Fort McHenry Star Spangled Banner Flag

Description

Fort McHenry Star-Spangled Banner Flag

The Star-Spangled Banner, or the Great Garrison Flag, was the garrison flag that flew over Fort McHenry in Baltimore Harbor during the naval portion of the Battle of Baltimore during the War of 1812. Seeing the flag during the battle inspired Francis Scott Key to write the poem “Defence of Fort McHenry”, which, retitled with the flag’s name of the closing lines of the first stanza and set to the tune “To Anacreon in Heaven”, later became the national anthem of the United States.

History

In Baltimore’s preparation for an expected attack on the city, Fort McHenry was made ready to defend the city’s harbor. When Major George Armistead expressed desire for a very large flag to fly over the fort, General John S. Stricker and Commodore Joshua Barney placed an order with a prominent Baltimorean flagmaker for two oversized American Flags. The larger of the two flags would be the Great Garrison Flag, the largest battle flag ever flown at the time.The smaller of the two flags would be the Storm Flag, to be more durable and less prone to fouling in inclement weather.

Available documentation clearly shows that this flag was sewn by local flagmaker Mary Young Pickersgill under a government commission in 1813 at a cost of $405.90 (equivalent to $4,960 in 2015) George Armistead, the commander of Fort McHenry, specified “a flag so large that the British would have no difficulty seeing it from a distance”.