And the rockets’s red glare, the bombs bursting in air,
Gave proof through the night that our flag was still there:

I’m at Fort McHenry National Monument and Historic Shrine in Baltimore – finally. The War of 1812 (remember that one?) is the reason we have so many forts on the east coast – Fort Sumter, Fort Pulaski, Fort Macon, Fort Jefferson ….

In the 19th century, coastal forts were the height of national defense, as I explain in Forests, Alligators, Battlefields: My Journey through the National Parks of the South.

The British weren’t able to capture Fort McHenry in Baltimore. So Congress slowly appropriated money for a string of forts. I mention Fort McHenry in my book, so it was time to visit the park unit.

The fort itself,  a five-star structure, similar to others of the era, was completed in 1805. It replaced a wooden Revolutionary War fort.

After burning Washington, DC, the British attacked Baltimore Harbor and Fort McHenry on September 13, 1814. For 25 hours, they shelled the fort but in the morning, “our flag was still there”. Francis Scott Key, who was on a boat in the harbor, just floated the words in his head – and wrote them down. The music was added later.

One of the rooms in the fort was outfitted like a bunk room for enlisted men. The sign said:

Imagine sleeping, cooking, eating and spending a little free time, all in one room with a dozen or more other soldiers… Your few personal items would be kept in a small knapsack,

It sounds like the hostels on the Camino de Santiago. But the information continues,

and you would be expected to share a mattress with another person.

Wait, what?? Forget it. I’m not enlisting.

The fort had life after The War of 1812.

It was a prison for Confederates during the Civil War. It was turned into a massive veteran’s hospital and rehabilitation center during World War I and even used in the Second World War, even if by then, the site had become a national park unit – in 1925.

So who was McHenry? James McHenry  was the Secretary of War during the Washington and Adams administration.

I went into the bookstore to get my NPS Passport stamped but they didn’t have the stamp – and they aren’t a bookstore but a gift shop. Lots of stuff that would not pass muster in the Smokies.  The gift shop is owned and operated by the Evelyn Hill Corporation.

The passport stamp is at the ranger’s desk, instead.