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The Chatter

200th Anniversary March of the Defenders

Maryland National Guard's 175 Infantry re-creates historic march from Patterson Park to North Point.

By Ron Cassie | September 11, 2014, 01:09 pm

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Ron Cassie

As part of the 200th anniversary of the Battle of North Point Thursday morning, 500 members of the Maryland National Guard’s 175th Infantry Regiment re-created the 6-mile march that the Maryland Militia took 200 years ago to engage the British redcoats, who had landed at the end of the North Point Peninsula in preparation for the Battle of Baltimore.

The march began atop Hampstead Hill in Patterson Park, headed down Eastern Avenue through Highlandtown—where throngs of nearby school children greeted the soldiers with waving flags—toward a final destination at Battle Acre Park in Dundalk.

The Battle of North Point is considered critical to the ultimate defense of the Baltimore in the War of 1812, and not all the volunteer citizen/soldiers of the Maryland Militia returned home.

(Don’t forget: the Hampstead Hill Festival, with a wide range of history and entertainment, including a performance of the not-to-be-missed, Capital Fringe Festival award-winning “1814: The Rock Opera,” takes place this weekend at Patterson Park.)