Battle of Baltimore
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- Date:
- September 12, 1814 - September 14, 1814
- Location:
- Baltimore
- Maryland
- United States
- Participants:
- United Kingdom
- United States
- Context:
- War of 1812
- The Star-Spangled Banner
Battle of Baltimore, (12–14 September 1814), land and sea battle of the War of 1812 that spurred the writing of the “The Star-Spangled Banner,” the U.S. national anthem. Following their occupation and burning of Washington, D.C., in August 1814, the British-led by Vice Admiral Alexander Cochrane, Rear Admiral George Cockburn, and Major General Robert Ross-decided to sail up the Chesapeake Bay and strike the port of Baltimore, America’s third-largest city and a centre of ship-building, as well as an entrepôt for privateering vessels that harassed and seized British ships. The British expected the city and harbour to fall quickly, as Washington had done.
Baltimore’s citizens, however, had worked on the city’s defenses for more than a year. Fort McHenry, south of the harbour entrance, was the city’s main guardian, commanded by Major George Armistead with a regular garrison. Militia manned other earthworks. The harbour entrance was blocked by a large chain and scuttled hulks. Against these defenses the British pursued a land-sea pincer maneuver, attacking from land while bombing the fort from the harbour.
In the early morning of September 12, some 4,700 troops under Ross landed at North Point, north of the harbour. Opposing them was Brigadier General John Stricker’s brigade of nearly 4,000 Maryland militia. In late afternoon, Ross’s infantry—made up of veterans who had recently defeated the forces of Napoleon Bonaparte at the Battle of Waterloo—encountered Stricker’s skirmishers. Ross came forward and was killed. Taking command, Colonel Arthur Brooke attacked, first firing Congreve rockets, famed for their “red glare.” Brooke’s forces, spearheaded by the Kings Own Regiment of infantry, turned the American left and assaulted the center. After a sharp but short battle, Stricker retreated to a second defensive line, and with nightfall and the onset of heavy rainfall the British stopped, and Stricker withdrew into the city.
Meanwhile, sixteen British ships approached Fort McHenry, its five bastions giving the fort the shape of a star. In the early morning of September 13, they began a 25-hour bombardment of the fort. Brooke advanced to within sight of the city’s strong fortifications and concluded that only a night attack supported by naval cannons could succeed. The ships, however, were unable to reach the fort because of the chain and Armistead’s artillery, numbering 23 heavy cannons inside the fort as well as batteries below it and to the east across the Patapsco River. That night an attempt to land marines was driven back. On 14 September the British decided that a successful attack was impossible and departed, mindful of the need to conserve men, ships, and ammunition for their planned assault on New Orleans. The final British cannon shot was fired at 7:30 on the morning of September 14.
Watching the bombardment from Baltimore harbour was American lawyer and poet Francis Scott Key, who was detained on a British ship throughout the attack. When he spotted the American flag still flying over the fortress at dawn on September 14, signaling that the Americans had not been defeated, he wrote a poem, completed later that day at a Baltimore hotel, in honor of the dramatic occasion. Circulated as a handbill on September 15 and titled "The Defence of Fort M’Henry," it became the lyrics of the U.S. national anthem.
Losses: U.S., 28 killed, 250 wounded, 50 captured; British, 46 killed, 300 wounded.