The Battle of Baltimore, which took place during the War of 1812 between the British and Americans, is the event that inspired Francis Scott Key to write the words of the Star Spangled Banner.
I knew Francis Scott Key wrote the star spangled banner, but I didn't know any of the details. I didn't know anything about the War of 1812, either, so I learned a lot on my visit to Fort McHenry. I enjoyed learning about it, and I'm really glad I visited there today!
A Park Service volunteer gave a talk about the history of the fort and battle. I'll summarize what I learned...
The three year "War of 1812" was a controversial war. The United States declared the war against Britain during the Madison administration. Madison and Jefferson were in favor of the war. It got mixed support in congress, but got enough votes to declare war. It was triggered by trade restrictions imposed by Britain and France during the Napoleonic wars. The British also used "impressment", by boarding American merchant ships and considering them traitors, to "impress" (i.e., force) some of the sailors into the British navy.
Some Native American tribes sided with the British, and others sided with the Americans. The Americans started by attacking the British in Canada. Britain sent a fleet of ships to the Chesapeake and Potomac and burned the capitol in Washington, D.C.. An American doctor witnessed looting by British soldiers in the capital and threw the culprets in jail. The British captured the man and held him on one of their naval ships.
The next target of the British was Baltimore, where Fort McHenry guarded the entrance to the harbor. Meanwhile, Francis Scott Key had arranged to board a ship to negotiate for the doctor's release, since the doctor had also treated many injured British soldiers during their siege of Washington.
While on board the ship, Francis Scott Key and the doctor overheard the British plans to attack Baltimore. The British didn’t want the two men to alert the other Americans, so they held them on ship until after the battle.
Starting on Sept 13, 1814, the British bombarded Fort McHenry with rockets and mortar fire for 25 hours before giving up and eventually moving on to the port of New Orleans. When the firing stopped in the morning, Francis Scott Key looked through a spy glass to see whose flag was flying over the fort, and saw the stars and stripes of an oversized 30 ft by 42 ft American flag. That is what inspired him to write the poem that became the words to our national anthem, The Star Spangled Banner.
The Americans at Fort McHenry had cannons that could fire relatively small cannonballs about 1.5 miles into the harbor. The British ships had mortars that could fire over 200 lb fuse-lit balls 2 miles towards the fort, and they tried to time the fuses so the balls would explode mid-air above the fort and shower down metal shrapnel on the American soldiers -- see examples of the fused British balls, below. Thankfully, it was raining hard during the battle, and the rain blew out a good percentage of the fuses so they didn't explode.
The fort is a brick structure shaped like a five-pointed star, ptoviding views in all directions. It has a central courtyard, with barracks and other buildings. It was originally surrounded by a moat, but the fort has been modified over the years.
The fort was used to house Southern-sympathisers during the U.S. Civil War and the grounds were used as an army hospital during WWI.
After visiting the fort, I drove into Baltimore and had lunch at the Chaps Pit Beef restaurant.
I ordered their famous pit beef sandwich and an order of homemade fries. Both were really good! I sampled their sauces, and put their gold sauce in my sandwich. Their gold sauce has a hint of mustard.
It was late afternoon by the time I was getting close to Philadelphia. I didn’t want to drive into Philadelphia during rush hour, so I pulled off I-95 in Newark, Delaware, and found a public library with wifi so I could do some research on my tablet while I let rush hour pass.
I wanted to review the genealogy information on Ancestry.com and FamilySearch.com about my grandfather and his first wife. They both immigrated from Scotland to Philadelphia. At some point they had two small children who died, and I want to see if I can find any information about the children while I am in Philadelphia. I haven't been able to find any information about the children online, so I want to try in person.
The couple were married in a Presbyterian church in Scotland, so I made an appointment for 9 am tomorrow morning to do some research at the Presbyterian Historical Society in Philadelphia. I also have the address of the Philadelphia City Archives.
After I resumed driving and arrived in Philadelphia, I drove past the Presbyterian Historical Society so I would know where to go tomorrow morning. Then I looked up the nearest Walmart and Planet Fitness and drove there. I wanted to be close to the historical society so I wouldn't have to drive too far through city traffic to get to my appointment in the morning.
The Walmart didn’t allow overnight parking, but they said I could park in another nearby lot. The area looked sketchy, though, and when I looked up Philadelphia crime areas on the Internet, this area was red, so I was resigned to go somewhere else.
A 24-hour Planet Fitness was across the street, so I went there to use their wifi. Meanwhile, a torrential downpour had started. Radio stations advised against driving, and warned of flooded roads. I didn’t want to tackle that in an unfamiliar city at night, so I decided to stay in place and sleep in my car in the Planet Fitness parking lot.
I normally wouldn't sleep downtown in a sketchy area, but it's raining so hard that I don't think anyone will be out doing mischief. I'm parked close to the Planet Fitness entrance, so I feel this is my best option under the current circumstances.
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