Fort McHenry is a historical American coastal pentagonal bastion fort on Locust Point, now a neighborhood of Baltimore, Maryland. It is best known for its role in the War of 1812, when it successfully defended Baltimore Harbor from an attack by the British navy from Chesapeake Bay on September 13–14, 1814.
The Battle of Baltimore took place between British and American forces in the War of 1812. American forces repulsed sea and land invasions off the busy port city of Baltimore, Maryland, and killed the commander of the invading British forces.
George Armistead was an American military officer, best known as the commander of Fort McHenry during the Battle of Baltimore in the War of 1812.
The siege of Fort Erie, also known as the Battle of Erie, from 4 August to 21 September 1814, was one of the last engagements of the War of 1812, between British and American forces. It took place during the Niagara campaign, and the Americans successfully defended Fort Erie against a British army. During the siege, the British suffered high casualties in a failed storming attempt; they also suffered casualties from sickness and exposure in their rough encampments. Unaware that the British were about to abandon the siege, the American garrison launched a sortie to destroy the British siege batteries, during which both sides again suffered high losses.
The Battle of Bladensburg, also known as the Bladensburg Races, took place during the Chesapeake Campaign, part of the War of 1812, on 24 August 1814, at Bladensburg, Maryland, 8.6 miles (13.8 km) northeast of Washington, D.C.
The Battle of North Point was fought on September 12, 1814, between General John Stricker's Maryland Militia and a British force led by Major General Robert Ross. Although the Americans retreated, they were able to do so in good order having inflicted significant casualties on the British, killing one of the commanders of the invading force, significantly demoralizing the troops under his command and leaving some of his units lost among woods and swampy creeks, with others in confusion.
The Corps of Colonial Marines were two different British Marine units raised from former black slaves for service in the Americas, at the behest of Alexander Cochrane. The units were created at two separate periods: 1808-1810 during the Napoleonic Wars; and then again during the War of 1812; both units being disbanded once the military threat had passed. Apart from being created in each case by Cochrane, they had no connection with each other.
The Battle of Pensacola took place during the Creek War, part of the War of 1812, in which American forces fought against forces from the kingdoms of Britain and Spain who were aided by the Creek Indians and African-American slaves allied with the British. General Andrew Jackson led his infantry against British and Spanish forces controlling the city of Pensacola in Spanish Florida. Allied forces abandoned the city, and the remaining Spanish forces surrendered to Jackson.
Defenders Day is a longtime legal holiday on September 12, in the U.S. state of Maryland, in the City of Baltimore and surrounding Baltimore County. It commemorates the successful defense of the city of Baltimore on September 12-13-14, 1814 from an invading British force during the War of 1812, an event which led to the writing of the words of a poem, which when set to music a few days later, became known as "The Star-Spangled Banner", which in 1931 was designated as the national anthem of the United States.
The Battle of Caulk's Field was fought during the War of 1812 in Kent County, Maryland between a small British Army force commanded by Captain Sir Peter Parker and American militia forces commanded by Lieutenant Colonel Philip Reed. Parker, who was operating in the Chesapeake Bay region as part of the British campaign against Baltimore, Maryland, landed on the eastern shore of the Chesapeake Bay to move against Reed's militia encampment. The British attacking force encountered American skirmishers, who conducting a fighting retreat, drawing the British towards the main American line. Parker was mortally wounded during the fight, and the British force withdrew after Parker fell. Later British setbacks at the Battle of North Point and the Battle of Fort McHenry led the British to abandon their campaign against Baltimore. In 2012, the battlefield was the site of an archaeological survey.
The following is a synopsis of the land campaigns of the War of 1812.
The Chesapeake Bay Flotilla was a motley collection of barges and gunboats that the United States assembled under the command of Joshua Barney, an 1812 privateer captain, to stall British attacks in the Chesapeake Bay which came to be known as the "Chesapeake campaign" during the War of 1812. The Flotilla engaged the Royal Navy in several inconclusive battles before Barney was forced to scuttle the vessels themselves on August 22, 1814. The men of the Flotilla then served onshore in the defense of Washington, DC and Baltimore. It was disbanded on February 15, 1815, after the end of the war.
Fort Howard was a military installation located on the North Point peninsula, overlooking the main channel of the Patapsco River leading into the harbor of Baltimore, Maryland, USA. Although militarily important since the early 19th century, its surviving elements and name date to the Spanish–American War. It was named by Elihu Root, Secretary of War under President Theodore Roosevelt, in 1902 after Colonel John Eager Howard (1752–1827). The installation earned the nickname the "Bulldog at Baltimore's Gate", serving as the coastal artillery headquarters for Baltimore, Maryland. Fort Howard's historical significance is its military connection with the War of 1812, the Spanish–American War, and World War II.
Cathay Williams was an American soldier. An African-American woman, she enlisted in the United States Army under the pseudonym William Cathay. Williams became the first female to enlist and the only documented woman to serve in the U.S. Army while posing as a man during the Indian Wars.
Bellefields is a manor house located in Croom, Prince George's County, Maryland. It was constructed about 1720. It is a brick structure in Flemish bond with random glazed headers, and two stories over a high basement. The structure is rectangular, with gabled roof sections, paired interior end chimneys, a front center entrance, wide raised belt course above the first floor, flat arched openings, and flanking symmetrical single-story wings. It is in the Georgian style. It was the home of Patrick Sim, Scottish immigrant and of his son, Col. Joseph Sim, Maryland patriot.
Croom is an unincorporated community and census-designated place in Southern Prince George's County, Maryland, United States. As of the 2020 census it had a population of 2,720. Croom largely consists of former tobacco farms and forests converted to Washington bedroom subdivisions such as nearby Marlton. The main part of Patuxent River Park is in Croom.
George Hume Steuart (1790–1867) was a United States general who fought during the War of 1812, and later joined the Confederate States of America during the Civil War. His military career began in 1814 when, as a captain, he raised a company of Maryland volunteers, leading them at both the Battle of Bladensberg and the Battle of North Point, where he was wounded. After the war he rose to become major general and commander-in-chief of the First Light Division, Maryland Militia.
William Steuart was a stone mason in colonial Maryland, and Mayor of Baltimore from 1831 to 1832. He was a lieutenant colonel in the United States Army during the War of 1812, and saw service during the Battle of Baltimore, where he commanded the 38th United States Infantry foot regiment.
The 5th Regiment Massachusetts Volunteer Militia was a peacetime infantry regiment that was activated for federal service in the Union army for three separate tours during the American Civil War. In the years immediately preceding the war and during its first term of service, the regiment consisted primarily of companies from Essex County as well as Boston and Charlestown.
The Dawn's Early Light is a 1972 non-fiction book by Walter Lord about the War of 1812 Battle of Baltimore and the events leading up to it. Lord said he wrote the book because of the event's significance in American history. It is one of his 13 bestsellers.
United States 
U.S. Army 38th U.S. Infantry Regiment
