the education of henry

Day 24: Fort McHenry and Delaware

2023-10-07

Today we went to the Fort McHenry National Monument and Historic Shrine, which is in Baltimore. This is the fort Francis Scott Key was watching from the harbor during the British Naval bombardment on the morning of September 14th, 1814. After the shelling stopped in the morning and the smoke cleared around 9 AM, he saw the flag still flying above the fort. He grabbed some paper and quickly wrote the verses of the Star-Spangled Banner. The song was very popular for years, and in 1931 was offically made America's National Anthem.

In the visitor's center I found a picture of Napoleon - who was head of France in 1814, and the French were helping us fight the British...again.

Unfortunately, it was cold and windy and raining - so not the most fun to go out and look at an old fort. But we did anyway.

On the ramparts. The guns in this battery are from the Civil War.

Behind me is the harbor where Key was watching the fort.

The fort was really cool - lots of guns and cannon, multiple ramparts, and little magazine rooms to look into.

Here you can see how big these guns are.

These cannons represent what was originally here. They could only fire 1.5 miles, so the British stayed 2 miles out in the harbor and hit the fort with mortars that could fire 2 miles.

Here's the marker for Francis Scott Key - kinda hard to read.

We also looked into some of the interior parts of the fort - this was the magazine for the forward guns on the outermost part of the fort.

There's the gunpowder.

Going down to the bomb shelter.

In the bomb shelter.

Checking out the brig.

Time for changing the flag.

Unfolding the flag.

We all held on until it was time for the flag to go up.

The flag raising, accompanied by the fife and drum - you should be able to hear it over the wind noise.

The flag flying high over the fort.

After the fort we drove over to Middletown, Delaware to get some Amish pretzels.

This place was really cool - like the Reading Terminal Market in Philly, but not so crazy. And they had Amish pretzels!

The big excitement on the way home was the Chesapeake Bay Bridge. Here's a picture from the bridge.

And we were back at the hotel fairly early to relax and get ready to move on to our next destination tomorrow. I'm going to miss having my own room, but I am looking forward to another adventure!

Thanks for reading - take care!

P.S. Dad added a video of the Tomb of the Unknown Soldier changing of the guard ceremony to yesterday's post. Be warned - it's a really big file. Make sure you watch it full screen, too.