The Maryland Society hosted a commemoration for the two hundredth anniversary of the Baltimore Battle Monument on September 13, 2025. The monument endures as a commemoration of the attack on Baltimore by land at North Point and by sea at McHenry and a memorial to those who lost their lives in those battles.
Construction on the Battle Monument began on September 12, 1815, a year to the day after Baltimore repelled the British in the War of 1812, and was completed ten years later. The monument is the official emblem of the City of Baltimore, having been adopted for the city seal in 1827 and appearing on the city flag. That same year, it contributed to the city’s nickname, “The Monumental City,” bestowed by President John Quincy Adams. The monument is extraordinary in the history of American monument building, as it is the first public war memorial erected in the United States. It is also considered to be the first “Egyptian structure” in America, and its combined use of Egyptian and Classical elements in the design is unusual.
The featured speaker for the one-hour ceremony was the Mayor of Baltimore, the Honorable Brandon M. Scott. Mayor Scott noted in his address that the monument “represents far more than just the military defenders. It commemorates all the citizens of Baltimore, men and women, white and black, Christian and Jewish, young and old, who came together to defend their city, a city the British promised would be sacked and burned. This is not a monument planned by politicians but one demanded by the people of Baltimore, so that all Baltimoreans could contribute to the monument; it was funded primarily by subscriptions. Limited to five dollars per person. Names of contributors were written in a journal that was placed in the cornerstone of the monument on 13 September 1815.”
Additional speakers included Dr. Julie Shively, historian, Maryland National Guard, and Mrs. Marie Sauter, superintendent, Fort McHenry National Monument and Historic Shrine.
The Maryland Society presented Mayor Scott with a miniature replica of the Monument commissioned especially for this occasion.
