Dr. James McHenry

James McHenry was born in Ireland, came to America, and was an apprentice to Dr. Benjamin Rush. He became the surgeon of the 5^th Pennsylvania Battalion and was captured at Fort Washington, NY in 1776. A prisoner for a time, McHenry was paroled in January 1777, and he was officially exchanged in March 1778. Joining Washington’s staff in May 1778, McHenry apparently served as a volunteer “without any emolument.” McHenry served as a well-liked and loyal member of Washington’s “military family,” until August 1780. He then joined Lafayette’s staff and eventually resigned from the army after Yorktown in 1781. Washington wrote of him:

“McHenry’s easy and cheerful temper was able to bear the strain which we suppose must sometimes occur between two persons thrown so closely and so constantly together in a position of social equality and military inequality.”

McHenry was later elected to the Maryland senate, served as a delegate to the Continental Congress, and was a Maryland representative during the Constitutional Convention. He became a political ally of Washington and served on his cabinet as the Secretary of War from 1796-1800. James McHenry died at his Baltimore estate in 1816. Fort McHenry in Baltimore harbor of “Star Spangled Banner” fame was named for him.