Battle of Baltimore Navy inspired Francis Scott Key to compose the poem "Defence of Fort McHenry", which later became the lyrics for "The Star-Spangled Banner", the national anthem of the United States of America. Future President James Buchanan served as Private in the defense of Baltimore. Until April 1814, Great Britain was at war with Napoleonic France, which limited British war aims in America. During this time the British primarily used a defensive strategy and repelled American invasions of the provinces of Upper and Lower Canada. However, the Americans gained naval control over Lake Erie in 1813, and seized parts of western Ontario.
Seacoast defense in the United States intense all-night bombardment of Fort McHenry by the British ships offshore was memorialized by Francis Scott Key, a Baltimore lawyer who witnessed the ferocious attack from one of the vessels, and put down his thoughts watching the barrage - which failed to either destroy the fort or subdue its defenders - in a four-stanza poem, which became known as The Star-Spangled Banner and later became America's national anthem. In some cases even incomplete forts (some with fake wooden cannon barrels painted black pointed out the embrasures) were sufficient to deter attack from the sea. But, undefended and unfortified, Washington, D.C.,