Battle of Fort McHenry

In September 1814, after burning Washington, a British force turned on Baltimore. A land attack was stopped at North Point, where its general, Robert Ross, was killed. On 13 September the Royal Navy bombarded Fort McHenry for about a day, but the ships had to stay out of range of the fort's guns and the shells and rockets did little damage. Through the night a mass of fire lit the sky, and at dawn the garrison raised a huge flag. The British withdrew, and the Baltimore campaign ended. The scene gave Francis Scott Key, watching from a ship, the words of The Star-Spangled Banner.

The battle is better known through the song it inspired than for its military importance, which was small: the fort was never in danger of being taken by ships alone once the land attack had failed. Key wrote his poem as a witness aboard a truce vessel, having come to seek the release of a captured doctor, and the claim that he composed it on the spot is debated. The song became the American national anthem only in 1931, after more than a century of use. The flag that survived the bombardment passed through the Armistead family and into the Smithsonian, where its condition shows decades of cutting and display.