She was named in honor of Whetstone Point, at end of peninsula between the old Basin (today's Inner Harbor) of downtown Baltimore (and old Baltimore Town). The peninsula which also later contained the residential communities of South Baltimore, Federal Hill and Locust Point is bordered by the |Northwest Branch (on the north side) and the Middle and Ferry (now Southern) Branches (to the south) on the Patapsco River, which is also Baltimore Harbor. Location of Revolutionary War fortifications of Fort Whetstone from the 1770s and the previous site of later Fort McHenry reconstructed beginning in 1798 was named for James McHenry, third Secretary of War under Presidents George Washington and John Adams. The star-shaped fort which defended Baltimore, Maryland from British assault with a two-day bombardment in 12–14 September 1814, during the War of 1812. The poem "Defence of Fort McHenry" when set to music inspired the national anthem, "The Star-Spangled Banner" written as a poem by Francis Scott Key from an off-shore truce ship downriver.