How an Oversized Flag Resulted in the National Anthem

A U.S. flag with 15 stripes and 15 stars, like the one that was flown at Fort McHenry during the War of 1812, frames the Battle Monument in Baltimore, Md., on Sept. 12, 2014. Chip Somodevilla/Getty Images

“We, sir, are ready at Fort McHenry to defend Baltimore against invading by the enemy,” wrote Maj. George Armistead to Gen. Samuel Smith. “That is to say, we are ready except that we have no suitable ensign to display over the Star Fort and it is my desire to have a flag so large that the British will have no difficulty seeing it from a distance. “

As Maj. Armistead had conveyed, the fort was ready to defend Baltimore. Before there was Fort McHenry, however, there was Fort Whetstone. This fort had been constructed during the Revolutionary War as a deterrent to the British. In 1794, more than a decade after the American Revolution concluded, Congress apportioned monies to bolster the defensive position. Between 1798 and 1800, the fort underwent construction, resulting in a 20-gun battery with earthworks and a star-shaped fort. Upon its completion, it was renamed Fort McHenry after James McHenry, the Maryland politician, who was also a signer of the Constitution and George Washington’s last and John Adams’s first secretary of war.

Secretary of War James McHenry, for whom the fort was named after. Public Domain

Upon receipt of Maj. Armistead’s letter in the summer of 1813, Gen. Smith hired a local flag and ensign maker in Baltimore, Mary Pickersgill, to sew two flags: one at 17 feet by 25 feet, which would be the fort’s storm flag; and a second at 30 feet by 42 feet.

As Armistead intimated in his letter, time was of the essence. America was at war, again, with Great Britain. Congress had declared war on the British on June 18, 1812. The declaration of war was for a number of reasons, which included the Royal Navy’s impressment of Americans, the British trade blockade to its European trade partners, and America’s desire to remove foreign influence and expand its own in North America.

The problems with Great Britain that led to war began well before 1812. Thomas Jefferson, while president in 1807, wrote to his friend Thomas Leiper stating, “I never expected to be under the necessity of wishing success to Bonaparte, but the English being equally tyrannical at sea as he is on land, & that tyranny bearing on us in every point of either honor or interest, I say, ‘down with England.’”

It was Napoleon Bonaparte and his Grande Armée who had kept much of the British army and navy busy during the early portion of the War of 1812. But after Bonaparte’s abdication on April 11, 1814, and subsequent exile, those British ships, sailors, and soldiers were now available to fight in America. It was assumed the first place these British invaders would attack would be Baltimore.

Baltimore ... or Washington?

“By God! They would not come with such a fleet without meaning to strike somewhere. But they certainly will not come here!” Secretary of War John Armstrong stated, concerning Washington as a possible target of attack. “What the devil will they do here? No! No! Baltimore is the place.”

The British sailed up the Chesapeake Bay, but instead of Baltimore, they indeed sailed for Washington. Armstrong was wrong, and on Aug. 24, 1814, the nation’s capital was put to the torch. The glow from the conflagration could be seen from Baltimore. If there was any consolation for Armstrong’s prediction, Maryland’s port city would be next. (Armstrong resigned shortly after the British stormed Washington.)

The Flag and the Port City

A year before the British marched on Washington, Pickersgill, with assistance from her 13-year-old daughter, Caroline; her two nieces, Eliza and Margaret Young; her mother, Rebecca Flower; and a free black apprentice, Grace Wisher; finished the Fort McHenry flag. The flag is rather unconventional and not simply for its size. The flag had 15 stars and 15 stripes, a design adhering to the second Flag Act of 1794. The stars and stripes represented how many states were in the Union—though by this time, there were 18. (The third Flag Act of 1818 articulated the return to 13 stripes and adding a star for every new state.)

On Aug. 18, 1813, Pickersgill presented the completed flag. The next morning, it was raised at Fort McHenry.

Mary Pickersgill and her nieces sewing the flag at Brown's Brewery. Artist's rendition by Robert McGill Mackall, 1962. Public Domain

Around this same time, Levin Winder, Maryland’s governor, ordered the state militia to prepare Baltimore for a British attack. This preparation included fortifying the port’s harbor with chains and sunken hulls to keep British ships out, constructing an approximate three-mile-long redoubt east of the city, as well as adding more cannons to the fort’s defenses, including a 36-pounder.

Undoubtedly, Maj. Armistead saw the glow of Washington’s flames on the night of Aug. 24. His job was to ready the 1,000 militiamen under his command. Outside of the fort and along Baltimore’s defensive perimeter, however, there were approximately 10,000 regular troops, armed with rifles and 100 cannons.

Before the British landed on the Maryland peninsula with 4,500 British soldiers and marines, the Americans were alerted. A farmhouse, located near Baltimore, served as a lookout station. Using a flag system, it issued its alert to prepare for battle.

The British Arrive

Maj. Gen. Robert Ross, who had led the British through the nation’s capital, led his troops north toward Baltimore. The first point of contact with the American combatants during the Battle of North Point took place at Patapsco Neck, about 7 miles southeast of Baltimore. Under the command of Gen. John Stricker, approximately 3,200 American soldiers met Ross and the British on the battlefield.

The battlefield was hardly a flat dry surface. The Americans utilized their knowledge of the terrain, which included hills and swamps, to fight. During this initial firefight, Ross was killed. His command went to Col. Arthur Brooke. The British eventually advanced, forcing the Americans to retreat into the city. Nonetheless, the delaying action, and the 291 British casualties, proved the American action had been worthwhile.

The death of British Gen. Robert Ross at North Point, Maryland, while advancing on Baltimore, Sept. 12, 1814, during the War of 1812. Steel engraving, American, 1858, after Alonzo Chappel. Public Domain

The following day, the British arrived at Hampstead Hill, the main section of the three-mile redoubt. After some minor British success, the heavily defended area proved too much to overcome. Forcing their way through the redoubt and conducting a frontal attack on Fort McHenry, Brooke thought, would be too costly. The British decided to bombard the fort from the sea.

Nineteen Royal Navy ships anchored near the Baltimore harbor. The battle preparations ordered by Governor Winder and instituted by the Maryland militia and Baltimore citizens, however, kept the ships from getting too close. These defensive tactics proved enormously effective.

A Lawyer’s Witness of the Bombardment

For 27 hours straight, the British ships bombarded Fort McHenry, firing approximately 1,800 cannonballs and Congreve rockets. A prominent American lawyer was aboard the USS President during the bombardment. The American ship was in the company of the Royal Navy several miles from the Baltimore harbor. The lawyer was not a prisoner. In fact, he had arrived with another lawyer, John Skinner, as part of a prisoner exchange negotiation.

Dr. William Beanes, a 65-year-old doctor, along with two other doctors, had been arrested under the order of Maj. Gen. Ross on suspicion of being spies. By the time the Battle of Baltimore had begun on Sept. 12, the other two doctors had been released. Apparently, little negotiation was needed for Beanes’s release, as the British commanders no longer viewed the doctor as a threat.

Yet the British forbade the two lawyers and the doctor to disembark until the Battle of Baltimore concluded. After more than a day’s worth of consistent bombardment, it seemed inevitable the battle would conclude in Britain’s favor.

When the bombardment finally and mercifully came to an end, the lawyer pulled out his spyglass to see how Fort McHenry had fared. He feared the worst. It was during this week in history, on the morning of Sept. 14, 1814, that the storm flag at Fort McHenry was lowered and what was raised would go down as one of the most significant moments in American history. As was done every morning for reveille, the 15-star and 15-stripe Pickersgill “flag so large that the British will have no difficulty seeing it from a distance” was raised. Fort McHenry had sustained only minor damage. The young lawyer was amazed.

With the tune of “To Anacreon in Heaven” in his head, he grabbed a sheet of paper and wrote the inspirational poem called “Defence of Fort McHenry.” The poem’s first stanza has become the most familiar and recited poem in American history. It reads:

O say can you see, by the dawn’s early light, What so proudly we hail'd 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? And the rocket’s red glare, the bomb bursting in air, Gave proof through the night that our flag was still there, O say does that star-spangled banner yet wave O'er the land of the free and the home of the brave?

Francis Scott Key, the lawyer and author of the poem, had been in the right place at the right time to witness one of the most important American moments. It was a moment where three lives, among many others, intersected, to create America’s national anthem. It was Maj. Armistead’s ensign request that led to Pickersgill’s flag. Under Armistead’s watchful eye that flag was raised, not knowing a lawyer out at sea was looking for a sign of Fort McHenry’s survival.

A portrait of Francis Scott Key by Joseph Wood. Key is best known as the author of the text of the American national anthem, "The Star-Spangled Banner." Public Domain

More than 210 years later, the Pickersgill flag—now known as The Star-Spangled Banner flag—remains on display at the Smithsonian Institution’s National Museum of American History for everyone to see.

Star Spangled Banner flag on display at the Smithsonian's National Museum of American History, circa 1964. Public Domain

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