Oriole Park At Camden Yards
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Learn about the 1814 battle that inspired the "Star-Spangled Banner" and led to a peace agreement between the United States and Britain. Explore the historical context, facts, maps and resources of the War of 1812.
Fort McHenry is a historical American coastal pentagonal bastion fort on Locust Point, now a neighborhood of Baltimore, Maryland. It is best known for its role in the War of 1812 , when it successfully defended Baltimore Harbor from an attack by the British navy from Chesapeake Bay on September 13–14, 1814.
- 43.26 acres (17.51 ha)
- National Park Service
- 635,736 (in 2018)
At Fort McHenry, some 1,000 soldiers under the command of Major George Armistead awaited the British naval bombardment. Their defense was augmented by the sinking of a line of American merchant ships at the adjacent entrance to Baltimore Harbor in order to further thwart the passage of British ships.
- September 12–15, 1814
- American victory; British withdrawal
May 27, 2022 · The Battle of Baltimore that would follow combined a naval and land assault against American forces around the city. Faced against the greatest military in the world, American forces held their ground and saved Baltimore from facing the same fate as Washington D.C., the epic event also inspired Francis Scott Key to write the words that would ...
Jan 2, 2019 · Learn about the 1814 battle that inspired the "Star-Spangled Banner" and halted the British advance on Baltimore. Find out how the American garrison defeated a British fleet and why the British burned Washington DC.
The British Navy was needed to come into the Baltimore harbor to support the attack, standing in its way was Fort McHenry and its 1,000 defenders. On September 13, 1814, the most powerful navy in the world sent a force of bomb and rocket ships dislodge the defenders from their fortifications.
