#52 Ancestors 2020 Week 14 Water: Captain John Adams Webster, Hero of Ft. McHenry

Fort McHenry, as you can see from the picture above, is surrounded on three sides by water.  Built in 1798 on the site of an earlier fort, Fort McHenry had one main job:  to protect the Port of Baltimore.  During the War of 1812, this was a particularly critical function.  Thanks to the alert hearing of  Lt. John Adams Webster (my distant cousin), Fort McHenry was successful in carrying out this job.

Broom's Bloom

John Adams Webster, the son of Samuel Webster and Margaret Adams, was born at Broom's Bloom in Harford County 19 September 1789. At the age of 14, he entered the merchant marine, and at the beginning of the War of 1812, he became a   navy sailing master serving under the famed Captain Joshua Barney, fought at the Battle of Bladensburg, and finally was given charge of Battery Babcock located on the Patapsco River to the west of  Fort McHenry, intended to prevent a rear attack on the Fort.

According to the account in Appleton's Cyclopedia, the battery of six guns was old and dilapidated, the guns were corroded, the carriages rusty, the earthworks defective and the whole place overgrown with briars.  But Lt. Webster whipped it into shape as the British advanced on Baltimore in September 1814.

At daybreak on September 13, the British battery opened fire, but Webster's battery was out of range.  All he could do was stay alert. Around 11 PM, he made his rounds in the pouring rain, ordered his guns loaded and ready for action, and then wrapped himself in a blanket and stretched out on the breastworks.  About midnight, he heard the sound of muffled oars splashing through the water and looked out to see the gleaming lights of British landing barges trying to come around to the rear of Fort McHenry.  He gave the order to fire and the guns at Fort McHenry soon joined the fray.  The action lasted over an hour, but the British finally retreated, and, as every school child knows, at dawn the fort raised the stars and stripes indicating an American victory and inspiring Francis Scott Key to write the Star Spangled Banner.  (For a more detailed account, see William M. Marine, The British Invasion of Maryland 1812-1815.)

Lt. Webster was wounded during the battle, but remained at his post until the end. For his heroic action, the citizens of Baltimore and later the state of Maryland presented him with inscribed swords, both now housed at the Maryland Historical Society.

"Presented by the State of Maryland to Captain John A. Webster for his gallant defense of the battery committed to his charge during the memorable attack against the city of Baltimore September 14, 1814." 

Six cannon mounted at Riverside Park in Baltimore and Webster Street, named for him in South Baltimore, represent the only memorial to Webster's heroic defense of the city.

In 1816, John Adams Webster married Rachel Biays, with whom he had eleven children.

Mount Adams

President Monroe appointed him a captain in the Revenue Service in 1817, a position he held until his death. In his long career, he commanded a flotilla in the Mexican War and served in Baltimore, Norfolk, New Orleans, and San Francisco among other places.


He retired in 1865 as the most senior officer in the Revenue Service.  He died at his home, Mount Adams in Harford County, on the 4th of July 1877 at the age of 87, one of the last of Baltimore's "Old Defenders."  The flags of Baltimore City Hall and Fort McHenry flew at half-mast to honor him on the day of his funeral.