“Dulici et decorum est pro Patria mori”
On July 21, 1817, Captain Benjamin C. Howard’sFirst Mechanical Volunteersformed up early in town and marched six miles to the North Point battleground. Accompanying them were wagons conveying…
On April 22, 1839 Major General Samuel Smith (1752-1839), veteran of the Revolutionary War and the War of 1812 in which he commanded the Third Division of Maryland Militia during the Battle for Baltimore, passed away. Of the many obituaries this one…
On September 13-14, 1814, in the third year of the War of 1812, this 34 year old Virginia born artillery officer ordered an American flag raised over the ramparts of Fort McHenry in Baltimore harbor following a 25-hour British naval bombardment. The…
At the north side of the entrance to Sollers’ Point on Bear Creek was Camp Eagleston named for the nearby farm of John Eagleston, a private in Captain Samuel McDonald’s company, 6thMaryland Regiment. The camp was one of several strategic…
On August 9, 1832 in a deposition before a Notary Public, Sailing Master Beverly Diggs (c.1783-1862) gave narrative of his role on September 12, 1814 as the British fleet made their appearance that morning entering the Patapsco River and later…
On April 25, 1818, Brevet Lt. Colonel George Armistead (1780-1818), age 38, died at the home of his brother-in-law Christopher Hughes, Jr. His funeral procession included the 1814 defenders' of Fort McHenry and citizens who proceeded to Old St.…
Overlooking Baltimore Inner Harbor waterfront on Federal Hill stands the statue of Major General Samuel Smith (1752-1839), Revolutionary War officer, merchant, ship-owner, and U.S. Senator earned him the experience and fortitude in the momentous…
On the eve of the 25thAnniversary of the Battle of North Point, a prominent physician of medicine and purveyor of his famous “Houck’s Remedies” gave to the State of Maryland an acre of land on the battlefield for the princely sum of…
On August 14, 1903 at a meeting of the annual Society of War of 1812 in Maryland it was proposed to distribute the War of 1812 cannon described as“…musty and formidable old weapons of war… planted in the streets in different…
Lt. Colonel Joseph Sterett (1773-1821) and his wife Molly Harris' 260-acre estate of “Mount Deposit” lay to the north of Judge Kell’s estate along the Philadelphia Road, two miles east from Baltimore, overlooking Fell’s Point…
After stopping at the home of Joseph Foard, British troops continued next to the country estate of Judge Thomas Kell (1772-1846) whose family also had departed for safety. Judge Thomas Kell (1772-1846) was a Judge on the Circuit Court and later…
Following the Battle of North Point and the death of Maj. General Robert Ross, the British army under Col. Arthur Brooke advanced on the morning of September 13 towards the outskirts of Baltimore west on the Philadelphia Road (Rt.40) along Herring…
“Sunday, 11th September 1814. This has been a day of great alarm, and to some of terror and dismay. I feel a confidence that God will mercifully spare the city and save the inhabitants from destruction.” Journal of the Reverend John…
May they rest in peace in their narrow beds, covered by verdure ever fresh, and wild flowers ever blooming; and may the kindliest dew of Heaven distill upon their graves an emblem of our tears.”Niles’ Weekly Register, March 30,…
On January 14, 1843 three days following his death of pleurisy at the age of sixty-three, Baltimore’sNiles’ Weekly Register reported his death:
“Francis Key, Esq., late U.S. Attorney for the District of Columbia, died suddenly…
“DIED. At Cambridge, Maryland in the 2nd instant, Captain EDWARD TRIPPE, aged 75 years, long and favorably known as commander of the first line of steamboats established between Baltimore and Philadelphia, and who, just before or about the…
During the summer of 1813 several shore fortifications were under construction contiguous to Fort McHenry as precautionary defenses to the west of Fort McHenry guarding the Ferry Branch approach to Baltimore. Among these was Fort Covington named for…
“I deem it absolutely necessary top erect a small Battery, south of the [powder] Magazine on the [Patapsco] river bank. It mounted six 18-pounder French naval guns behind a four foot high breastwork with a powder magazine in the rear covered…
Like many historical events, myths and legends have their own unique place in the documented stories providing a time line of events along with the documented main events. The Battle of North Point has too its' own share of stories that have made…
On August 15, 1814 artist Rembrandt Peale opened his Museum and Gallery of Fine Arts at North Holiday Street in Baltimore, America’s first designed public museum. The museum, designed by Robert Cary Long, was advertised predominately as an arts…
On September 6, 1814 Captain Samuel Babcock, U.S. Corps of Engineers reported on the state of fortifications at Baltimore to Major General Samuel Smith. Babcock had been ordered to Baltimore by the secretary of war “to direct the works of…
