Battle of Baltimore

Bombardment of Fort McHenry by the British. Engraved by John Bower

Date	September 12–15, 1814
Location	Baltimore, Maryland
Result	American victory; British withdrawal

Belligerents

United States

Great Britain

Commanders and leaders

Robert Ross †

Strength

North Point:
2,000
infantry,
militia
Fort McHenry:
1,000
infantry,
militia,
20 artillery pieces
Additional Defense:
8,000 militia
150 artillery pieces
Total:
11,000

Land:
5,000 infantry
Sea:
19 warships

Casualties and losses

North Point:
24 killed,
139 wounded,
50 captured
Fort McHenry:
4 killed,
24 wounded
Total:
28 killed,
163 wounded,
50 captured

North Point:
42–46 killed,
279–295 wounded
Fort McHenry:
1 wounded
Total:
42–46 killed,
280–296 wounded

The Battle of Baltimore was a sea/land battle fought between British invaders and American defenders 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. The British and Americans first met at North Point. Though the Americans retreated, the battle was a successful delaying action that inflicted heavy casualties on the British, halted their advance and allowed the defenders at Baltimore to properly prepare for an attack.

The resistance of Baltimore’s Fort McHenry during bombardment by the Royal Navy inspired Francis Scott Key to compose the poem "Defence of Fort McHenry", which later became the lyrics for "The Star-Spangled Banner", the national anthem of the United States of America.

Until April 1814, Great Britain was at war with Napoleonic France, which limited British war aims in America. During this time the British primarily used a defensive strategy and repelled American invasions of the provinces of Upper and Lower Canada. However, the Americans gained naval control over Lake Erie in 1813, and seized parts of western Ontario. In the Southwest, General Andrew Jackson destroyed the military strength of the Creek nation at the Battle of Horseshoe Bend in 1814.

Although Great Britain was unwilling to draw military forces from the war with France, it still enjoyed a naval superiority on the ocean, and vessels of the North America and West Indies Squadron, based at Bermuda, blockaded American ports on the Atlantic throughout the war, strangling the American economy (initially, the north-eastern ports were spared this blockade as public sentiments in New York and New England were against the war). The Royal Navy and Royal Marines also occupied American coastal islands and landed military forces for raids along the coast, especially around the Chesapeake Bay, encouraging enslaved blacks to defect to the Crown and recruiting them into the Corps of Colonial Marines.

Following the defeat of Napoleon in the spring of 1814, the British adopted a more aggressive strategy, intended to compel the United States to negotiate a peace that restored the pre-war status quo. Thousands of seasoned British soldiers were deployed to British North America. Most went to the Canadas to re-inforce the defenders (the British Army, Canadian militias, and their First Nations allies drove the American invaders back into the United States, but without naval control of the Great Lakes they were unable to receive supplies, resulting in the failure to capture Plattsburgh in the Second Battle of Lake Champlain and the withdrawal from US territory), but a brigade under the command of Major General Robert Ross was sent in early July with several naval vessels to join the forces already operating from Bermuda. The combined forces were to be used for diversionary raids along the Atlantic coast, intended to force the Americans to withdraw forces from Canada. They were under orders not to carry out any extended operations, and were restricted to targets on the coast.

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