Snow quotes an American sailor's writing: 'We could see our shots strike the frigates … every heart was gladdened.'įour musicians, he continued, then struck up Yankee Doodle on their fifes and drums. They aligned their bomb-ships closer, unwittingly putting them in range of the Fort's guns. Peter Snow's book, 'When Britain Burned the White House' includes varied and interesting facts about the war whose anniversary we now celebrate.īritain's next move, he relates, was what Armistead awaited.

Historians quote General George Armistead, the Fort's commander, as guessing later that some 1,800 mortar shells landed around him during the battle. On rainy September 1814 nights, 18 British warships, seven frigates and other ships fired mortar shells, rockets and cannon balls on star-shaped Fort McHenry. On a roll after British troops routed Americans at Bladensburg and resisted them at North Point, the British Navy then learned a different story. The city's 'Star-Spangled Banner Spectacular' is a varied program including Navy ships and 'tall ships' in the Inner Harbor, festivals, a celebrity-studded concert, fireworks and an air show and flyover by the breathtaking Blue Angels.Īll this, plus more, if you're the kind of person who enjoys learning history at a place where history was made.įor us in the Baltimore area, Fort McHenry is such a place.Īre you the only one who has never visited the Fort?

U.S. Navy after War of 1812