Leslie and David's Wanderings: 24 September 2022 Fort McHenry NM and NS

Since we are on the northside of DC, it’s a short drive up to Baltimore. The day was beautiful, and with storms coming tomorrow, we wanted to take advantage of the beautiful day. We headed up I-95 to the exit just before you go into the tunnel under Baltimore Harbor and drove into Fort McHenry National Monument and National Shrine. We were lucky enough to arrive just in time for a Ranger led tours of rhte Fort outer battlements. The star shaped fort was built between 1798 and 1803 as a defense for Baltimore Harbor. Its claim to fame was during the war of 1812. Having sacked and burned Washington in August 1813, the British headed for Baltimore, the 3^rd largest US city at that time. The local militias and army units built extensive defensive works to protect the city from a land assault and sunk merchant ships at the harbor entrance to prevent the British Navy from sailing into the harbor. British troops landed north of the city on 12 September and marched to the city, after a brief battle with militia during which the British General was killed, but stopped short of the defensive works to await the naval assault. The British Navy positioned mortar and rocket ships just outside (2 miles) the effective range of Fort McHenry’s cannons. At dawn on 13 September, the British began their bombardment of Fort McHenry. Over the next 25 hours over 1,500 shells and rockets were fired at the fort, but less than 400 hit in or near the fort. The fort returned fire and even though at extreme range, still managed to hit the British ships several times. A British assault at midnight of the 13th by small boats was turned back by fire from the forts. In the morning, the British attack halted and the British forces withdrew (they later were used in the failed assault on New Orleans in 1815). The smoke and fog were so heavy neither side could see. The fort lowered the small American flag that had been flying through the night and raised a giant 30x42 foot American flag. Frances Scott Key spied that huge flag from which inspired his poem that became our national anthem (But not until 1931). That flag is now displayed in the Smithsonian. During the entire bombardment, only 4 colonial defenders were killed. During the civil war, the fort was used as a prison for southern sympathizers and Confederate troops. During WW1 it was used as a hospital for war wounded. It was made a National Park by congress in 1925 and then changed to a National Monument and National Shrine in 1939.