The Battle of Baltimore, September 12-14

On August 24, 1814, the White House and the Capitol were torched in a British invasion force commanded by Rear-Admiral George Cockburn. It was the lowest point in the War of 1812—until– a battle in Baltimore restored America’s confidence and birthed a national anthem.

Nineteen days later—on September 12^th—British troops launched a land-based/naval ambush on Fort McHenry, a pentagon-shaped military fortress—constructed in 1798—and named after a former Secretary of War.

Rockets poured down on the stronghold, illuminating a huge American banner overhead. The merciless bombardment lasted more than twenty-four hours, but the obstructions in the harbor—and Maryland’s steadfast militia–held the British fleet away from the guns’ most effective range. Two days later, the flag maker Mary Pickersgill replaced the tattered streamer.

Meanwhile, a young lawyer named Francis Scott Key, who was aboard a prison ship nearby—and attempting to negotiate the release of American hostages—was so moved by the site, that he composed a poem which celebrated the country’s deliverance. He depicted “the rockets’ red glare;” “the bombs bursting in air,” and rejoiced in the fact that “the flag was still there.”  Later, it was set to a British drinking song, “To Anacreon in Heaven,” that morphed into “The Star-Spangled Banner.”

For more information, the Grateful American Book Prize recommends Star-Spangled Banner: The Unlikely Story of America’s National Anthem by Marc Ferris.

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The Capture of Atlanta

In August of 1864—after more than four years of civil war—the weary President Abraham Lincoln felt overwhelmed. His campaign for reelection appeared to be hopeless; the Union forces were stuck in a bloody quagmire—and—it seemed clear to his political lieutenants that the public would gladly vote for the likely Democratic nominee, General George B. McClellan.

And so, Lincoln wrote a note that foretold a bleak future for the United States:

This morning, as for some days past, it seems exceedingly probable that this Administration will not be re-elected. Then it will be my duty to so co-operate with the President elect, as to save the Union between the election and the inauguration; as he will have secured his election on such ground that he can not possibly save it afterwards. — A. Lincoln

He carefully folded the document and, when his Cabinet members arrived in his office—today’s Lincoln Bedroom—he made an unusual request. He asked them to sign the outside of the paper without reading its contents. This “Blind Memorandum” would bind them all to the same grim task.

Then, on September 2, after a long siege by General William T. Sherman, the Atlanta surrendered to the Union’s forces. Sherman triumphantly wrote to Lincoln, “Atlanta is ours, and fairly won.” This victory—along with the extreme and defeatist platform adopted by the Democratic Party at its 1864 convention—helped to revitalize Lincoln’s political fortunes. He won an overwhelming victory in November, and—only then—read to his Cabinet the memorandum they had endorsed.

For more information, the Grateful American Book Prize proposes David E. Long’s The Jewel of Liberty: Abraham Lincoln’s Re-election and the End of Slavery.

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Michael F. Bishop, a writer and historian, is the former executive director of the International Churchill Society and the Abraham Lincoln Bicentennial Commission.

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History Matters is a feature courtesy of the Grateful American Book Prize, an annual award for high quality, 7th to 9th grade-level books dealing with important moments in history.