Flags at Fort McHenry

While making preparations for the The Battle of Baltimore Major George Armistead requested a flag "... so large that the British will have no difficulty in seeing it from a distance..." to be flown over the Fort. Mary Pickersgill of Baltimore was commissioned to construct the flag. With help from her daughter, Caroline Purdy, she sewed a woolen flag measuring 42 feet long by 30 feet high, a remarkably large flag. Shown here is a representation of that flag. There are several interesting things to note. The flag has fifteen stars and fifteen stripes. During the War of 1812 there were 15 states in the Union, Vermont and Kentucky having been added to the original 13. An early plan for the flag was to add a new star and a new stripe for each new state. With 15 stripes on the Pickersgill flag, which was 30 feet high, that meant that each stripe was 2 feet wide! On that flag each star was also 2 feet across!

The flag we fly today has 50 stars representing the 50 states on a field of blue with 13 stripes representing the thirteen original states alternating red and white from top to bottom. Notice that each of the stars points to the top of the flag. On the "Star Spangled Banner" which was flown over the fort at the end of the Battle of Baltimore the stars were tilted slightly to the left and right. Another difference to note between the two flags is that on the 15 star flag the stripe just under the blue field is red, whereas on the 50 star flag the stripe just under the blue field is white.

Francis Bellamy, the author of these words, was an ordained minister, magazine writer, and Freemason who stated that his aim was to say "what our republic meant and what was the underlying spirit of its life." Bellamy wrote the Pledge of Allegiance in 1892 as part of the 400th anniversary of the discovery of America by Columbus. It was embraced by the nation and almost immediately became a part of the school-day ritual. Bellamy's original text has been altered twice. In 1923, the words "the flag of the United States of America" were substituted for the words "my flag". Congress officially recognized the Pledge in 1942 and added the words "under God" in 1954.

By proclamation of President Harry S. Truman, July 2, 1948, Fort McHenry was proclaimed to be one of only two sites in the world over which the flag of the United States of America may be displayed at all times, day and night. The other site is the Capitol Building in Washington, D.C.

As a symbol of our nation's sovereignty, the flag of the United States of America is entitled to and should command the respect of every citizen. The Congress of the United States, by joint resolution, has enacted the Federal Flag Code setting forth the protocols to be observed when displaying the flag.

"Preserving The Legacy"