![]() ![]() In the meantime, apprehensively watching this activity from an American truce ship anchored in the river was a Georgetown attorney named Francis Scott Key. The bombardment, which lasted about twenty-five hours, was designed to divert attention from a British army landing at North Point to be followed by a march overland to take Baltimore. On the morning of 13 September 1814, British ships began hurling over fifteen hundred shells, bombs, and rockets toward Fort McHenry from positions in the Patapsco River beyond the reach of the fort's guns. The combined naval and army force coordinated a three-day attack on the city fortifications both in the harbor and on land. ![]() The British subsequently returned to their ships and moved to attack Baltimore. The British easily defeated the American army at Bladensburg, then entered the capital and burned several public buildings, including the White House. In August 1814 a large British force landed in Maryland and marched toward Washington, D.C. In August 1813 Pickersgill presented the flag to Major Armistead and was paid $405.90 for her work. Pickersgill spent several weeks measuring, cutting, and sewing the fifteen stars and stripes that, because of their size, had to be assembled on the floor of a nearby brewery. A Baltimore widow, Mary Pickersgill, had experience making ship flags and agreed to sew a flag that would measure thirty feet wide by forty-two feet long. flag made so large that the British would clearly see it waving from a great distance as a symbol of bold defiance of their invasion. In anticipation of such an attack Major George Armistead, commander of Fort McHenry, wanted a U.S. Some American harbors were fortified, including Baltimore, whose five-pointed, star-shaped brick fort named Fort McHenry prepared to face certain attack by British forces. During that conflict, the British conducted frequent raids on American towns and harbors along the Atlantic coast, including forays into Chesapeake Bay. "The Star-Spangled Banner," the national anthem of the United States, was inspired by the flag that flew over Fort McHenry in the harbor of Baltimore, Maryland, during the War of 1812 (1812–1815). ![]()
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