As you will recall, British troops, greatly outnumbering our own, met
and routed our forces at Bladensburg and then went on to burn and
sack our new capital city on the banks of the Potomac. The only nest
of resistance that remained was Baltimore, haven of the "clippers" which
slipped in and out of Baltimore harbor to roam the high seas and harass
British shipping wherever they found it. If Baltimore could be con-
quered, then the war for the British would be won.

To us in Maryland, of course, Sam Smith is a great hero. I have
often thought in the recorded history of our country he is not given the
credit that is due him. In the history books, the hero of the War of 1812
was Andrew Jackson, with his brilliant victory at New Orleans. But
that battle was fought after the British had fled and the war had been
won.

General Smith had been made Commander-in-Chief of all the Amer-
ican forces in Baltimore and his task was to delay the British land forces
until the city's defenses could be completed and manned. On Septem-
ber 12, 1814, the British troops, having landed at North Point, encoun-
tered the Americans under the command of General Smith. A heavy
engagement ensued, in which the British commander, Major General
Ross, who had vowed he would "sup in hell or Baltimore tonight", lost
his life. The enemy, after a sharp battle, decided that the strong earth-
works put up by the city and the valiant defense offered by its citizens,
were too strong to crack, and so they decided to retire and attempt to
penetrate the defenses elsewhere. As subsequent events proved, this
action of Sam Smith was a decisive factor in the war. His fight at North
Point changed the British aim from reconquest of the former colonies to
retreat and quest for peace.

After their defeat at North Point, the British decided on a naval
attack upon this fort. They struck with sixteen warships, pouring
bombs, rockets and shells into the fortification, while 1, 200 British seamen
attempted a landing through Ferry Branch in the back of the fort. In
all of our illustrious history, there is no incident more dramatic, more
moving, more poetical than that which occurred the next day. Francis
Scott Key, restrained on a British ship lying off here, had listened to the
roar of the battle through the night, uncertain of the fate of the men who
were defending his city. Through the dim light of dawn, he described
the banner of stars and stripes still flying over the fort and he knew
that the victory had been won. The poem he wrote, as we know, became
our national anthem.

Sam Smith at North Point, then, and the troops that garrisoned

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