Henry Lightner (1798-1883): The Drummer Boy of Fort McHenry

On the morning of Sunday, September 11, 1814, drummer Henry Lightner as well as other militia volunteers at Fort McHenry sounded the alarm at the approach of the British invasion fleet.  At sixteen years, Henry served in Captain John Berry’s Washington Artillery of the 1st Regiment, Maryland Volunteer Artillery. Captain Berry commanded the shore batteries along with two other militia companies.

Earlier, the company had marched from Baltimore to Fort McHenry earlier to the tune of Henry Lightner’s drum accompanied by fifes. It may well be that he played a favorite tune of his “The Girl I Left Behind.” As a member of the Association of Old Defenders’ of 1814  his presence was well known as he played the tune in the years to follow in many parades every Defenders’ Day in September. A tinner by trade in his adult years he was a member of the Methodist church. In the latter years of the 19th century as each of the participants in the defense of Baltimore past away, akin to the passing of the minute men of the days of the American Revolution, newspapers printed their passing – mutual respect for the citizen-soldiers of 1812.

Henry Lightner died in Baltimore on January 24, 1883 and was buried in Baltimore Cemetery.  

“The Drummer Boy’s Funeral.- The funeral of Mr. Henry Lightner, the drummer-boy of 1812, who died on Thursday in the 85th year of his age, took place yesterday afternoon, from the residence of his son-in-law, Mr. Richard McCullough, No. 49 East Eager street. Rev. Luther T. Widerman, pastor of Monument-Street M.E. Church, conducted the funeral services, and was assisted by Revs. A.M.Courtney, and A.S. Hank. The pallbearers were selected from the congregations of Monument-Street, Greenmount-Avenue and Madison-Square M.E. Churches and from Harmonia Lodge, I.O.O.F., a delegation from which also attended. Mr. W.H. Daneker, secretary of the Old Defenders’ Association, was present.” 

 The Sun, January 27, 1883. 

Sources: The Sun (Baltimore), January 25, 1883 and September 9, 1882.

Published in: on May 8, 2011 at 9:35 pm  Comments Off on Henry Lightner (1798-1883): The Drummer Boy of Fort McHenry  

Lt. Colonel George Armistead (1780-1818): Commander, Fort McHenry

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 flag itself inspired a Maryland lawyer to write a song that would become the U.S. national anthem on March 3, 1931.

George Armistead was born near Bowling Green in Caroline County, Virginia, on April 10, 1780, to a well-established Virginia family along the Rappahannock River. He was one of six sons and three daughters born to John and Lucinda (Baylor) Armistead.

He entered the U.S. military in 1799 and rose through the ranks, serving at Fort Niagara, New York (1801-1805); Fort Pickering, Arkansas Territory (1807-1808); and Fort McHenry, Baltimore (1809-1813), where he arrived in January 1809 as second in command. In Baltimore he wedded Louisa Hughes (1789-1861), daughter of a wealthy Baltimore silversmith. In 1812 he returned to Fort Niagara, where on May 27, 1813, he distinguished himself during the American siege of Fort Niagara by capturing the British flags. For his gallantry he was appointed a major in the Third Regiment U.S. Artillery. Armistead returned to Baltimore in June 1813, and remained until his death five years later.

Armistead’s name has been immortalized in U.S. history because of one simple act. In August 1813, he requisitioned a U.S. ensign measuring 42′ x 30′ having fifteen stars and fifteen-stripes that gave inspiration to the defenders’ of Baltimore and inspired a new national song. Ever since, he has been known as the “Guardian of the Star-Spangled Banner.”

After the bombardment, President James Madison brevetted Major Armistead to the rank of lieutenant colonel to date from September 12, 1814. Upon this promotion, Armistead remarked to his wife that “he hoped they would both live long to enjoy.” Four years later, at the age of thirty-eight, Armistead died of causes unknown and was buried with full military honors by a grateful city.

His brother-in-law Christopher Hughes Jr. (1786-1849) served as secretary to the American Peace Commission at Belgium that concluded the War of 1812 on Christmas Eve, 1814. It is Hughes who brought the Treaty of Ghent to Annapolis, then Washington for the President’s signature

Fifty years later, his soon-to-be equally famous nephew, Brigadier General Lewis Addison Armistead, C.S.A. (1817-1863) died of wounds suffered in the Confederate assault (Pickett’s Charge) at Gettysburg on July 3, 1863. Two months after the battle his remains were secretly brought to Baltimore and buried next to his famous uncle. A hero of Gettysburg lies with the hero of Fort McHenry within the grounds of Old St. Paul’s Cemetery in downtown Baltimore.

Two monuments honor Lt. Colonel George Armistead in Baltimore. The earliest, erected in 1882, stands atop historic Federal Hill overlooking Baltimore’s downtown waterfront; the other, at Fort McHenry, dedicated during the Battle for Baltimore Centennial Celebration in September 1914

Source: Guardian of The Star-Spangled Banner: Lt. Colonel George Armistead and The Fort McHenry Flag by Scott S Sheads (Baltimore: Toomey Press, 1999).

Published in: on April 14, 2011 at 5:38 pm  Comments Off on Lt. Colonel George Armistead (1780-1818): Commander, Fort McHenry  

A Flag for Fort McHenry, August 1813

“SHIPS COLOURS – For all nations, private signals, military flags, etc., An elegant assortment of American Colours, of every size, made of fiort quality bunting. Apply to Mrs. R. Young, Albermarle St.”

In the summer of 1813, soon after his arrival from the Canadian frontier in northern New York state, where he had taken part in the capture that spring of British held Fort George on the Niagara River,  Major George Armistead, U.S. Artillery was assigned to command Fort McHenry in Baltimore harbor. He found the fort without a suitable ensign and thus placed an order to James Calhoun, U.S. Deputy Commissary in Baltimore for two flags. Since the U.S. Arsenal in Phildelphia was currently without ensigns, Calhoun purchased locally for the ensigns from Mary Young Pickersgill (1776-1857) and her mother Rebecca Young (1739-1819), well established flag makers of colours since 1806.

 * * * *

Mr. James Calhoun, Jun., Deputy Commissary

To Mary Pickersgill

For 1 American Ensign 30 by 42 feet, first quality Bunting $405.90

For 1      do          do      17 by 25 feet,  do     do       do        $168.54

For Fort McHenry                                                                 $574.44   

August 19, 1813

Baltimore, 27th October 1813. Received from James Calhoun, Jun., Deputy Commissary, five hundred and seventy-four dollars and forty-four cents in full for the above bill.

Signed duplicates

For Mary Pickersgill

Eliza Young

* * * *

Received the within flags, signed duplicates

Gr. Armistead, Major Comm[andin]g.

A year later in September 13-14, 1814 both ensigns would be flown over Fort McHenry during “the perilous fight” and became the inspiration for a new national song – “The Star-Spangled Banner.”  The garrison flag (42’x30′) is on exhibit at the Smithsonian’s National Museum of American History in Washington, D.C.

Published in: on April 12, 2011 at 1:21 pm  Comments Off on A Flag for Fort McHenry, August 1813  

Recruitment Notice: “First Marine Artillery of the Union”

In the summer of 1814, Captain George Stiles (1760-1819), veteran sea captain of Fell’s Point issued a recruitment notice for those to enroll in this amphibious corps of 200 seamen and maritime artisans. The First Marine Artillery of the Union was organized in 1808 as a naval militia corps under the auspices of the City of Baltimore. During the War of 1812 “they were as a host to Baltimore.” This indefatigable corps of seamen built the marine dual gun batteries at Fort McHenry, Fort Babcock, and the Lazaretto as well as manning the gunboats of the harbor. In September 1814 they were stationed upon the defenses of Hampstead Hill (Patterson Park).  

First Marine Artillery on the Union

Meet at your gunhouse at 3 o’clock on Saturday next, in uniform complete, to exercise the heavy field ordnance. Knowing as you do, that the weight of this metal requires much strength, renders it unnecessary for any entreaties to be advanced by your captain, for your prompt attendance.

The object of this early hour is to admit agreeable to your constitution, new members; we have a right to expect every master and mate in port. The cloud gathers fast and heavy in the East, and all hands are called – few, very few, are the number of masters or mates belonging to this port that will be justified in excusing themselves from service by one of their skippers not being so firm as the other, or that he has seen five or forty; if he cannot sponge and ram as well as his messmates, he can pass a cartridge.

It is well known by all Tars the just stigma that is fixed by the ship’s crew on the man that skulks below, or under the lee of the long boat, when all hands are called; their services were not wanting until the present; but now your city calls all to arms, you are therefore invited and entreated to fall into our ranks.

Many 18 pounders are already manned and many more fit for service; come and join as we give a long pull, a strong pull and a pull altogether – and save the ship.

By order of the Captain, ROBT. G. HENDERSON, Secretary.

Source: Baltimore American and Commercial Daily Advertiser, July 22, 1814.

Published in: on April 12, 2011 at 11:10 am  Comments Off on Recruitment Notice: “First Marine Artillery of the Union”  

The Star-Spangled Banner: Why 15 Stars and 15 Stripes?

On June 14, 1777 the Second Continental Congress at Philadelphia representing the thirteen colonies then situated along the eastern seaboard with the exception of Maine (1820) and Florida (1845) passed the following resolution:

“Resolved, That the flag of the United States be thirteen stripes, alternate red and white; that the union be thirteen stars, white in a blue field, representing a new Constellation.”

Eighteen years later the U.S. Flag Act of January 13, 1794 was signed by President George Washington altering the flag design with the admission of Vermont (1791) and Kentucky (1792) into the Union providing for fifteen stripes as well as fifteen stars.

“An Act making an alteration in the Flag of the United States Be it enacted by the Senate and House of Representatives of the United States of America in Congress Assembled, That from and after the first day of May, Anno Domini, one thousand seven hundred and ninety-five, the flag of the United States, be fifteen stripes alternate red and white. That the Union be fifteen stars, white in a blue field.”

Thus on June 18, 1812 with a declaration of War with England there were only 15 stars and stripes represented on the Fort McHenry flag, though there were actually 18 states with the admission of Tennessee (1796), Ohio (1803) and Louisiana (1812).

On April 4, 1818, a new Flag Act was signed by President James Monroe provided what is still honored today:

An Act to establish the flag of the United States. Be it enacted by the Senate and House of Representatives of the United States of America, in Congress Assembled, That from and after the fourth day of July next, the flag of the United States be thirteen horizontal stripes, alternate red and white: that the union be twenty stars, white in a blue field. And be it further enacted, That on the admission of every new state into the Union, one star be added to the union of the flag; and that such addition shall take effect of the fourth day of July then next succeeding such admission

In 1907 the descendants of Lt. Colonel George Armistead, the commander of Fort McHenry during the war, presented the original star-spangled banner to the Smithsonian’s Museum of American History in Washington, D.C. A replica of this flag is flown by the National Park Service at Fort McHenry National Monument and Historic Shrine in Baltimore, Maryland. by Presidential Proclamation day and night.

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Published in: on April 10, 2011 at 8:33 pm  Comments Off on The Star-Spangled Banner: Why 15 Stars and 15 Stripes?  

British Spies enter Annapolis, August 1814

On August 14, 1814, onboard HM frigate Menalaus, Captain Sir Peter Parker reported he had anchored his ship off Maryland’s Eastern Shore opposite Annapolis unnoticed, while two of his officers rowed in a ships boat six miles across the bay and went ashore to reconnoiter the town. One of the officers, Lt. Benjamin Benyon, a Royal Marine commented that “… the Town is very pretty, the finest building is the State House which is in the centre of the Town, its built of brick, on the top of it is a large dome, this erected by the great Washington. This Town is well fortified, there are three thousand troops in it…”

Captain Parker informed the admiral that “…I may with safety give it as my opinion that Annapolis would face a very easy conquest (Two of my Officers walked round Fort Madison in the Night without being discovered.)…” That the officers and seamen had crossed the bay, approached Fort Madison, landed and walked freely unnoticed, suggest that the harbor defenses were not properly being guarded. Certainly a stronger presence should have been posted when a large British expeditionary forces had just entered the Patuxent River and eventually marched towards the U.S. Capitol.

Sources: Captain Peter Parker, RN, to Vice-Admiral Alexander Cochrane, August 30, 1814; Journal Kept during the Years 1813-1814 aboard HMS Menelaus, By Lieutenant Benjamin G. Benyon, RM;. (Western Reserve Historical Society, Cleveland, Ohio).

Published in: on April 10, 2011 at 6:36 pm  Comments Off on British Spies enter Annapolis, August 1814  

Captain Frederick Evans (1766-1844): U.S. Corps of Artillery

”Fell at the feet of Capt. Frederick Evans during the bombardment of Fort McHenry, Sept. 13, 1814.”

The inscription above is enscribed (since worn away) on an unexploded 13-inch British mortar shell that was taken home by Captain Frederick Evans soon after the bombardment of Fort McHenry, Sept. 13-14, 1814. Though Lt. Colonel George Armistead was the commanding officer, his second was Captain Evans of the U.S. Corps of Artillery.

Frederick Evans was born near Trappe, northwest of Harrisburg, Pennsylvania on March 30, 1766 to George and Elizabeth Evans. In June 1792 at the age of twenty-eight, he served as a lieutenant colonel of the 4th Pennsylvania Regiment of the Northumberland County militia. Like his father, Frederick was a surveyor by trade and elected to the Pennsylvania Legislature from 1809-1811.

With the outbreak of war he received a commission as a captain in the 2nd U.S. Artillery on July 6, 1812 and ordered in May 1814 to Fort McHenry. During the bombardment the corps were stationed within the Star Fort along with a company of U.S. Volunteers. He was honorably discharged on June 15, 1815 and returned to his home in Thompsontown, Pa.

Captain Evans died on December 1, 1844 and was buried in the Old Creamer Hoimestead Cemetery on the Susquehanna RIver in Thompsontown. The bomb shell remained in the family’s lumber saw mill until 1937 when it was donated to the National Park Service at Fort McHenry for exhibit.

Sources: Dunlap’s American Daily Adv., (Pennsylvania) November 19, 1794; Philadedelphia Gazettte, July 1, 1797;  The Story of Snyder County by George F. Dunkelberger (Baltimore: Gateway Press, 1997); History of Thompsontown and Delaware Township (Thompsontown Committee, 1977).

Published in: on April 10, 2011 at 5:51 pm  Comments Off on Captain Frederick Evans (1766-1844): U.S. Corps of Artillery  

Negro Frederick, alias William Williams, 38th U.S. Infantry at Fort McHenry, Sept. 1814

“FORTY DOLLARS REWARD – For apprehending and securing in jail so that I get him again, NEGRO FREDERICK; Sometimes calls himself FREDERICK HALL a bright mulatto; straight and well made; 21 years old; 5 feet 7 or 8 inches high, with a short chub nose and so fair as to show freckles, he has no scars or marks of any kind that is recollected; his clothing when he left home, two months sine, was home made cotton shirts, jacket and Pantaloons of cotton, and yarn twilled, all white. It is probable he may be in Baltimore, having  relation there, a house servant to a Mr. Williams, by the name of Frank who is also a mulatto, but not so fair as Frederick. BENJAMIN ODEN, Prince George’s County, May 12th, 1814.”

In the Spring of 1814 the slave Frederick Hall ran away from his owner Benjamin Oden (1762-1836) of Prince George’s County. On April 14, Frederick, alias William Williams was enlisted as a private in the 38th U.S. Infantry by an Ensign Martin. Federal law however prohibited the enlistment of slaves because they “could make no valid contract with the government.”

It seems the officer who enlisted Williams made no inquiries, nevertheless Williams received his bounty of $50 and was paid a private’s wage of $8 per month.  In September the 38th U.S. Infantry were ordered to Baltimore to Fort McHenry, taking part in its defense, within the dry ditch surrounding the Star Fort with 600 other U.S. Infantry soldiers. Records at the National Archives reveal that Williams was “severely wounded, having his leg blown off by a cannon ball.” He was taken to the garrison hospital at Fort McHenry where he died.. His final resting place remains unknown.

After the war in 1833-34 Mr. Oden petitioned the government for Williams land bounty, but since Williams was a slave, and “therefore, inasmuch as a slave cannot possess or acquire title to real estate by the laws of the land, in his own right, no right can be set up by the master as his representative.” Mr. Oden’s claim was therefore dismissed.

Sources: Baltimore American and Commercial Daily Adv., May 18, 1814; “On Claim To A Bounty Land Warrant for the Military Services of a Slave by His Owner,” American State Papers, Volume 6, Public Lands, No. 1223, 23rd Congress, 1st Session. April 7, 1834, p. 644, 969; Oden Papers, 1755-1836, MS. 178, Maryland Historical Society.

Published in: on April 10, 2011 at 5:34 pm  Comments Off on Negro Frederick, alias William Williams, 38th U.S. Infantry at Fort McHenry, Sept. 1814  

Private Thomas V. Beason, An 1814 Defender of Fort McHenry – Found!

“I am happy to inform you (wonderful as it may appear) that our loss amounts to four men killed, and 24 wounded.” Lt. Colonel George Armistead, Sept. 24, 1814.

Of the four defenders who were killed during the bombardment of Fort McHenry in September 1814 – Lt. Levi Clagett, Sergeant John Clemm, Privates Charles Messenger and Thomas V. Beason, none have been found – save one!

In December 1872, Jacob Cobb one of the Old Defenders’of Baltimore in 1814, discovered while walking in South Baltimore within an old burying ground near Fort Avenue and Webster Street a crumbling tombstone, upon which was deciphered the name of “Thomas V. Beeson.” The Association of the Old Defenders’ of 1814 at once made arrangements for the re-interment of the remains to Mount Olivet Cemetery on Frederick Road west of the city. The remains were transferred to a handsome casket and were re-entered with appropriate ceremonies.

Beason had served as a private in Captain John Berry’s Washington Artillerist, 1st Maryland Artillery, posted on the shore batteries of Fort McHenry during the bombardment, when a British mortar shell fragment killed him.

One of the speakers and Old Defenders’ who attended the ceremony “referred to the debt of gratitude due to the deceased by those whom he had defended and thought no more beautiful expression of that obligation could be made than the erection of a monument over his remains.”  Several of the Old Defenders’ were present to act as pall bearers.

A search of Mount Olivet Cemetery has yet to find his grave, perhaps one of the many gravestones that lie flat upon the ground covered by grass.

Source: “An Old Defender Re-interred – Interesting Ceremonies,” The Sun, December 25, 1872

 

 

 

 

Published in: on April 6, 2011 at 4:04 pm  Comments Off on Private Thomas V. Beason, An 1814 Defender of Fort McHenry – Found!  

“Defence of Fort McHenry” – Words of the National Anthem

September 14, 1814, 9 A.M. – “At this time our morning gun was fired, the flag hoisted, Yankee Doodle played, and we all appeared in full view of a formidable and mortified enemy, who calculated upon our surrender in 20 minutes after the commencement of the action.” Joseph Hopper Nicholson, U.S. Volunteers at Fort McHenry to a friend, September 17, 1814.

It was at this moment,  that a 38 year old Georgetown lawyer, Francis Scott Key, witnessed from an American flag-of-truce vessel, the President, admist the British fleet, the great garrison flag (42’x 30′) over Fort McHenry. The following is from a handbill that was distributed to every soldier at Fort McHenry soon after the bombardment.

********

DEFENCE OF FORT McHENRY

The annexed song was composed under the following circumstances – A gentleman had left Baltimore, in a flag of truce for the purpose of getting released from the British fleet, a friend [Dr. William Beanes] who had been captured at [Upper] Marlborough. He went as far as the mouth of the Patuxent, and was not permitted to return lest the intended attack on Baltimore should be disclosed. He was therefore brought up the Bay to the mouth of the Patapsco, where the flag vessel was kept under the guns of a frigate [HMS Surprise], and he was compelled to witness the bombardment of Fort M’Henry, which the Admiral had boasted that he would carry in a few hours, and that the city must fall. He watched the flag at the Fort through the whole day with an anxiety that can be better felt than described, until the night prevented him from seeing it. In the night he watched the Bomb Shells, and at early dawn his eye was again greeted by the proudly waving flag of his country.

Tune -ANACREON IN HEAVEN.

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 through the perilous fight

O’er the ramparts we watch’d, were so gallantly streaming?

And the Rocket’s red glare, the Bombs bursting in air,

Gave proof through 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 through 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 new shines in 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 refuse 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 freemen 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 Power 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.

*  *  *  *  *

On September 20, 1814, the Baltimore Patriot and Evening Advertiser published the words. Within the year every newspaper in the eighteen states had also published it.

Sources: One of the rare copies of the “Defence of Fort McHenry” handbills is at the Maryland Historical Society in Baltimore.

Published in: on April 3, 2011 at 10:50 pm  Comments Off on “Defence of Fort McHenry” – Words of the National Anthem  
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