On the morning of September 14, 1814, a 35 year old Francis Scott Key stood on the British warship HMS Tonnant. He was there to negotiate for the release of an American prisoner captured during this, the third year of the War of 1812. During the prior day, and throughout the night, a British fleet had battered Fort McHenry, which protected the entry to Baltimore Harbor at the mouth of the Patapsco River on Chesapeake Bay. After 25 hours of bombardment, he strained to see in the gloom of the dawn as a flag was raised over the fortress. Upon seeing that it was the American flag – that Fort McHenry had held – he penned a poem that would become America’s national anthem: the Star Spangled Banner.

In 2025, Fort McHenry still stands, rebranded as Fort McHenry National Monument and Historic Shrine, honoring the events of that day, its effects on the first true war waged by the United States, and the song that in 1931 would be hailed as the national anthem. And visiting leads to two major questions. First, what happened during the War of 1812 and why don’t we study it? Second, what is the power of national symbols like a flag or a song?

Let’s take these in order.

The War of 1812 seems barely to be studied, even from the standpoint of AP US History curricula. After all, its net effect was basically just a resumption of the status quo. But it might have been very different.

Leading up to the war, the new United States had some pretty major complaints about Great Britain, the most major of which were embargos on US trade with Europe that Britain imposed and a forced conscription of captured American seamen into the Royal Navy if they were former British subjects from pre-American independence. In June of 1812, Congress’ Democratic-Republican majority declared war, figuring to invade British Canada and use that as leverage to negotiate terms.

Over the next two years, things were pretty mixed. On the one hand, American forces razed York (now Toronto) and captured a decent amount of Lower Canada. On the other hand, the British took Fort Detroit, destroyed Buffalo, and successfully blockaded the majority of the American coast. So yeah, mixed. In 1814, things took a turn for the worse for the Americans, as the Napoleonic Wars in Europe ended, and the British could send more troops to fight their former colony.

In August 1814, the British captured the new American capital of Washington, and while the government escaped with most of their important documents, the sacking of the city and the burning of the White House was rather embarrassing. The British then turned north, seeking to take Baltimore, which was at the time the third largest American city after Philadelphia and New York.

Maryland militia slowed but didn’t stop a British force, but the cautious British commanders feared to directly attack the fortifications of the city from land, preferring instead to bombard the city from the water. That meant passing into Baltimore Harbor, which meant destroying the US garrison at Fort McHenry. The star-shaped fort was built in 1798, with defenses augmented by an additional battery across the river, scuttled ships blocking much of the channel, and gun boats behind. In September 1814 it was defended by about 100 regular army troops and more than a thousand militia.

On September 13, 1814, a British fleet attacked. With their longer range, the ships were able to stay mostly outside of the fort’s range, lobbing bombs at the defenders. After 25 hours, Fort McHenry remained in American hands, and with much of their ammunition expended, the British withdrew, never again to threaten Baltimore. And the war itself would end with the Treaty of Ghent in February of the following year, with basically nothing changing from before the war in terms of territory or policy. (This is actually seen as a US win since the British were significantly more powerful, so a draw was considered to be pretty good. Plus it led to a noticeable increase in American patriotism, and there really isn’t a price tag on that sort of sentiment.)

Visitors to Fort McHenry today will see the site much as it would have been in 1814, although the guns are mid-nineteenth century pieces which never saw battle. (The fortress was active during the Civil War, although it never saw action, and remained a base through much of the 20th century, serving as a military hospital during World War One and as a training facility during the Second World War.) The brick and earthen defenses are supplemented by a row of guns parallel to the water, where period-dressed “soldiers” demonstrate muskets and the cannon – on select days – for those interested in such things.

Inside, visitors can look into the two story buildings, which housed barracks, the magazine, and other facilities and have been restored to War of 1812 appearance. It’s a quick visit, since Fort McHenry is fairly small, and outside of that one moment in time, has been largely unimportant.

But that moment certainly has shaped much of what Americans consider patriotic, and the national symbols that Americans value.

Yuval Noah Harari refers to such national symbols as collective delusion. After all, a flag is a made up thing which takes on meaning only because it is given such by collective sentiment. By itself, it has no value outside of its colorful appearance. The same goes for a song, given additional power far above its words and music by the ability of people to ascribe to it a meaning well beyond those things. These symbols then become accepted and adopted by society at large, elevating them further. And so delusion gives way to actual meaning, though still from a made-up source with no intrinsic value.

Fort McHenry exemplifies this more than perhaps any place. It is a site of pilgrimage, indeed the only (as far as I know) national historic shrine simply because of its role in effectuating those powerful delusions. Here, visitors can pay homage to the symbols that are used to perpetuate a shared national identity. And they do so successfully.

The flag flying over Fort McHenry every day is the same one that would have been there in 1814. (Visitors can also have their own personal flags flown briefly over the fort to better consecrate their own symbols, which is kind of a cool feature.) The flag has fifteen stars (although the country had 18 states in 1814, Congress hadn’t gotten around to approving a new version) as well as fifteen stripes, since at the beginning of the country, new states got one of each.

But it is the song that makes this place truly stand out. Francis Scott Key’s words would be put to music shortly after the war, and the song was a hit. But it wasn’t until 1931 that President Herbert Hoover signed a bill making the Star Spangled Banner the official national anthem.

The song has three verses, although only one is known and sung today. Subsequent verses have some modern-day issues, referring to “the hireling and slave,” something ignored by patriots in the modern era. A video in the visitors center talks about the events of that day in 1814, and ends with a singing of the song. And here the power of such symbols can truly be seen, as many of those watching stand, remove their caps, and sing along, even tearing up in the process. Delusion or not, there can be no questioning of the scale of meaning behind it.

The United States would be no less of a country without these symbols, or with different ones. But they – and the power we give them collectively – certainly add to the national spirit. So it is appropriate that we are here at Fort McHenry to honor those, because the events of the War of 1812 likewise led to a rise in patriotism, giving such symbols even more power. So whether you believe that national symbols are mere delusion or true levers of national power, there can be no question that they matter.

In visiting Fort McHenry, we remember the events of September 13-14, 1814, the forgotten War of 1812, and the story that led to the symbols of an emerging nation. It is a day worth having.

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