Evening star., 1932-07-03
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people in American seaport towns, Just
/ before 1912, who were wondering just
1 that And when Congress finally de-
/ clared war on Great Britain there were
/ a good many who wondered whether
! British troops wouldn't turn the
/ Declaration of Independence, after all,
! into a scrap of paper. and turn the
/ IS more or less United States into
/ colonies again.
/ For wars couldn't go much worse
. than that one went for America Its
! coast blockaded. its militia armies
/ routed, its own people violently divided.
/ the United States took one whipping
/ after another When British army
actually burned Washington it began
to look as If the British King might
/ finally make use of the address that
/ Charles Carroh had set down on the
/ Declaration Of independence. and per-
! haps burn Mr.. Carrolls house along
with the rest of Baltimore. The British
admiral who directed the raid on Wash
/ ington announced his intention Of
/ Baltimore, and the British general,
/ Ross, boasted that he was going to
/ have Baltimore for his headquarters.
There seemed to be no good reason
why both the admiral and the general
should not carry out their plans. The
vessels that sailed from the wharves
across the street from Mary Young
! Pickersgills house had done the
British Empire more damage than all
the ships Of the United States Navy.
Swift and utterly reckless, manned by
seamen embittered by years of British
arrogance at sea, the Baltimore priva-
teers had captured hundreds of British
ships and plundered or burned cargoes
worth many millions. At one time more
than half the American privateers at
sea were Baltimore ships. No British
admiral was likely to deal gently with
the pirates nest"
Suspense, Worry and Fear.
To the little girl, the widowed mother
and old grandmother in the house on
Albemarle street. the Summer of 1914
must have been a time of suspense and
worry and fear Probably they talked
/ Of fleeing, as Rebecca had fed almost
40 years before: and they must have
/ wondered whether she could live
/ through another flight.
! But Baltimore had made up its
/ mind to fight 1t had red brick fort
! OAb O1l UlClStOi4C TOully GNO IIlllCo
/ from town. 1t had few hundred regu-
/ lar artillerymen and some sailors from
/ the fleet; it had hundred cannon Of
/ assorted ages and sizes; and it had
! few thousand militiamen.
Most of the militiamen had never
/ been under fire, and those who had been
/ under fire at the Battle Of Bladensburg
4 had seen the humiliation of the rout
that ended in the sack of Washington.
, But the militia and hundreds of towns
people, rich and poor old and young,
even-literauy- and female, turn
ed out to work on trenches and rifle
pits; SO that finally, in addition to its
fort and its cannon and its militia,
Baltimore had system Of field forti-
fications that ran from the open fields
on the north of the town down to the
harbor where within sight of the house
at so Albemarle street, it met a floating
barricade and handful Of gunboats.
At the other end Of the barricade
Fort McHenry sat on the tip Of low
peninsula devoted to COW pastures and
hay meadows. 1t was an old-fashioned,
red brick fort, built in the shape of a
star; it had dry moat, powder maga-
zine that wasn't bombproof and some
/ cannon much smaller than the guns on
/ the British warships.
I There is something appealing about
+ that little town. preparing to fight for
its life. Something heroic about men
and boys leaving their desks and coun-
/ ters to face the bayonets of British
regulars who had Just smashed Ma
/ poleon. Something steady to shame
/ the fears and discouraRements Of 1882.
/ Something so gallantly n practical that
/ it makes you smile. o. cry, or cheer.
/ For those Baltimoreans. facing the i'm
minent extinction of Their homes, were
worried because Fort McHenry didn't
/ have flag big enough u be seen down
the river where the British admiral
would have to anchor
Gallant Stiffness Rewarded.
A silly thing to be worried about
wasn't 1t? But If they hadn't been so
gallantly silly, America wouldn't have
any Star Spangled Banner" for the
bands to play tomorrow. Three Of those
! Baltimoreans found time to provide the
flag. They we're three of the busiest
men in town-Commodore Barney
whose guns covered the retreat Of the
American Army from Bladensburg;
Gen. Stricker, commander of the Balt-
more brigade of militia, and Lieut.. Col.
Macdonald of the 6th Baltimore Regi-
ment A large share Of the response
bility for the defense Of the city rested
upon them. But the flag seemed i'm
portant. Perhaps, with the National
CAPITAL captured and burned. the Navy
bottled up in harbors, the Army beaten
I everywhere, it seemed a vital matter
that the victorious enemy, coming up
the bay. should see the American colors
still flying undaunted.
And so Mary Young Pickersgil, an
swering the clatter Of the knocker at
the front door, found the commodore,
the general and the colonel calling on
her. They trooped into the front room
and sat on the stiff chairs around the
brick fireplace, They wanted a flag,
they said-a flag SO feet long and 20
i feet wide And they asked Mary to
hurry. and went away TO attend to mat
ters of rife pits and furnaces to heat
cannon balls red hot and relays Of
horsemen to bring the alarm When the
British feet was sighted-down the
I Chesapeake. :,
After that. in the brick house, IA
year-old Caroline became the house
keeper for days, while Mary covered
the floor with endless rolls OF buntlng
and old Rebecca sat in her rocker ana
thought of the days when she, too, had
cut long rolls of red and white bunting
( into the first stripes OF new NdIluii
flag. There were 400 yards OF bunting
for the new flag; there wasn't room In
the house where even its shorter upper
stripes could be laid out for stitching
You can imagine Mary, plump, brisk
matron Of 80, walking down past the
idle wharves and bowsprits that poked
out over the street from the blockadeo
schooners tied up there, to find place
big enough for Baltimore's battle flag
She found 1t in the malt house OF Clag-
gett's brewery.
Night after night through that hot
August weather she knelt on the malt
house floor, basting and stitching the
Is huge stripes together, crawling over
the blue field, itself as big as a carpet,
to place the great white stars. You
can imagine moths darting and rustling
around the candlestick set close to her
flying needle; and the light Pickering
y. - ~ aw