by Robert Emerson, executive director Old Fort Niagara
“We, Sir, are ready at Fort
McHenry to defend Baltimore
against invading by the enemy. That is
to say, we are ready except that we have no suitable ensign to display over the
Star Fort, and it is my desire to have a flag so large that the British will
have no difficulty in seeing it from distance.” so wrote Major George Armistead
in June 1813 to General Samuel Smith, commander of Baltimore’s militia.
George Armistead might have got his love of
very large flags from Fort
Niagara where he had been stationed
twice. Armistead was no Western New York native.
He was born in Caroline
County Virginia
on April 10, 1780, one of six sons and three daughters born to John and Lucinda
(Baylor) Armistead. George entered the U.S. military in 1799 and rose through the ranks. From 1801 to 1806 served as First Lieutenant
and assistant military agent at Fort
Niagara . He arrived at the Fort in September 1, 1801, and
was assigned to Captain James Reid’s Company, Second Regiment of Artillerists,
and Engineers. Armistead did not care
for the harsh northern winters and repeatedly took extended furloughs during
the winter months to visit relatives in Dumfries ,
Virginia .
Shortly after Armistead’s arrival at Fort Niagara
he discovered that the post had no national colors. The US had
taken over Fort Niagara from the British in 1796. On August 11, of that year, at 3 pm American
soldiers raised the new 15-star, 15-stripe flag on the garrison flagstaff
located in the north bastion. The
recently landed six pounder cannons roared out a 15-gun salute. Apparently these colors were not longer
present when Armistead arrived at the Fort.
At any rate he wrote to his superior, Peter Gansevoort and complained
that Fort Niagara was without a garrison flag and in an
effort to remedy the situation, ordered one.
He and others were nevertheless complaining as late as 1804 because they
were still without a garrison flag. It
did not arrive until 1809, and eventually flew over at least three battles
before its capture in December, 1813.
The flag was of the pattern established by
Congress in flag legislation of 1795 including one star and one stripe for each
state in the Union . The first Flag Act, adopted on June 14, 1777,
created the original United States flag of
thirteen stars and stripes. The Second
Flag Act, (January 13, 1794) had authorized two additional stripes and stars to
be placed on the flag representing the two new states in the Union, Vermont , and Kentucky . (It would not be until the Third Flag Act,
passed on April 4, 1818, which would reduce the number of striped back to
thirteen to honor the original thirteen colonies and provide for one star of
each state, with new stars to be added to the flag on the Fourth of July
following the admission of each new state.)
Meanwhile in 1806 Armistead was assigned to
the Arkansas Territory
and then in 1809 was promoted to Captain and transferred to Fort
McHenry on the Patapsco
River in Baltimore . While in Baltimore ,
he married Louisa Hughes, a daughter of a wealthy area silversmith.
Spring of 1813 saw the return of George
Armistead to Fort Niagara as a Major in the 3rd Regiment of
Artillery. On May 27th,
Armistead distinguished himself at the bombardment and capture of Fort George . After successfully capturing York (Toronto ) an American fleet brought an army to the mouth
of the Niagara River . A bombardment from Fort
Niagara and the batteries along the river had shattered
Fort George
on May 25th. Two days later, United States troops landed on the Canadian shore. The British were forced to abandon Fort George after a
fiercely contested battle and retreated westward along Lake
Ontario toward Burlington Bay .
General Henry Dearborn reported to the
Secretary of War “I am greatly indebted to Colonel Porter, Major Armistead, and
Captain Totten for their judicious arrangements and skillful execution in
demolishing the enemies fort and batteries, and to the officers of the
artillery.”
George Armistead was given the honor of
carrying the British captured battle flags to Washington
for presentation to President Madison. On
June 27, 1813, while in Washington , Armistead
received orders to take command of Fort McHenry in Baltimore
Harbor . Shortly after his arrival he commissioned
professional flag maker Mary Pickergill and members of her family to sew two
flags for the fort: a smaller storm flag, 17 x 25 feet, and a larger garrison
flag, 30 x 42 feet, which bore a striking resemblance to the Niagara
banner. This larger Fort McHenry
flag would later be known as the Star-Spangled Banner and is about the size of
a quarter of a modern basketball court reflecting its purpose as a garrison
flag. Like the slightly larger Fort Niagara
flag, it was intended to fly from a flagpole about ninety feet high and visible
from great distances and through the smoke of battle. (Today’s garrison flags have a standard size
of 20 x 38 feet
During the Battle of Baltimore September
12-14, 1814 British ships bombarded Fort
McHenry for over 25 hours. This coincided with a heavy rainstorm so Fort McHenry
had flown its smaller storm flag throughout the night bombardment. But at dawn, as the British began to retreat,
Major Armistead ordered his men to lower the storm flag and replace it with the
larger banner. As they raised the flag,
the troops fired their guns and played “Yankee Doodle” in celebration. Proudly waving over the fort, the great
garrison flag could be seen from miles around, proclaiming that the Americans
still possessed the fortress and were blocking the British ships from Baltimore Harbor . Armistead’s flag of defiance was even seen
from as far away as a ship anchored eight miles down the river, where and
American lawyer named Francis Scott Key had spent the night watching and hoping
for a victory. The sight so moved Key
that he was prompted to write “The Star Spangled Banner” a poem that was
eventually set to music and became our national anthem.
Armistead was soon promoted by President
Madison to Lieutenant Colonel and given possession of the garrison flag. He remained in command of Fort McHenry
until his death on April 25, 1818.
Ironically that same year, new flag legislation made 15-star, 15 stripe
flags obsolete. The Banner remained in
the family’s possession until they turned over to the Smithsonian in 1907.
What of the Fort
Niagara flag, the banner that Armistead no
doubt saw just before leaving for Washington
and his new assignment as commandant of Fort
McHenry ?
On the night of December 18-19 1813, a 562-man
British force crossed the Niagara River and captured Fort Niagara
and the garrison flag. Shortly after the
British assault, a report was sent to British General Drummond by Colonel
Murray in which he stated, “My staff adjutant, Mr. Brampton, will have the
honor of presenting this dispatch and the standard of the American garrison.” Drummond passed the flag to his superior, Sir
George Prevost. Prevost, kept the captured
flag in Quebec until May 1814 when it was sent
to London along with flags captured at Forts
Oswego and Mackinac where they were laid at the feet of His Royal Highness, the
Prince Regent, later King George IV.
At some time, the King returned the flags for
Forts Niagara and Oswego to Gordon Drummond as
trophies of war as Drummond had been the commander of British forces in Upper Canada . It
remained in his ancestral home, Megginch Castle in Scotland where
it was a prized possession. Sadly the
flag was damaged in 1969 by fire. In the
early 1990s the Old Fort Niagara Association purchased the flag and returned it
to western NY. In 2006, after
conservation, it was put on permanent public display for the first time in a
new Visitors Center .
The Fort
Niagara flag is an older sister
the more famous Star Spangled Banner and it is one of only about 20 known
surviving examples of the Stars and Stripes dating before 1815. The flag is one of the best documented of
these early flags and it is the earliest extant US
flag known to have flown in western NY and the second oldest in NYS.
Sources:
Private email from Robert Emerson, May 2, 2008.
Kohler, Douglas, & Doug DeCroix. “At the Point of the Bayonet! The British Capture of Fort Niagara”, Western
New York Heritage. Vol. 9, No.
4. Winter 2007. pp. 48-56.
Dunnigan, Brian Leigh.
Glorious Old Relic The French Castle
and Old Fort Niagara. Youngstown, NY: Old Fort Niagara Association, INC. 1987.
pp. 50-56.