Henry Knox Visionary General of the American Revolution

                                                                                                                                                    4/20/23

Moving cannons from Fort Ticonderoga to Boston

By: Al Lopez

Allopez1056@gmail.com                                         

Hello Every Day Historians,

  I would like to talk to you today about my recent trip to Fort McHenry Monument in Baltimore Maryland.  The Fort was the site of the Battle of Baltimore in 1814 and inspired Francis Scott Keys to write a poem “Defense of Fort McHenry” during the 25-hour bombardment.  The tune “To Anaceron in Heaven” was added at a later date, which became our National Anthem.  During the Civil War, the Union Army used the Fort as a training facility, a staging place for troops entering the war, and a storage facility for munitions and gunpowder.  The 1st World War brought more changes to the Fort, with the construction of an Army Hospital for the incoming injured solders.  It’s final duty during World War II, was as a Coast Guard Station protecting the east coast from German U-boats.  My focus today is on the “Star Spangled Flag” that flew over the Fort during that Battle of Baltimore, specifically delving into its origins, overall size, composition, and current resting place.

  Before we talk about the flag and its history, let’s look at the events happening at that time in history.  The War of 1812 was a relatively little-known war with complicated causes.  After the Revolution, the British continued to restrict US trade and impressment of American sailors as two of the main reasons.  The United States Congress also wanted to expand American boundaries west and north to Canada.  The outcome of the War was inconclusive, but the conflict helped establish the United States among other nations and fostered a strong sense of national pride, which resulted in our National Anthem.

  A British force landed at Bladensburg, Maryland, just 30 miles east of the Capitol and was met by Colonial forces in a brief battle that resulted in a British victory.  President James Madison and his wife Dolly escaped and fled to the President’s Mansion before the British torched the Capitol, the Mansion and other public buildings.  After that victory, the British set their sights on Baltimore, America’s third largest city, an important commercial port and military outpost.  At the time, Baltimore was a large commercial hub specializing in ship building, farming and commercial goods.  The residents were noted for building fast ships which the locals used to their advantage.  Privateering was a lucrative business, preying on the British vessels bringing in goods and supplies to the Colonies.  The British referred to them as a “Den of Pirates”.  This led the British to send a Naval fleet to Baltimore and put an end to this harassment, by seizing the port culminating in the Battle of Baltimore at Fort McHenry.

  Now on to the Star-Spangled Banner Flag.  The flag was commissioned by Major George Armistead, the commanding officer at Fort McHenry in 1813.  He hired a local flag maker, Mary Pickersgill, to make two flags, one with an overall dimension of 30’ x 42’, called the garrison flag, and a second flag 17’ x 25’ called a storm flag.  The larger flag came to be known as the “Star Spangled Banner Flag”.  It took Mary Pickersgill 6 weeks to produce the flag with the help of her daughter, two nieces, and an indentured African servant.  The flag was so large that they used the floor of a local brewery to lay out the flag to afford them enough room.  Pickersgill and her assistants helped stitched the flag from a combination of dyed English wool bunting with red and white stripes and a blue union.  Each star was about two feet in diameter and each strip 24” wide.  The Star-Spangled Flag is distinctive being it has fifteen stars and fifteen stripes, one for every state at the time.  Vermont (1791) and Kentucky (1792) were the two states added to the flag from the original thirteen colonies. The stars on the flag are tilted slightly, which gives the appearance of them twinkling as the flag is waving.  One way to distinguish the “Star-Spangled Flag” from the current US flag is that the “Spangle flag” has a red stripe directly underneath the blue union and white stars.  The Third Flag Act, passed in 1818, reduced the number of stripes to thirteen in honor of the thirteen original colonies.  

  The larger flag weighed about 300 lbs. and cost the US government $405.90, while the smaller storm flag cost $168.54, which at the time was a large sum of money for both flags.  The “Star-Spangled Flag” was intended to fly on a flag pole ninety feet high and visible from a great distance, which was Major Armistead’s intent.  He wanted the residents of Baltimore to see that the flag was still waving after the twenty-five-hour British bombardment which inspired Frances Scott Key to write the Star Spangled Banner.  During the Battle, a rain storm forced the General to lower the larger garrison flag and raise up the smaller storm flag.  When the rain stopped, and the early morning dawn approached, Armistead ordered the larger garrison flag be raised, signaling to the residents of Baltimore that victory was at hand.  The 1,000 troops stationed at the Fort fired their weapons in the air and sang “Yankee Doodle” in celebration.  Francis Scott Key, detained by the British standing on a truce boat out in the harbor, was so moved that he wrote the famous poem, which later became our National Anthem.  Years later, the “Star Spangled Banner” became our official national anthem on March 3, 1931, and signed into law by President Hoover.

  Before his death in 1818, Colonel George Armistead acquired the “garrison flag” which he kept as a memento of the “Battle of Baltimore”.  Armistead was only 38 years old at the time of his death, and just a young man with a wife and family. During the battle, Armistead’s wife, Louisa, was pregnant with their first child and letters to her from her husband expressed his grave concern for her well-being and safety.  At the time of Louisa’s death in 1861, she bequeathed the flag to their daughter Georgiana Armistead Appleton who keep the flag and recognized its significance as a national treasure.  The daughter allowed the flag to be publicly displayed during national holidays celebrating the battle.  Eben Appleton, the Colonel’s grandson inherited the flag in 1878 and kept it locked away in a safe in New York.  Facing increasing demand for the public to be able to view the flag, Eben sought a repository that would preserve the flag and in 1912 offered the flag to the Smithsonian as a permanent gift.  He wrote later, “It is always such a satisfaction to me to feel that the flag is just where it is, in possession for all time of the very best custodian, where it is beautifully displayed and can be conveniently seen by so many people”.  

  In the 1800’s, souvenirs and relics of important events in American history were prized and the Star-Spangled Flag” was subjected to this practice. Georgiana gave away snipping’s of the flag, over 200 feet, as mementos to veterans and government officials.  Citizens who received these mementos displayed them in their homes and donated them to museums.  The Smithsonian currently has thirteen fragments of the flag including one star. Unfortunately, these snippings were not able to be reattached during the first conservation effort by the Smithsonian in 1914.  The Smithsonian hired Amelia Flower, a well-known flag restorer and embroidery teacher, to “resuscitate” the flag, along with the help of ten needle women.  The women attached the flag to new linen backing, sewing approximately 1.7 million interlocking stitches.  The work took eight weeks to complete and cost $1,243.00 which seems like a small amount in today’s dollars.  The flag was displayed in a glass case for 50 years in the Smithsonian Arts and Industrial Building.  During World War II, the flag was moved to a warehouse in Virginia to protect it from possible bombardment. In 1964, the flag was moved again to the National Museum of American History where it was displayed on the second floor.

  In 1998, the Smithsonian started a second two-year restoration of the flag using modern conservation techniques. The flag’s inclusion in “Save America’s Treasures” was a Millennium preservation project initiated by First Lady Hillary Rodham Clinton.  They removed Flower’s stitching and linen backing, removed the surface dirt using cosmetic sponges, and used a solution of acetone and water to remove harmful contaminants. The goal of the restoration was not to restore or “fix” the flag, but rather to prevent further deterioration.  The “Star Spangled Flag” is currently housed in the Smithsonian in a climate-controlled environment and low light, displaying the flag at a shallow angle which will preserve the flag for future generations. 

  On a personal note, I have been to two Revolutionary battle sites, Fort McHenry and Fort Washington in New York, and was moved by the effort and sacrifice made by brave men and women fighting for their freedom.  The obstacles that they overcame, including terrain, supplies and manpower, were enormous and at times seamed insurmountable.  Their persistence allowed them to outlast and defeat a world supper power, the British, culminating in the Battle of Yorktown.  My goal moving forward, is to visit as many revolutionary battle sites as possible, write about my experiences, learn more about the event, and share that with the “Every Day Historian”.  Talk to you soon about Fort Washington.

Al Lopez        

Sources: (Fort McHenry National Monument and Star-Spangled Banner)

Smithsonian    https://www.smithsonianmag.com/history/star-spangled-banner-back-on-display-83229098/