British Bombardment of Fort McHenry

For twenty-five hours on September 13–14, 1814, a British naval squadron bombarded Fort McHenry with approximately 1,800 shells, rockets, and bombs. The fort held; the British could not silence the guns or force the harbor entrance. Francis Scott Key, watching from a truce vessel miles away, saw the garrison flag still flying at dawn and wrote the poem that became "The Star-Spangled Banner."