From the admiral's flag-ship the Surprise, upon which he was then
detained, Key saw some of the finest soldiers of the British
army, under General Ross, disembarked at North Point, to the
southeast of the city of Baltimore. Then on Tuesday morning,
September 13, 1814, the fleet moved across the broad Patapsco,
and ranged themselves in a semicircle two and a half miles from
the small brick and earth fort which lay low down on a jutting
projection of land guarding the water approaches to Baltimore on
that side.

Cockburn's boast to Key that the reduction of the city would be
"a matter of a few hours" did not look improbable. It was
garrisoned by a small force of regulars under General Armistead,
assisted by some volunteer artillerists under Judge Nicholson.
It was armed with forty-two pounders, and some cannon of smaller
caliber, but all totally ineffective to reach the British ships
in their chosen position. In addition, a small earth battery at
the Lazaretto--which, it will be seen, did good service--guarded
the important approach to the city by the north branch of the
Patapsco; while Fort Coventry protected the south branch. These
batteries were armed only with eighteen and twenty-four pounders.

From seven on the morning of Tuesday until after midnight of
Wednesday the fleet bombarded Fort McHenry at long range;
occasionally the gunners in the fort fired a useless shot at the
ships. But at midnight word was brought to Cockburn that the
land attack on the North Point road to the east of the city had
failed. Therefore, unless the fleet could take Fort McHenry on
the west, retreat was inevitable.