Where the star-spangled banner waved

Visitors to Baltimore often skip historic Fort McHenry, site of the 1814 battle that inspired Francis Scott Key to write national anthem. The fort, and the flag, have quite a tale to tell.

By ROBERT N. JENKINS, Times Staff Writer
© St. Petersburg Times
published March 3, 2002

BALTIMORE, Md. -- Though Fort McHenry would be in use for more than a century, its brief slice of fame lasted just 25 hours or so. Even then, a part-time poet was to give glory -- and international recognition -- not to the waterfront fort's thick, brick walls and courageous defenders but to a wet flag that actually had been hauled down McHenry's staff during the fort's only wartime action.

Tourists coming to rejuvenated Baltimore now tend to focus on the restaurants, bars and shopping bustle of its Inner Harbor, on the city's nostalgia-invoking baseball stadium, on its impressive railroad museum, even on the last home and the gravesite of Edgar Allen Poe.

On average, only 1,900 or so visitors a day pass through the gates of Fort McHenry, whose commanding officer briefly flew the enormous flag now immortalized as The Star-Spangled Banner.

A distant view of that flag was the inspiration for a poem, which was immediately set to music. But Congress' adoption of it as our national anthem, 71 years ago today, actually did not occur for more than a century after the event that inspired its writing.

Fort McHenry had been completed in 1802 as the main bastion of defense for the busy harbor of Baltimore, at the time one of the young nation's largest cities. The implied threat was from the British, who had been chased from the United States decades earlier only to go quickly to war with the pro-U.S. French.

As part of their conflict, both of the European nations occasionally would capture American ships, making use of their cargo and the sailors.

In June 1812, Congress declared war against England. The empire chose largely to ignore its former colonies in order to focus on more powerful France.

Returning, with a vengeance

But with the defeat of Emperor Napoleon in April 1814, the British decided it was time to avenge the American Revolution.

A flotilla carrying about 5,000 battle-tested British forces sailed up the Chesapeake Bay that August, won a major battle in Maryland and marched on Washington.

On Aug. 14, the invaders sliced through troops defending the nation's capital and set fire to many buildings, including the President's House. President James Madison and his wife, Dolley, made a hasty escape.

(During subsequent repairs the residence would be painted white, to cover smoke stains, and America's presidents have since lived in the White House.)

Having routed the national government, the British forces reboarded their ships and sailed toward prosperous Baltimore.

To defend the city and to halt the attackers from moving north toward the hubs of Philadelphia, New York and Boston, the Americans had assembled a defensive force of close to 15,000 full-time and militia troops. About a thousand men were assigned to Fort McHenry, and ships were sunk in the nearby channel to prevent the British from sailing too easily into the harbor.

The British plan was to use their ships to attack the fort, Baltimore's main defensive position, and also to assault the city by land.

Troops landed on a peninsula several miles southeast of the fort on Sept. 12. British commander Maj. Gen. Robert Ross was killed that day, but his forces moved to within 2 miles of Baltimore's city limits.

But when their subsequent commander realized the strength of the landside defenses, he decided the risk of casualties was too great and ordered a retreat. He figured that if the naval assault was successful, then his forces could attack again.

Witnessing the bombardment

Among the numerous British ships gathered on the Patapsco River, which leads into Baltimore, was an American vessel called a truce ship. Aboard it was a Maryland doctor who had been taken prisoner several days earlier because the British believed he had reneged on an agreement not to hinder them in their advance.

The doctor, William Beanes, had friends in high places. Col. John Skinner, who held the position of U.S. Commissioner General of Prisoners, and up-and-coming Washington lawyer Francis Scott Key sailed to Baltimore to negotiate Beanes' release.

The ship carrying Skinner and Key reached the British flotilla on the Chesapeake, some miles from Baltimore, on Sept. 7.

The men did arrange Beanes' freedom, but by then, the British feared that the three would disclose the invasion plans. So the Americans were held aboard their own ship, which was forced to sail up the Patapsco with 16 attacking ships.

Aboard this ship, from a distance now estimated at 8 miles, the three Americans watched the bombardment of Fort McHenry. The attacking ships sailed to within 23/4 miles of the fort and began firing their cannons around dawn the morning of Sept. 13. This shelling continued off and on for about 25 hours.

The British guns had a range of at least one-fourth mile farther than that of the cannons defending the fort. This enabled the attackers to fire their cannons as they wished, rather than having to dodge and retreat from the Americans' return fire.

Maj. George Armistead, commanding the fort, later estimated that the British fired 1,500 to 1,800 rounds.

Fortunately for the defenders, the British guns were remarkably inaccurate: Fort McHenry withstood most of those shells and rockets. A diversionary landing force also failed in its nighttime mission.

A U.S. flag -- of British wool

Baltimore flagmaker Mary Pickersgill had delivered a banner measuring 42 by 30 feet, fairly standard for the period. Each of the 15 stars was about 24 inches across, each of the 15 stripes about 23 inches tall.

Mrs. Pickersgill and her assistant, who were paid $405.90, had sewn it from imported British wool bunting.

This flag was flying as the battle began. But during the day, thunderstorms drenched the region, and Armistead feared the water-soaked woolen flag would weigh so much it would snap the staff. He had the big flag hauled down and replaced with one measuring 17 by 25 feet.

Early on Sept. 14, with the rain stopped, the large flag was raised again, and, as was the custom, the fort fired a single shot known as "the morning gun."

The British admiral commanding the flotilla knew that his land forces had retreated and that his ships' bombardment had failed to conquer Fort McHenry. With the rain finally halted and sunrise showing through the smoke, the flotilla sailed back down the Chesapeake Bay, reboarded the soldiers, and left the area.

The British freed the American truce ship. Caught up by his emotions, Key took an envelope and began to write a poem about his distant view of the battle. His first lines are the question that dominated his thoughts through the long night's bombardment:

Oh! 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 watch'd, were so gallantly streaming?

Key, who had written poetry, penned four verses after his truce ship was released and he returned to Baltimore on Sept. 16. He worked more on his poem, titled Defence of Fort McHenry, and it was quickly printed on handbills that were distributed about the city. The song was first performed before a theater audience about a month later.

Historians say that on the handbills it was suggested that the poem be sung to the tune To Anacreon in Heaven. This was a well-known drinking song composed, ironically, by a Briton for use by members of a drinking club in London.

The tune had already been used in America for a political song, Adams and Liberty. Within a couple months of Key's composing Defence of Fort McHenry, it had been published in Baltimore as The Star-Spangled Banner.

Wear and tear, and repair

The song gained widespread popularity but was simply a rousing, patriotic air. Northern troops sang it during the Civil War. By the end of the 19th century, it was being sung during the raising and lowering of the flag on Army and Navy bases.

Even with a surge in nationalism following World War I, the song was not adopted by Congress until March 3, 1931.

Meanwhile, the original Star-Spangled Banner had been kept by Maj. Armistead and was being passed to his descendants. After his death in 1818, his wife occasionally would cut small pieces of it as gifts for war veterans and other important people. That's why the flag, now being gently refurbished by conservators at the Smithsonian Institution, has an uneven edge and measures 30 by 34 feet.

Armistead's grandson gave the flag to the Smithsonian in 1912. In 1914, a linen backing was sewn to the delicate flag; eight seamstresses made an estimated 1.7-million stitches. The huge banner has been hung, for more than three decades, in the Smithsonian's National Museum of American History.

Sadly, this display may have caused problems: The Smithsonian convened a panel of 50 historians, scientists, engineers and textile experts in 1996 to figure out how best to clean and preserve the increasingly delicate banner. One of their findings was that the flag was in a delicate state, probably made worse by the stress of being hung straight down with the added weight of the backing.

The banner was taken down in December 1998 and placed in a controlled-environment room. The linen backing was removed, stitch by stitch. For nearly two years, workers have been dabbing at the surface with cosmetics sponges containing a cleanser. Their goal is the primary removal of more than 80 years of air pollution -- everything from auto emissions to pollen.

The project is more difficult because the 199-year-old banner has what conservators refer to as "islands" of fabric that were attached to the linen backing but not to the rest of the original material.

The conservators have also discovered that the 1914 work that added the linen backing actually distorted the flag's true shape: It was folded here, stretched there, before being sewn to the backing in the traditional rectangular shape.

This was because the flag's first century of use and display had caused the original fabric to sag in various directions. It also had been patched several times.

The Smithsonian's panel of experts is still judging how best to remount and display the nation's most important flag. One point they have decided: The Star-Spangled Banner will be hung at no more than a 30-degree incline, to eliminate the stress caused by its own weight.

All of this is a conservation project, the museum emphasizes. That is, the flag is not being restored to its original condition but rather is being cleaned and "stabilized" to prolong it for years more of display.

The cost for the multiyear conservation and remounting project is put at $18-million. Of that, $13-million was contributed by the clothing company Polo Ralph Lauren. This was donated to the Save America's Treasures program championed by then-first lady Hillary Clinton. About $3-million went to promote that overall program, the balance to the flag project.

Congress appropriated $3-million, another $3-million came from the Pew Charitable Trust, the rest from other sources.

If you go

The banner is in a special glass-walled room on the second floor of the west wing. The museum is open from 10 a.m. to 5:30 p.m. For more information, go to these Web sites:

For the latest overview of the project, americanhistory.si.edu/youmus/SSB2001report/index.html

For the official Web site for the project,
web8.si.edu/nmah/htdocs/ssb-old/2_home/fs2.html

Fort McHenry is now a National Monument and Historic Shrine, operated by the National Park Service. About 95 percent of the bricks in the walls of the star-shaped fort are original, and the mortar is being repointed.

The fort is open every day but Christmas and New Year's Day. Winter hours are 8 a.m.-5 p.m.; from June through August, the hours are 8 a.m.-8 p.m.

For more information, call (410) 962-4290 or go to the Web site www.nps.gov/fomc.

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