A Battle Flag So Large the British Will Have No Trouble Seeing It: The Star Spangled Banner and the Saving of America in 1814
September 12, 1814, A massive British fleet sails toward Baltimore Harbor. It is led by Admiral Alexander Cochrane. By 1814 Cochrane was famous the world over for his exploits during the Napoleonic Wars. In 1807, as a Rear Admiral, Cochrane commanded the HMS Belleisle at the head of a squadron of Royal Navy ships that conquered the Danish West Indies. In 1809 Cochrane defeated a French force and raised the Union Jack over the island of Martinique. Now, in the late summer of 1814 Alexander Cochrane has been promoted to the rank of Vice Admiral and placed in overall command of all Royal Navy forces, both sailing ships and marines, deployed against the United States at the height of the War of 1812. When war first broke out between the United States and Great Britain for the second time in just over a generation in 1812 the British government adopted a conservative, largely defensive strate...