the american navy then would try to control the lake and keep the british north. it meant that there was a clash coming. you know they're really sitting ducks finally the navy is coming. they couldn't come south, because the south wind kept them from sailing south. there's no other power. that's what the army and the navier waiting for. mcdonough doesn't have that problem. he's already in the bay, he's moor and waiting. finally the night of the 10th they come south towards plattsburg. four ships and a dozens gun boats in a road that has 70 men and a gun boat and one cannon. they're supposed to be in close to the american fleet underneath the guns and put holes in the

sides of the american fleet and sink them. when the british come into the bay and this whole thing starts, the british guns can fire a mile and a half, where the american guns are carrying aids for the most part. they can only shoot 500 yards. if the british royal navy is kept away, if they can sail outside the 5 hundreds yards, they can reduty the flart fleet has "confiance" comes into the bay, the wind shifts. now it's a westerly wind. in the bay, the winds are fitful. that confiance and needs a strong wind. as she comes into the bay, this

is confiance outer anchor. it's shot off the front and sinks into the bay. we found it in 1996, in 40 feet of silt. there she is. ten feet long, ten feet wide. you can still see the gold paint on the side that says quebec. when that anchor is shot off, and commodore dowdy, the captain of the ship, trying to stay away from the american lines, he can't. he's drawn directly into the american fear. no matter what he does to try to turn the ship, the wind will not allow it. he's brought directly to the american fire. finally he has to anchor another 300 yards. well one the americans' line of fire. now for the next 2 1/2 hours, a horrid rend onnous battle of

cannon will take place. four major ships of the americans. four british royal navy. 12 gun boats on other side, and will slug it out. here on the bluff at clinton community college, you can look out on lake champlain, and directly in front of you is cumberland head, where the british royal navy attacked on september the 11th. they came around that corner, and between there and the island you see on the right, crab island, which is where the american his a hospital for the army, they attacked the american fleet at anchor which would have been right between those two small trees. >> there are women on board, officers ease wives, one of which catches a cannonball in her chest, and is thrown

overboard. mcdonough is siting his own camera shooting at the british and down the line at one of the other guns, his lieutenant is struck with a british cannonball. his head is torn off, it traffic down the side of the deck, strikes mcdonna in the face and knocks him cold. these are the kinds of things that happen when you're fighting a naval battle. this keeps up for hours, one atrocity after another, blood everywhere. tremendous casualtyingses. the men keep fighting, the only american ship fit to fight is "saratoga" the only ship that's really fit to fight can "confiance" even though the commodore was killed ten minutes into the battle, when mcdonough

fired a kaj nonand it struck the muzzle of the gun that dowdy was fighting. it drove this 2,000 pound barrel out of the trun ons and downy caught it in his arms. the british lost their commander ten minutes into the battle. so now we've got mcdonough, who is also in a bad state, and his ship is about to sink at that point he pulls the trick of the day. these of light anchors, they were taken out on rowboats and dropped. they wound backwards around the ship. at the right moment, mcdonough

cuts one cable, pulls in the ear f. with only a few crew members that are left. at that point, as the spring line is pulled in, the ship rotates in place on its own axis, and of course it exposes the far side of the ship, where there are 12 loaded caranades and cannons ready. an officer with a pistol goes down the line and fires into the touchhole and fires each gun one at a time into "confiance" it receives over 105 holes in the side of the ship and the count is looked at at the end. she strikes her colors, she's lost. the royal navy has been beaten. sir george prevost sitting up there at kent-delord sees the

colors come down. when he nose the battle is lost. he knows he no longer has control of the water. he knows he doesn't have the american ships he planned to capture, to take the fleet down the lake. there's no point going on with the battle. even though the infantry can overwhelm at this point, there's no point to it at all. he's going to save his troops to fight another day. as a result, sir george withdraws from plattsburgh, pulling his troops out, his three brigades, artillery, his families. they start heading north to canada. the battle is over, the americans have won. winston churchill said that it was the most important battle of the war, the most decisive battle of the war of 1812, here.

two days later, the british will fight the americans at baltimore. when the naval battle was over and the british withdrew, all that was left were the dead and the wounded and the american forces. out on the navy ships, the wounded were taken off an brought into town, to kent-delord and other homes and treated. the dead were put in a cure taj and brought to the shores, and in a funeral parade led by general mccom and commodore mcdonough, they slowly came here to riverside cemetery just outside of the downtown area. to muffled drums, they marched slowly and deliberately here to

the ground. the lead cure taj led the body of commodore dowdy. he's buried here at riverside cemetery. but they were not just royal navy sailors. there were british army dead, american sailors who had died in the conflict, as well as british sailors who had died. 200 of them were taken to crab island, because it was close to where the ships were being refurbished and kept afloat. another 200 or more were brought here to riverside cemetery and buried.

lieutenant peter gamble, united states navy, he was the officer whose head was severed, flew across the deck and struck mcdonough knocking him cold. lt. john stance bury, united states navy, he was an officer on board the "eagle" and was killed in action. there's captain burgiss, he's british, 76th regiment, british army. in my 30-year career in studies history, i never heard of this battle. so i was really intrigued. the more i read, the more it drew me in and i understood how important it was and what part it played in international history. if plattsburgh had been lost, god knows what would have happened to this country.

you've been watching c-span's american history tv. we want to hear from you. follow us on twitter. connect with us on facebook. or you can leave comments, too. check out our upcoming programs at our website, cspan.org. /history. we'd like to tell you about some of our other american history tv programs. join us every saturday at 4:00 p.m. eastern for a look at "history bookshelf" watch as the best-known history writers talk about their books. that's every saturday at 4:00 p.m. eastern on american history tv on c-span3. here's a look at some of the programs you'd find christmas day on the c-span networks.

holiday festivities start at 10:00 a.m. eastern with the lighting of the national christmas tree, folded with the white house decoration with first lady michelle obama. just after 12:30 p.m. celebrity activists talk about their causes. then at 8:00, samuel alito and former florida governor jeb bush on the bill of rights and the founding father. venture into the art of good writing, and at 12:30 so the femme nit side of a super superhero. pamela paul and others talk about their reading habits, and on c-span3 at 8:00 a.m. eastern the fall of the berlin wall with c-span foodage with george bush and bob dole. and how they represented the styles of the times in which

they lived, and then at 10:00, former nbc news anchor tom brokaw on his more than 50 years of reporting on world events. that's this christmas day. for our complete schedule. go to cspan.org. baltimore's ft. mchenry is celebrated at the birthplace of the star-spangled banner. but the fort played an important war in the civil war, world war i, and beyond. next, america history tv explores the history after the star-spangled banner. >> i'm chief of interpretation here of the birthplace of "the

star-spangled banner." one of the questions we good are the can knolls that were used to fight off the bring. of course, the answer is no. these guns were manufactured during the american civil war, a little bit more than 50 years after the war of 1812. is shows the great layers of ft. mchenry's history. the history begins with the words of francis scott key, but it's made contributions right up to the own present time, in the great way that the americans bond with the national anthem, bond with the american flag. let's explore how it's evolved. we'll see how different garrisons and people who were

heat at this fort saw the same stars and stripes, but derived very different means. we're going to go inside the fort where we'll uncover the hidden history of ft. mchenry. ft. mchenry has a layered history. you can see that behind me. for example, during the bombardment all the these buildings were single story. the second stories and porches were added around 1830. ft. mchenry was garrisoned by union forces, however baltimore had loyalties on both sides. many for the north, but also many for the south. the first bloodshed in the american civil war was actually in the streets of baltimore, first as pennsylvania troops were moves through the city on the 18th of april, and then even

worse on the 19th of april as massachusetts troops were marching through the city, a large pro-conphet rat mob descended on them. whether the smoke cleared, four soldiers were killed and problemly ninth baltimore -- that was the first deaths of the american civil war. it was a lot of fear erupted. would baltimore be pro-southern? would it take the entire state of maryland out of the union? not long thereafter union forces under benjamin butler occupied federal hill, a large hill near the inner harbour of baltimore, aimed their cannons at the city, and the big cannons were swiveled onto the city itself. if there was another pro-confederate riot, ft. mchenry could -- the second

step, though, anyone accused of aiding or supporting the southern cause could be arrested. many would be brought to this very room which i'm not stoning. president lincoln suspended the writ of habeas corpus. that plenty people could be brought here and detained here for no specific crime, not even given a trial in front of their poors or a judge. many saw this as an abused roof rights. some in ballot horrid said lincoln has said himself up as king and ft. mchenry is the baltimore bastille, an allusion to the king of france a couple generations earlier. within man brought here was john merriman. he was an officer and pro-confederate horse unit called the baltimore county horse guards. even though the unit had been

disbanded, they had a reputation of being pro-southern. john merriman was arrested under the pretext of training pro-confed rats on his property, so this cavalry -- merriman was brought here and held in one of at least rooms, perhaps for a period of time this very room word gout out and the chief justice at the supreme court tan, actually condemned the decision. he did it as a more local judge in chambers, but he issued a stern condemnation on president lincoln san he did not have the power to suspend the writ, but not only did he not himself have the power, about but he delegated that power to other union officers in the areas in clear violation of the constitution of the united

states. no long thereafter, a federal marshal taking his orders came to ft. mchenry to demand the release of this john merriman. he was turned around at the fort's dates by union soldiers under the orders of the commander officer cease he took hi orders from the president, so really here at ft. mchenry in the early days of the civil ware was a constitutional crisis, the time where at least one representative of the judicial and executive branches came at loggerheads with one another. these were swift decisive measures that the administration tube to secure baltimore. by securing baltimore for the union cause, it helped keep the state of maryland from seceding from the union. that resulted in maryland staying loyal to the union cause as well. so ft. mchenry was important

during the american civil wars leer i'd like to take you into a cell where very few visitors go where linking violated the constitution again and ironically to help a confederate soldier. so the cells we're about to walk past, this is solitary confinement. suspected spies were kept here. in a way you could also look at this as the death row area of ft. mchenry. there were three known executions here during the american civil war years, but i want to talk about an execution that almost happened to the man who actually stayed in this specific cell. midway through the american civil war, an officer for the

confederates, henry hall brogdon was arrested and put here in this cell and accused of being a confederate spy, of course that had the death penalty attached to it. he fully expected to be executed by big hung after a few weeks or perhaps a couple months. you can imagine the mental anguish he went through in this cell, in addition for the physical anguish. he said he was never giving anything to right. his bathroom was a bucket in the corner and the only thing to sleep on was a straw mattress. this is actually dryer. he said green slime came down these walls and his skin turned white from seldom seeing the sun. this shows that lincoln violated the constitution, but i think it shows the great compassion that

president lincoln had even for those who did not like him. when the writ of execution came across his desk. he had the man tried under an expost facto law. it's extremely clear in the constitution, says it in the constitution, quote, there should be no expost facto law. so in other words, you can't arrest a person and then accuse them of a crime that wasn't stated as being a crime or on the books at the time that the man was arrested. well, that is exactly what lincoln had with henry hall brogdon. lincoln didn't want this man to die, he created an expost facto lawened was basically tried to enter union lines without sufficient permission and without a pass, which carried a substantially less penalty. this man was later transferred up to a union fort outside of

new york city. he stayed there for a few months, and then he was eventually released. so, yes, lincoln violated the constitution, but by the same token, he did that to save this man's life. ironically this man here probably didn't know what lincoln did for him. it's very unlikely he would have remotely liked other supported president lincoln, yet reflecting his passion, he pulled these strings so that later he would not suffer the death penalty. i wanted to take you up here, share a couple more civil war stories with you, and then

also kind of talk about how different americans saw the stars and stripes here at ft. mchenry and in baltimore during those critical year. this sign here really shows an interesting story of the american civil war in the first year. in july 1861, some of the more prominent wealthy ladies from baltimore city were invited by the union commander to come here to ft. mchenry, major general john dix. after that tea party broke up, he led them up to this point where there was a large cannon aimed squarely at the city of baltimore and had them check the site lines, where they p said that it was aim at the neighborhood where he left. he said if there was another riot incited by your husband, you tell them that your houses will be the first to go,

recognizing the power, i suppose, that women had at the time to influence their menfolk, but also a different way of conveying the message here in no uncertain terms. certainly this is baltimore women sympathizer, all who were here at some point would have seen the american flag waving over the fort. for them it would have meant something radically different than it did to francis scott key. most that's most caustically expressed than none other than the grandson the franz scott key. frank key howard was an ed tore of a new called "the exchange. he said that while he thought that the south should not have seceded from the union, he believed that it was totally legal for them to do it. his thoughts railroad considered

to be pro-confederate, his newspaper was shut down. he was arrested and locked up here ironically on the very anniversary day that his grandfather would see the star-spangled banner. he would say words to the effect whereas my grandfather saw the stars and stripes waving over the fort as a symbol of freedom. to me it stands for yoonkee tyranny and despotism such as the -- and those who were arrested on political suspicion of form perceive the flag -- the stars as stripes as condoning violations of the constitution, and so really for them they saw the flag as an abuse of presidential power, a symbol of a tirr ran cal northern government. very different symbol. however many white union

soldiers from ohio, pennsylvania, other such states, would have seen the start and stripes as a simible of unity, that all the stars in that blew can ton, symbolizing the hope that the nation would be reunited. for them it was a powerful symbol of yujt. in the city of baltimore were a number of after kaj-american union soldiers, union regiments. they called them the colored troops back then. they would have seen the starts and stripes after the emancipation proclamation. later in november, 1864, when maryland as a state yow lawed slavery, the stars and stripes stand as a symbol of freedom, a flag of liberation in the south. so i think it's interested that at one time at ft. mchenry you had three groups of americans. one group sees the starts and

stripes as a symbol of tyranny after a federal/ks;÷government. another sees it as a symbol of hope for unity, and yet eat sees every american regardless of skin color. three groups of americans. one star-spangled banner. three different meanings. that meaning is going to change yet again a few generations later, as thousands of immigrants pour into this city. for that, let's look over and look at the cranes here. where these cranes now stand, at one time was the loek oust point immigration terminal. there was a strong relationship between the city of baltimore and germany. the north german lloyd steamship company offer out of bremen and bremerhoffen brought thousands of immigrants into this nation, not only from germany but from other countries like italy, poland, and other places in europe.

some of these ethnic communities are still here in baltimore today. like greek town and polish town. here in baltimore. for those immigrants, they never saw the statue of liberty. that's in new york. they never went through ellis island. but their symbol of a new start in a new station was seeing the stars and stripes waving over this fort at that time. 1902, the locus point immigration terminal was second only to ellis island as far as the number of immigrants. standing on the ramparts, one can almost hear a german father telling his daughter, that's the flag of our new country and your descendants will be americans. we are going to see that the flood tide of immigrants dwindles to a trickle at fort mchenry in 1914, when world war i breaks out in europe. fort mchenry is being used as a city park at that time.

the last active garrison left in 1912. it was a much famous for its bathing beach as it was as the home of the star-spangled banner. but that changes in 1917 when the united states goes to war. and shortly thereafter, a fleet of trucks and a legion of workmen come and they begin building over 100 hospital buildings on the ground. like spokes on a wheel around this fort. general hospital number two, one of the largest army hospitals in our nation, is built here at the home of the star-spangled banner. let's take a look at that hospital. in a special exhibit. general hospital number two, one of the largest army hospitals in the united states during world war i. many historians say that the first world war was the true first modern war. poisonous gas, tanks, airplanes, bombings, submarines, machine guns. all perfected. even though the united states does not get involved until

1917, over 100,000 americans are killed during the first world war. and many more wounded. this general hospital number two specialized in two things. one, the very early plastic surgery was done here. in conjunction with top surgeons from johns hopkins and the university of maryland. if you look at these jawbones. these are the types of facial reconstructions that were done, the reconstructive surgery. men who had their jaw bones shattered, destroyed by exploding shells and machine gun bullets had new jaw bones fabricated an carefully implanted into them. again, a lot of early plastic surgery. a great deal of medical history was made here during world war i. addition to that, some of the first programs to train the disabled veteran were promoted here. we know through this woman -- emily reine williams, one he