Battle of North Point
On September 12, 1814, a British force of around 9,000 men was landed at North Point in Maryland, aiming to march upon and capture the city of Baltimore. Stricker, as Brigadier General and commander of the third brigade of the Maryland Militia, was ordered to delay the British advance, in order to buy enough time to complete the building of defensive fortifications around Baltimore.
The fifth regiment of the Maryland Militia was assigned the task of holding the right flank of the American forces, and withstood two hours of rocket fire and artillery before eventually being ordered to fall back to the newly constructed line of trenches outside Baltimore. The British army, many of whom were veterans of Napoleonic Wars, were surprised by the strong resistance of the Maryland Militia and, having taken around 300 casualties, they withdrew.
The successful defense of Baltimore was an important boost to American morale and directly contributed to the end of the War of 1812.
Today The First and Second Battalions of the 175th Infantry, Maryland Army National Guard, carry on the tradition of the 5th Maryland Regiment.
Read more about this topic: John Stricker
Famous quotes containing the words battle of, battle, north and/or point:
“The Battle of Waterloo is a work of art with tension and drama with its unceasing change from hope to fear and back again, change which suddenly dissolves into a moment of extreme catastrophe, a model tragedy because the fate of Europe was determined within this individual fate.”
—Stefan Zweig (18811942)
“It is a pleasure to stand upon the shore, and to see ships tossed upon the sea: a pleasure to stand in the window of a castle, and to see a battle and the adventures thereof below: but no pleasure is comparable to standing upon the vantage ground of truth ... and to see the errors, and wanderings, and mists, and tempests, in the vale below.”
—Francis Bacon (1561–1626)
“The Anglo-Saxon hive have extirpated Paganism from the greater part of the North American continent; but with it they have likewise extirpated the greater portion of the Red race. Civilization is gradually sweeping from the earth the lingering vestiges of Paganism, and at the same time the shrinking forms of its unhappy worshippers.”
—Herman Melville (1819–1891)
“What we call little things are merely the causes of great things; they are the beginning, the embryo, and it is the point of departure which, generally speaking, decides the whole future of an existence. One single black speck may be the beginning of a gangrene, of a storm, of a revolution.”
—Henri-Frédéric Amiel (1821–1881)