State of New York Society, United States Daughters of 1812

While making preparations for the The Battle of Baltimore Major George Armistead requested a flag "... so large that the British will have no difficulty in seeing it from a distance..." to be flown over Fort McHenry. Mary Pickersgill of Baltimore was commissioned to construct the flag.

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With help from her daughter, Caroline Purdy, she sewed a woolen flag measuring 42 feet long by 30 feet high, a remarkably large flag. There are several interesting things to note. The flag has fifteen stars and fifteen stripes. During the War of 1812 there were 15 states in the Union, Vermont and Kentucky having been added to the original 13. An early plan for the flag was to add a new star and a new stripe for each new state. With 15 stripes on the Pickersgill flag, which was 30 feet high, that meant that each stripe was 2 feet wide! On that flag each star was also 2 feet across!

While many know the story behind Francis Scott Key penning the beloved Star Spangle Banner, not many know the story of the flag that was flown at Fort McHenry that inspired Key to write the words that would become the National Anthem of the United States of America. This flag was created by Mary Young Pickersgill.

The War of 1812 was a critical time during in America's history. The Commander of Fort McHenry, Colonel Armistead, along with other military leaders, knew how important Fort McHenry was to nation at this time.

The British had burned Washington and were advancing toward Balitmore. These brave leaders felt that the Baltimoreans were discouraged and afraid. They felt that they would have their spirits raised by seeing a huge, high flying flag at Fort McHenry as a symbol of defiance.

It was because of this that Colonel Armistead commissioned Mary Youngs Pickersgill, a local seamstress and flag maker to make two flags for Fort McHenry in 1813 - a large flag and a smaller one to fly in bad weather. She was paid $500 for both flags, the large one being 30 x 42 feet, so it could be seen from a great distance. She was asked to sew a flag with 15 stars and 15 stripes, the number of states then in the Union.

Anticipating an attack on Fort McHenry by the British during the War of 1812, Major Armistead asked that the flag be made extra large so that it would be plainly visible to the English Fleet. He had also hoped the large flag would lift the spirits of the Baltimoreans, allowing them to see this flag fly in defiance of the British.

This flag was used as the garrison flag of Fort McHenry during the British siege of the fort during the War of 1812. When Francis Scott Key saw the flag from a ship eight miles down the Patapsco River on September 14, 1814, the flag was still waving in the breeze after twenty-five hours of heavy bombardment by the British. The British were very discouraged to see it still there, but Key was inspired to write the poem that became the National Anthem.

This is an MP3 (audio) file of the story of Francis Scott Key and the Star Spangled Banner, at Fort Mc Henry. The file runs about 11 minutes and 36 seconds. The file is 11 MB, so downloads may take several minutes. Download times include: broad band about 3 minutes, dialup: about 25 minutes.

( Download times may vary depending on your internet service provider traffic, usage, and other techinical issues your ISP may be facing, including maintenance.)