War One in 1917.
Today, Fort McHenry is a National Monument and a Historical Shrine.
Some photos from a visit to Fort McHenry.