George Armistead (April 10, 1780 – April 25, 1818) was an American military officer who served as the commander of Fort McHenry during the Battle of Baltimore in the War of 1812. Life and career Armistead was born on the Newmarket Plantation in Caroline County, Virginia (now in Milford). His military career began during the Quasi War with France when he was commissioned as an ensign in the 7th U.S. Infantry Regiment on January 14, 1799. He was promoted to 2nd lieutenant on March 3 of the same year and to 1st lieutenant on May 14, 1800. With the reduction in the Army after the Quasi War, he was discharged from the Army on June 15, 1800. He re-entered the Army on February 16, 1801, when he was commissioned as a lieutenant in the 2nd Regiment of Artillerists and Engineers. He was promoted to captain on November 1, 1806. War of 1812 He was one of five brothers who served in the War of 1812, either in the regular army or militia. He was promoted to major of the 3rd Artillery Regiment on March 3, 1813. He distinguished himself at the capture of Fort George from the British, near the mouth of Niagara River in Canada on May 27, 1813, while serving as an artillery officer at Fort Niagara. He would later carry the captured British flags to President James Madison. Upon his arrival in Washington, Armistead was ordered to "take command of Fort McHenry." Defense of Fort McHenry When he arrived at Fort McHenry, located in the outer harbor of Baltimore, Maryland, Armistead ordered "a flag so large that the British would have no difficulty seeing it from a distance". That flag, known as the Star-Spangled Banner Flag, measured 42' × 30', and was made by Baltimore resident Mary Pickersgill, her daughter, and seven seamstresses, and would be later memorialized by Francis Scott Key in the poem "The Star-Spangled Banner", which became the American national anthem in 1931. During the nearly 25-hour bombardment of Fort McHenry, commencing before dawn on September 13 until the morning of September 14, 1814, Armistead alone knew the fort's magazine was not bombproof. When a shell crashed through the roof of the magazine but failed to explode, Armistead ordered the powder barrels cleared out and placed under the rear walls of the fort. Remarkably, only four men were killed, when two shells smashed into