Battle of North Point, Maryland
The Battle of North Point, fought on September 12, 1814, near Baltimore, Maryland, was a significant confrontation during the War of 1812. This battle occurred during a challenging period for the United States, marked by British naval superiority and previous attacks on American cities, including the burning of Washington, D.C. As British forces landed 6,000 troops at North Point, American defenders under General Samuel Smith mobilized to protect Baltimore. The battle featured American sharpshooters who successfully killed British General Robert Ross, a turning point that disrupted British momentum. Despite fierce fighting, American forces eventually withdrew to the city's defenses, where they awaited further action.
The following day, British bombardment of Fort McHenry commenced but failed to secure a victory, inspiring Francis Scott Key to compose "The Star-Spangled Banner" as he witnessed the fort's flag still flying after the attack. This song would eventually become the national anthem of the United States. The Battle of North Point is commemorated as part of Maryland Defenders' Day, reflecting its historical importance in the context of American resilience during the War of 1812.
Battle of North Point, Maryland
Battle of North Point, Maryland
September 12, still honored as Maryland Defenders' Day, marks the anniversary of the battle of North Point in the War of 1812. The battle, fought near Baltimore, Maryland, on September 12, 1814-the day before the unsuccessful British bombardment of Baltimore's Fort McHenry inspired Francis Scott Key to write “The Star-Spangled Banner.”
The War of 1812 had been going on since the United States declared war on Great Britain on June 18, 1812. Despite scattered American successes in the first two years of conflict, the United States lacked the resources to match the naval superiority and other advantages of Great Britain. By the late summer of 1814, prospects for the young American nation were gloomy. The British had instituted a devastating blockade on the Atlantic seaboard and, under Admiral Sir Alexander Cochrane's supervision, were diverting attention from the Canadian border-Great Lakes campaigns with attacks on the east coast. In August the British had attacked Washington, D.C., and set fire to the White House and other public buildings. Rear Admiral Sir George Cockburn, in command of British naval forces in the area, had threatened to burn Baltimore as well.
On September 11 British vessels sailed up Chesapeake Bay and entered the Patapsco River. Early the next morning they landed 6,000 troops at North Point, near Baltimore, and then continued up the Patapsco in preparation for their attack on Fort McHenry, which was fortified with 1,000 troops under Major George Armistead. General Samuel Smith, a United States senator from Maryland, also stood ready in command of some 13,000 regulars and militiamen who had been assembled to defend the city.
When news of the British landing at North Point reached Smith, he sent Brigadier General John Stricker with a force of about 3,200 to watch the movements of the British and act as conditions required. Stricker accordingly sent roughly 150 men ahead, accompanied by sharpshooters, to reconnoiter. General Robert Ross, advancing up North Point in command of the British troops, had ridden to the head of his men when the sharpshooters, firing from concealed positions, killed him.
The British force then moved forward with the second in command, and met the first line of General Stricker's army. The Americans fought hard for two hours before falling back half a mile and waiting for a follow-up attack that never came. Towards sunset, they withdrew to the defenses on the perimeter of Baltimore. There, joined by reinforcements and still waiting, they spent the rainy night.
Instead of attacking in that direction, however, the British troops halted and camped on the field, while their ships sailed up the Patapsco River toward Fort McHenry. At six the next morning, September 13, the ships began their bombardment of the fort from a distance of two miles, a range that best suited their guns. Back on the North Point side of the city, the British troops watched the shells decimate the fort's occupants, while preparing themselves to join in a combined land and amphibious assault on the fort. The bombardment, however, was unsuccessful.
A few days earlier, a young American lawyer named Francis Scott Key and an American intermediary named John Skinner had boarded one of the British ships to negotiate the release of William Beanes, a friend of Key's whom the British held prisoner. The negotiations were successful, but at a price: Key and Skinner were held by the British, remaining unwilling witnesses until after the attack on Baltimore.
The 25-hour bombardment ceased shortly after daybreak on September 14, 1814. From their viewpoint, Key and Skinner did not know whether the fort had surrendered. Anxiously, they waited for the day to grow brighter and a breeze to unfurl the limp banner above the fort before they could see that it was the American flag. Relieved and inspired, Key exuberantly wrote on the back of a letter a rough draft of the words that were to become the national anthem of the United States:
O say can you see, by the dawn's early light,
What so proudly we hailed at the twilight's last gleaming,
Whose broad stripes and bright stars through the perilous fight
O'er the ramparts we watched, were so gallantly streaming?
And the rockets' red glare, the bombs bursting in air,
Gave proof through the night that our flag was still there:
O say does that star-spangled banner yet wave
O'er the land of the free and the home of the brave?
That night, in a Baltimore hotel, Key wrote the words out in full. The next morning he read them to Judge Joseph H. Nicholson, his brother-in-law, who had been one of the defenders of the fort. The judge liked them so well that he took them to the press and had them printed in handbill form under the title of “The Defence of Fort McHenry.” The song subsequently appeared in the Baltimore Patriot on September 20 and the Baltimore American on September 21. Tradition has it that the anthem was first sung in public by the actor Ferdinand Durang.
The popularity of “The Star-Spangled Banner,” which was evidently popular in Baltimore, grew more slowly in the rest of the nation. Even though it was often sung by Union soldiers during the Civil War, but it still competed for attention with such other favorites as “America” and “Hail Columbia.” In the decades following the Civil War, however, it gained currency, especially in the armed forces. In 1904 the secretary of the navy directed that it be played at morning and evening colors throughout the navy. The army and navy, in response to an executive order by President Woodrow Wilson, have regarded “The Star-Spangled Banner” as the national anthem ever since 1916. It was not until several years later, however, that Congress confirmed that order in an act signed by President Herbert Hoover on March 3, 1931.