Karen Clemens Warrick - The War of 1812

Published in 2017 by Enslow Publishing, LLC.

101 W. 23rd Street, Suite 240, New York, NY 10011

Copyright 2017 by Karen Clemens Warrick

All rights reserved.

No part of this book may be reproduced by any means without the written permission of the publisher.

Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data

Names: Warrick, Karen Clemens.

Title: The War of 1812 / Karen Clemens Warrick.

Description: New York, NY : Enslow Publishing, 2017. | Includes bibliographical references and index.

Identifiers: LCCN 2016005256 | ISBN 9780766076716 (library bound)

Subjects: LCSH: United StatesHistoryWar of 1812Juvenile literature. Classification: LCC E354 .W38 2017 | DDC 973.5/2dc23 LC record available at http://lccn.loc.gov/2016005256

Printed in the United States of America

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Portions of this book appeared in the book The War of 1812: "We Have Met the Enemy and They Are Ours."

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CHAPTER 1

CHAPTER 2

CHAPTER 3

CHAPTER 4

CHAPTER 5

CHAPTER 6

CHAPTER 7

CHAPTER 8

CHAPTER 9

By the summer of 1814, Baltimore, Maryland, expected the British Royal Navy to attack. Major George Armistead, the commander at Fort McHenry, had spent months preparing to defend the city. All the fortifications were in place, but there was one item missing. Major Armistead desired "to have a flag so large that the British will have no difficulty seeing it from a distance." He got his wish.

Two flags were ordered from Mary Pickersgill. She was Baltimore's best known flag maker. Mary and her thirteen-year-old daughter, Caroline, worked tirelessly on the projects. One flag, called a "storm flag" measured 17 feet by 25 feet (5 m x 7.6 m).

The second flag was to be the largest ever flown over a fort. It measured 30 feet by 42 feet (9 m x 13 m). Each stripe was 2 feet (.6 m) wide and the stars were 24 inches (60 cm) from point to point.

In 1814, the United States Flag had 15 stars and 15 stripes. At that time one star and stripe were added for each new state that joined the union. The thirteen original colonies and new states of Kentucky and Vermont were represented on the 1814 flag.

Both flags were completed before the British sailed up the Chesapeake to attack Fort McHenry on September 13, 1814. The next morning, following a night of relentless British bombardment, Pickersgill's flag waved proudly over the starshaped ramparts of Fort McHenry. The sight inspired Francis Scott Key who had been detained overnight on a British ship. He began a poem to commemorate the occasion. It was first published under the title "Defense of Fort M'Henry. The poem soon attained wide popularity and was sung to the tune "To Anacreon in Heaven." In 1931, this song, now known as "The Star-Spangled Banner," was officially made the National Anthem by Congress.

Today the famous Fort McHenry flag is displayed in the Smithsonian Institution's National Museum of American History, in Washington, D.C. The storm flag is lost to history.

The Star-Spangled Banner

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, thro' the perilous fight, O'er the ramparts we watch'd, were so gallantly streaming? And the rockets' red glare, the bombs bursting in air, Gave proof thro' 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?

On the shore dimly seen thro' the mists of the deep, Where the foe's haughty host in dread silence reposes, What is that which the breeze, o'er the towering steep, As it fitfully blows, half conceals, half discloses? Now it catches the gleam of the morning's first beam, In full glory reflected, now shines on the stream: 'Tis the star-spangled banner: O, long may it wave O'er the land of the free and the home of the brave!

And where is that band who so vauntingly swore That the havoc of war and the battle's confusion, A home and a country should leave us no more? Their blood has wash'd out their foul footsteps' pollution. No refuge could save the hireling and slave From the terror of flight or the gloom of the grave: And the star-spangled banner in triumph doth wave O'er the land of the free and the home of the brave.

O thus be it ever when free-men shall stand Between their lov'd home and the war's desolation; Blest with vict'ry and peace, may the heav'n-rescued land Praise the Pow'r that hath made and preserv'd us a nation! Then conquer we must, when our cause it is just, And this be our motto: "In God is our trust!" And the star-spangled banner in triumph shall wave O'er the land of the free and the home of the brave!

Francis Scott Key, 1814

Major General Andrew Jackson received a warning, in Spetember 1814, from the secretary of war James Monroe. New Orleans was the Royal Navys next target. Jackson, the commander of the American troops in the West, was watching the enemy from Mobile, Alabama, another possible target. Monroe sent a second warning in October of that year. He was certain the British would attack New Orleans and soon. Jackson wasted no time. He marched west.

The general covered some 350 miles (563 km) in eleven days "to have a view at the points at which the enemy might make a landing." Since the citizens of New Orleans had done little to prepare against invasion, they welcomed Jackson warmlyeven in the pouring rain.

With confidence and energy, Jackson quickly took charge. He studied the few existing maps and spent two days inspecting the surrounding area on horseback. He soon realized that the small forces available to him could not cover all the approaches to New Orleans. Jackson decided to block as many routes as possible. All available men were put to work felling trees across the bayous, the many small waterways leading into or near the city. Jackson needed to work fast. Scouts reported the British were on the way.