Chris O'Donnell Who Do You Think You Are? USA

In honour of his late father, actor Chris O'Donnell is

investigating his paternal family history.

So he went absent...

He discovers a legacy of courage...

-They're digging holes, burying bodies fast as they can.

-Right.

..patriotism...

Having them come in and burn down his town.

-His family's up on the hill watching.

-That's right.

..and a devotion to family that goes deeper than he ever imagined.

I mean, who wouldn't be so proud to hear this about your family?

All right, Charlie, you ready?

You guys ready? This is championship right here.

Actor, producer and director Chris O'Donnell currently stars

in the hit series NCIS Los Angeles.

It's the latest success in a career

that's thrived on both big and small screens for more than 25 years.

Ooh! Curls over him!

At just 19, Chris earned rave reviews for his debut film

Men Don't Leave and later for Scent of a Woman.

Then at 24, Chris shot to fame

with the breakthrough role of Robin in the blockbuster Batman Forever.

The first Batman film I did

just sent things to a different level.

But I knew when I was working, there was different paths you could take

and I knew that I could continue to date and never get married

and enjoy Hollywood and all the benefits of it but that

really wasn't who I was. It's tough to have it both ways.

If you know you want to have a great family and a bunch of kids,

it's hard to run around in Hollywood.

I think I was 26 and I met the right person.

And I did always want to have...

a big family.

Caroline and I have been married 16 years and we have five kids.

Until you have children

you just have no idea what it means to love someone.

I mean you would literally stand in front of a moving train

or something for them.

I'm the youngest of seven. I always had great role model with my parents.

My dad, William O'Donnell, was born in 1922 in St Louis.

I think the biggest motivation to learn more about the family history

was my dad passing away two years ago.

You just start longing to keep a connection there.

He was a totally self made man, always put his family first.

It's funny. I still get very choked up just talking about Dad.

Even just now, just starting to talk about it,

but, erm...

..just to, eh...

..incredibly solid role model.

Dad was very proud of me and Mom too.

I'm lucky enough that she's still alive. I can ask her questions

about her side but I don't know much about my dad's side

of the family.

All right. Let's see what you have found out.

So Tory Berner is my sister Libby's middle child.

She's actually out here for the summer living with us.

I figured with her being a bit of an amateur genealogist herself,

pick her brain a little bit about what she knows about

specifically my dad's side of the family.

-We know that Poppy's parents are Sarah Regina McCabe...

-Right.

..and John O'Donnell. Here we have the baptism

for Sarah Regina McCabe.

1886 is when she was born. Oh, my God. In St Louis.

Child of Henry McCabe and Mary McEnnis.

-So I've always heard McCabe.

-Right.

-But I've never heard that name before.

-Mary McEnnis.

-I don't know anything about...

-I know.

-..this part of the family.

So then to find out more about this...

I looked up the McEnnis name in St. Louis and I found...

-Census?

-1850 census.

Wow. Here's McEnnis down here.

-And there's Mary...

-Right.

..not even a year old and her parents are Michael McEnnis

and Eliza McEnnis.

-So these are Poppy's great- grandparents.

-Great-grandparents.

The census has taken Chris back four generations and more than 150 years

to his great-great-grandparents Michael and Eliza McEnnis.

As Chris is already familiar with the O'Donnells and the McCabes,

his niece Tory has been researching the McEnnis line.

-I went on some of the local history St. Louis websites.

-Right.

And if you go to research,

search the collections,

guide to the archival collections.

-This is what you just typed McEnnis into?

-Mm-hmm.

McEnnis.

-Michael McEnnis, 1849...

-Right.

..which includes an account of the cholera epidemic, 1849,

by Michael McEnnis.

He wrote something on the cholera epidemic,

but there was nothing more about that on this website.

So where do we go to find out what he wrote about the cholera epidemic?

You go to St. Louis, Missouri.

What I learned from Tory was about some account of a cholera epidemic

that was written about by Michael McEnnis, my great-great-grandfather.

But this is all news to me.

I'm not familiar with any cholera epidemic in Missouri

and I had never heard the family name McEnnis before, so...

..lot of questions all of a sudden.

Chris is off to St. Louis.

He's heading to the Missouri History Museum Library and Research Center.

He's meeting archivist Dennis Northcott to try to find out

about his great-great-grandfather's written account

of the 1849 cholera epidemic.

-Nice to meet you.

-Yeah, good to see you.

Trying to find information about my great-great-grandfather

-Michael McEnnis.

-Right.

-And he wrote about a cholera epidemic.

-Right.

I wonder if you might have anything in relation to this?

This is from our online guide.

Let me take this with me and I'll go run down the stacks

-and get that for you.

-Appreciate it.

-Aha. You have something!

-All right.

So this first item I want to show you are some original

recollections written by your great- great-grandfather Michael McEnnis.

This was likely donated to us by Michael McEnnis or perhaps

some of his family members.

-And what was the cholera epidemic?

-Oh, so in 1849, St. Louis suffered

through this devastating cholera epidemic.

People would take sick and they'd die within a matter of hours.

In the mid 1800's a deadly cholera epidemic hit

the United States from Europe.

By 1849, Michael McEnnis's hometown of St. Louis

was one of the hardest hit cities in America.

Cholera claimed the lives of roughly ten per cent of the population.

And at the height of the epidemic some 88 victims

were being buried each day.

-It literally just hit like that?

-Right.

-It was something that would get in the water and you would drink it?

-Right, right.

Now we know what causes it -

human waste contaminating the water supply.

But at the time they didn't know what caused it.

Take a look. It's probably going to be a dramatic account,

because this was one of the worst periods in St. Louis' history.

"Cholera 1849.

"My father, John McEnnis, was the Superintendent

"of the old Catholic graveyard. My father died whilst the writer

"was in New Mexico in the Mexican War."

My God, the writer being...

-my great-great-grandfather.

-Correct.

"My brother, then 16-years-old, took charge.

"When the cholera was at its height, my mother wrote me a note

"stating my brother was very sick and that four of his men had died

"the night before, that there were eight bodies lying in the graveyard

"and no-one to bury them or to attend to their remains.

"That I must come out at once and take charge."

So they're just literally digging holes and burying bodies

-as fast as they can?

-Right, right.

4,500 people died within the space of about three months.

Oh, my gosh!

"On a very hot day near the close of the cholera

"I was standing at the graveyard gate. Coming up the road was a woman

"carrying a large bundle. I stepped out seeing she was staggering

"under the load and invited her to come into the shade of a tree and rest.

"She then handed the writer a poor ticket for a grave for a child

"12-years-old. I told her that was all right

"and asked when the remains would be brought.

"She answered by pointing to the bundle - it is here.

"She told me her husband and one child had died with cholera

"and now this child was the last.

"She told me she was the last of her people and very likely I would

"bury her remains the following week.

"I can feel the tears running down my cheeks now."

Wow.

Yeah and you can imagine why he wrote these recollections

that had such an effect on him.

-Yeah.

-Living through it.

-Jeez.

Doing all that work for the people.

Really.

Brave person to do that. Just amazing.

-Wow!

-It's a great story.

I mean you think it's just a great story you're reading

about and then you realise it's your family

and it's written by your family. That's unbelievable.

What am I looking at now, here?

-Oh, my God, so this is Michael?

-Hm-mm.

-Look at that!

Michael McEnnis.

I can't believe there's a photo of him.

That's pretty early for photography to find a photo of an ancestor

-back in the 1850's or so.

-Wow.

I wonder how long he was off fighting in the Mexican War?

Maybe there's some information on that?

Yeah I would suggest you go to Washington D.C.

and meet with an expert on the Mexican American War.

And maybe you can find out, I mean here it seems to imply that he

served, maybe you can document that.

-Thank you so much.

-You're welcome. Great meeting you.

-This is amazing.

To have that first-hand account of the cholera epidemic

here in St. Louis

and understand what he was feeling and what he was going through.

It was really amazing.

I don't even have written accounts of my own dad

and this is my great-great-grandfather.

He was going to have to be kind of the man for the family

and he stood up to the test.

Michael was very brave.

He's had a pretty amazing life so far

so I'm curious to find out what else we can about... about Michael.

Chris's next stop is Washington DC.

To discover whether or not his great great grandfather,

Michael McEnnis, served in the Mexican American War,

Chris is visiting the Georgetown Neighbourhood Library to meet historian, Amy Greenberg.

-So nice to meet you, Chris.

-Nice to meet you.

-Yeah.

I'm trying to find out some information

on my great great grandfather Michael McEnnis.

I understand you are an expert on the Mexican Amercian War?

Well I was able to get his compiled military

records from the National Archives.

And I think you'll find these interesting.

-So my great great grandfather served in the Mexican American War.

-He did.

That's amazing.

Can you just give me a little synopsis on the Mexican American War

-just to refresh my memory from senior year of high school?

-Absolutely.

-So the US Mexico War is about the boundary of the United States at the time.

-Got you.

In 1846, the western border of the United Sates reached

only to the region now known as the Midwest.

Mexico claimed the area from West Texas to California.

At the time, the US was riding high on a belief known as "manifest destiny" -

the idea that America was destined to stretch across the continent.

In May of 1846, President Polk declared war on Mexico

and young men like Michael McEnnis answered the call to invade,

claim territory and push the US border west to the Pacific.

So here are Michael McEnnis' muster rolls from the US Mexico War.

So this would explain how he got there or...?

Muster roll is the record of your service.

McEnnis was one of the 12-month volunteers.

-Most of the volunteers in this war signed up for a 12-month period.

-OK.

Michael McEnnis, so June 11th to August 31st 1846.

He's probably 21 years old. So he went in June 11th.

This is less than a month after Polk first calls for volunteers so...

-This war has just begun.

-The war has really just begun,

I'm imaging Michael McEnnis being

one of the thousands of men are extremely, extremely excited.

-And as soon as they hear this call for troops, they turn out.

-They're out there, OK.

McEnnis was under orders to march through New Mexico

capture New Mexico and march all the way to California and capture California.

Oh, really?

-This is two months in the summer marching through Oklahoma and New Mexico.

-Hot.

It was, it was brutal. Everybody would have been sunburned.

Everybody would have been parched.

-Wow. OK, January and February now we're into 1847.

-Right.

This is St Louis. He's back in St Louis.

His remarks, "absent on furlough since the last muster."

So he went absent.

-So he signed up in June of 1846 for a year...

-Right.

..and then all of sudden after seven months he disappears

and he's on furlough, he's back in St Louis.

That's right. In fact he's back in St Louis just a few months after he musters into service.

-He got there and then they sent him back?

-Pretty much right away.

So what could that...? I mean I wonder why he was sent back?

-Or what he went back for?

-Well, I think we may be able to determine that from looking online.

Letters from the Adjutant General 1822 to 1860.

All right, so I'll open that.

"Washington, December 21st 1846.

"Discharge of Michael McEnnis." OK.

"On the 7th of June, last I left St Louis."

-Oh, this is a letter from Michael.

-Yeah.

"If after leaving Fort Leavenworth and arriving at Santa Fe

"I received intelligence of the sudden death of my father."

He just got there and he finds out his dad died.

"Leaving me a large and helpless family to...

"protect and see after."

-He just gets there and he gets word that his dad has passed away.

-Yeah, and he's 21 years old.

Wow. That's a lot of responsibility.

"I immediately apply for a discharge."

So that's what happened so he got to Santa Fe,

he'd signed up for a year he was only there for a couple months.

And immediately he gets a letter that his father's passed away

-who's the head of the whole family.

-Right.

So is that a dishonourable discharge or is that...?

No, it isn't a dishonourable discharge because at the end of the letter that you were just reading

-he was applying for a discharge and he got one.

-He got one.

-So he was honourably discharged.

-So he was honourably discharged.

-Right.

-The family obligation was more important to him

and it pulled him back to St Louis.

You know there's an amazing collection of Mexican War artefacts at the Smithsonian Museum.

We should probably go check that out...

-That would be great.

-..while you're here.

-Yeah, absolutely.

Seems like Michael was, you know, the ultimate eagle scout or something.

I mean an amazing amount of character.

He signed right up to fight in the Mexican American War.

And then when he found out his dad had died he, you know,

felt obligated to go back and take care of the family.

And then serve his city by burying all the dead during the cholera epidemic.

I mean, he had a real sense of duty and obligation.

'Family obviously was such a priority for him

'and it's always been a priority for me.'

I mean, I always knew I always wanted to have a big family

and, you know, even with my career taking me

everywhere I've been filming and that sort of thing.

It's always just been, you know, my family first

and even above my career.

I've been to the Smithsonian before, I've taken my kids there.

So this will be kind of fun to have a real interest in seeing

something that directly relates to my family history.

-Here's the Mexican War.

-Aha!

Amy has arranged for Chris to meet one of the curators

of the Smithsonian, David Miller.

-David, nice to meet you.

-Nice to meet you.

-How's it going?

-All right.

Wow, look at this.

What do we have here?

We have here a letter that came in with

one of our items in the collections, I think you'd like to read it.

"June 5th, 1905. My dear friend and comrade

"I have thought over your request to place my old sabre in your hands.

"These arms were given to men to be used,

"either as Calvary or Infantry as occasion might it require.

"Neither arms were handsome

"yet the one I carried and accidentally retained..."

accidentally retained,

"..is valued as a souvenir of a war that won high honour on the United States.

"If you still think it's worthy of placing with other souvenirs

"of the Mexican War in the Smithsonian Institute in Washington DC

"I am not disposed to refuse your request.

"Very truly your friend and comrade, Michael McEnnis."

That's unbelievable.

This is his, this was his sabre?

That was his sabre.

I can't believe that you've got his sabre.

Oh, my God. Are you kidding me?

It is a model, an 1813 horseman sabre.

-And this was in storage here in the...?

-Yes, it was.

..Smithsonian?

Who would have thought that 107 years later his great great grandson

would come in here and be looking at this?

He somehow ended up with it, he said. HE LAUGHS

It's funny I have a sword from when I did the Three Musketeers, I kept my sword.

-I somehow accidentally kept it.

-Must run in the family.

Must run in the family.

It's amazing that he kept all these letters

and these documents writing about the history that he experienced

and yet somehow nobody in the family had all this.

So I was doing some research on Michael McEnnis and I also found this.

Let me see what we got here.

Holy cow! What year do we think this was probably?

He's about 80 there.

So probably when he wrote this letter.

There are little resemblances to my own father, William.

That's got to be the same bloodline, there's something too it.

Boy, his hair was white. I mean does that mean I'm going grey?

"St Louis Post Dispatch May 14th, 1911.

"Michael McEnnis is the only man living in St Louis of 8,600

"who marched away from here to the Mexican War 65 years ago.

"The sword he carried to the Mexican War is

"preserved as a relic in the Smithsonian Institution.

"McEnnis comes of fighting stock.

"He is of the ninth generation of his family in this country."

The ninth generation of his family in this country

and this is back in 1900.

Oh, my God, that's unbelievable.

"In the War of 1812, there were 88 members of his family.

"His grandfather, George McNeir,

"was a Lieutenant in the Sea Fencibles at the bombardment of Fort McHenry."

-The War of 1812, are you...?

-That's right.

Oh, my God, that's just outrageous.

According to the newspaper article, Chris's family history

in the United State goes back much further than he thought.

Michael McEnnis's father was John McEnnis.

It seems he married the daughter of George McNeir,

Chris's four times great grandfather.

Looks like I'm going to find out something about George McNeir.

Where would I do that?

Because they mention George McNeir by name in here it's quite

possible that the National Archives might have some

records of his service in the War of 1812.

-That sounds like that's my next stop. Thank you so much.

-You're welcome.

-I appreciate it.

'I think that Michael McEnnis wanted his family to be

'proud of their history and to pass that along to everybody.'

And I think if he knew that his great great grandson all these years

later was holding that sword in the Smithsonian

he would be pretty amazed and pleased.

'Michael McEnnis is the ninth generation in this country,'

which means I am the 13th generation,

which means my children are 14th generation.

It's hard to even fathom.

But, obviously, the big news we learn about George McNeir,

my four times great grandfather, fought in the War of 1812.

And I'm curious to learn more about George now.

Chris is heading to the National Archives to meet historian

Vonnie Zullo who has been researching George McNeir's service in the War of 1812.

You're in luck I have right here his compiled military service record for the War of 1812.

This is the real one. This isn't even a copy.

No, this is the real thing.

-That's unbelievable, from the War of 1812.

-1812, yes.

It was at a time when the future of America, of that young nation,

really hung perilously in the balance.

They had earned their...

freedom from Britain but not their total independence.

In 1812, Britain was at war with Napoleon's France.

To gain the upper hand, Britain crushed America's sea trade

with France and used its powerful navy to force US sailors to fight for Britain.

American citizens like George McNeir rallied to defend their nation as it

declared war on the same empire from which it had just won independence.

I can't believe this.

So this shows you.

"George McNeir, third lieutenant Captain John Gill's company of Sea Fencibles."

I've never heard of a Sea Fencible.

The Sea Fencibles were groups of local men that were

-brought into the existing forts at key port cities, to protect them.

-Got you.

So what exactly would a third lieutenant do?

He would have been in charge of the men who actually fired

the cannons, the cannoneers.

-It was a pretty big job.

-Got you.

-So he probably had really bad hearing?

-Probably. Probably.

"February 28th to March 31st, 1814."

This is when he enlisted. 1814, by then it was not a good year for our military.

We were not doing well in this battle.

-The British Royal Navy has a lot more ships, a lot more men.

-So they send him over.

-A lot more supplies. Yeah, they destroy entire towns, burn them to the ground.

-Wow.

Take anything that they wanted and they kept doing this with

the idea that this was gonna destroy our willingness to fight.

-Right.

-That we would just give up.

And then they had their sights, you know, on the capital, Washington DC,

why not? They burned the capital, they burned the White House.

-That's unbelievable.

-It is unbelievable. It was an outrage.

Imagine if you saw the destruction on villages all around you.

It would definitely motivate you to fight

-if suddenly it's threatening your safety.

-Yes.

-Wow.

-Yeah.

-That's amazing.

And then we go to April 30th to June 30th, Fort McHenry.

Where's Fort McHenry?

Fort McHenry is in Baltimore.

-So would that mean that he was from that area?

-Yes.

Got you.

"August 31st to October 31st, 1814."

That's the last muster roll card that was available for him.

Does that mean that he left at that point or was discharged or...?

Well, there were a few more documents in his service record.

You are really lucky, this is not common.

-Really?

-Almost 200 years old.

-Oh, my God. All right.

"Sir, the situation on my family is such that is calls

"imperiously for my continual presence.

"I therefore solicit you to have the goodness to

"prevail on the secretary of war.

"To accept my resignation as third lieutenant. Your obedient servant...

-Obedient servant, that's it.

-"..George McNeir, October 22nd, 1814."

So just like my great great grandfather who had to leave because of his family.

-That's...

-Wow.

-..crazy coincidence.

-Coincidence, huh?

-Yeah.

So what happened? Was the resignation granted?

There's one more document that you can look at.

The suspense.

"It appears by the records of this office that George McNeir

"of Sea Fencibles accepted his appointment on the 22nd of March 1814

"and resigned on the 24th of November 1814."

-So his resignation was accepted.

-It was accepted.

Was this normal for someone to request something like this and...?

No, it's not necessarily totally normal.

And you often don't find this sort of thing in a service record,

the letters like this from the 1812 time period, so pretty lucky.

Wow. That's unbelievable.

-So he, as of November 24th, 1814 was back home with the family.

-Back home with the family.

So I wonder what the situation of the family is.

Why he had to go back and what was going on?

Now since we know he was from Baltimore area, right, Baltimore County.

-The Maryland State Archives would be the best place for you to look, in Annapolis.

-OK.

Because they would have the records of citizens that

lived in Baltimore or Baltimore County.

-I've got to find out more.

-I know. I know. You're not done yet.

-I'm on my way.

-Yeah. you are.

So there's a trend here.

McEnnis and McNeir made choices.

It was they chose family, which, you know,

is definitely a pattern I've seen in our lives.

My dad always put our family first

and it's for sure the choice I've always made in life.

I don't know why George McNeir needed to leave.

Maybe someone got sick, maybe somebody died.

Maybe he was just sick of hearing all these cannons blast all day.

I don't know, but I want to find out.

Chris's four times great grandfather wrote that a family situation

was the reason for his resignation from the Sea Fencibles.

To try to find out more, Chris has come to the

Maryland State Archives to meet genealogist Michael Hait.

-Nice to meet you.

-Nice to meet you.

So I've got some muster rolls here on my four times great grandfather...

-OK.

-George McNeir.

It says something in here that he had to leave

the War of 1812 for some family reasons

-and I'm trying to kind of figure out what that might have been.

-OK.

I've actually done a little bit of research already

and I have a few things to finish up.

But why don't you take a look at the US Federal Census

since he was serving in Baltimore in 1814.

You should take a look at the census in Baltimore in 1810,

which will give you an ideal of the household, composition,

the family dynamics and that sort of thing.

-OK, great. I'll check it out.

-I'll be back in just a minute.

-OK. Great.

1810 Federal Census. OK, so I got a little something here.

That's McNeir, George McNeir.

Looks like right now there's two, there's the parents

and they look like they've got four kids.

Well I found in the 1810 census I've got George McNeir down here.

It says that he and his wife seem to have four kids, three young ones.

So he's got a full house at home.

One place you can go to get a little bit more detail about George

would be the Baltimore City directories.

I was able to find a city directory from 1812

and I printed out the page here.

City directory from 1812.

McNeir, George - he's a tailor.

So he's a tailor and they were saying that he was a Sea Fencible

and that... So he was... He probably answered the call to duty

because if the British came in it'd destroy his business.

-Right.

-It would be tough if he's got a little tailor shop right in town.

Is this do you know where this address is?

-Is that somewhere near the water?

-Baltimore is a port city.

-So...

-So everything's right around it.

-..everything's, you know, kind of around the water.

It didn't have to be right on the water to be affected by the war.

Also found another record.

These are core papers.

-Take a look at these.

-Oh, my God.

-Each...

-Are these the originals?

-These are the originals.

-And you're allowed to touch them?

-Yes, you are.

Really?

So, you want to find '72.

'71.

'72.

I see George McNeir for house rent 21, 10.

April of 1813.

So this is before he signs up to become a Sea Fencible.

Right, exactly.

"A schedule of the goods and chattels of George McNeir."

-Chattels? What are chattels?

-Personal property.

OK. "Seized and taken for house rent."

So someone came in and seized all his stuff.

These were people who were empowered by William Smith who owned the property.

-He obviously wasn't paying his bills.

-Right.

Wow. OK.

All right, so it says here 88 great coats

and 704 dollars, is that considered a lot of money?

704 dollars was about 11,000 dollars.

-Today?

-Today.

So he was a tailor so he had made these coats,

-so they took his inventory, basically.

-Right, exactly.

He's in tough shape business wise, obviously. But I wonder why?

Well, a lot of the trade was with Europe

and great coats in particular, you know, were more for kind of the upper classes.

And so lot of those would have being going to Europe.

The war with Britain obviously would have cut off trade to Britain.

Which would be devastating to someone like George McNeir?

-So it sounds like the war destroyed his business.

-Right.

And he's got a household full of people at least four kids, a wife.

William Smith has just taken all of his inventory of coats

so he's really in a tough, tough place.

So in April of 1813, suddenly he's had everything seized

and then a year later, almost a year later,

-he enlists and we see him in the muster records.

-Right.

-So he needs a job.

-Exactly.

So he started in February of 1814.

What how much would a Sea Fencible be paid for something like this?

They would have been paid about 23 dollars a month,

which was in today's terms probably about 300 or 400 dollars a month.

-OK. I guess it's something.

-Yeah.

So he was, he probably answered the call to duty

because he's got a real vested interest to go join

the Sea Fencibles if suddenly his livelihood is endangered.

George McNeir obviously had a lot going on in his life at this point.

But why he left the Sea Fencibles, I'm confused about.

I still don't understand exactly why.

The papers we looked at yesterday said that he resigned

-November 24th of 1814.

-OK.

Now one thing I noticed is the time frame that he served.

He was serving during September of 1814

-at the Garrison of Fort McHenry.

-OK.

And a very significant military event occurred there.

-Really?

-Yeah.

-During September?

-During September.

So that would have been just a couple months before he officially resigned from the Sea Fencibles.

OK, well that, maybe that can give me some more information on what was going on.

-All right.

-All right.

-Thank you very much for helping me out.

-Sure.

It seems pretty clear from what we've seen that George McNeir had a lot on his plate.

And having a house full of kids at home.

I mean, I could imagine in my own life, how crazy that is.

Anybody with a, you know, a family and kids,

it's always your first priority to make sure you're providing for them.

It seems like McNeir's gonna fight for them and literally.

I'm not sure why he resigned from the Sea Fencibles, hopefully

visiting Fort McHenry will help us to understand more of that.

To get to the heart of George McNeir's experience in the War of 1812, Chris is heading to Baltimore.

Two months before resigning as a third lieutenant

Chris's four times great grandfather was involved

in a significant military event that took place at Fort McHenry.

So to find out what happened there, Chris is meeting historian Vince Vaise.

So my four times great father, George McNeir joined as a Sea Fencible

-and that he was in charge of the guys running the cannons and things like that.

-That's right.

McNeir was stationed what we call on the water battery.

That's the front row sea.

By late 1814, the war with Britain had taken a terrible toll on the United States.

Washington DC had been burned and the British set their sights on Baltimore.

On September 12th, the powerful Royal Navy appeared on the horizon

forcing George McNeir and the other soldiers at Fort McHenry to take up

arms and prepare for a bombardment of legendary proportions.

Six in the morning on the 13th, it's overcast, it starts to rain

the ships come within the gunnery range of the fort.

It sounded like thunder when the fort's cannons opened up.

But the British had a secret weapon that the American's could not use here.

-What was that?

-They called them the bomb vessels.

200 years ago they had the technology to throw a 194-pound shell two miles.

-Oh, so that was further than our range.

-Right.

-So that's the... Off a ship.

-Off a ship.

So think about how the defenders of the fort

and your ancestor would have had to feel.

Here it's pouring down rain -

you're standing between the city of Baltimore and here.

-You don't know you're gonna win or not.

-Your bullets aren't reaching them.

And then, as a matter of fact, knowing that the orders are passed down the line,

"cease-fire don't waste your ammunition."

-So all these guys can do is just hunker down and take it.

-They said cease-fire.

-Cease-fire.

And they're sitting here and these guys are drilling them with 190-pound missiles.

That's why one captain who was in the fort said,

"We felt like pigeons tied by the legs to be shot at."

Oh, my God.

They said you could hear the concussion of the shells in the city of Baltimore.

Theoretically if George McNeir was out here in this battle,

-his family is up on the hill watching what's going on.

-Yeah, that's right.

Wow. So how long did the battle last?

25 hours. The next morning they're out around 7.00am

on the morning of the 14th.

The British cease-fire, and then there's this ominous silence.

The people in Baltimore sit here like, "OK, did the fort win?

"Or are the British moving in the fort?"

The silence could mean that the British won.

If you're in the fort you're like, "OK, what's next?

"I survived the night. Are the British gonna come up and we got a bigger battle on our hands?

-"Are we gonna make it through this day?"

-And so what was our plan at that point?

The British, they're the ones essentially holding the cards.

They're like, "OK, we wasted all this ammunition."

-They don't have infinite stockpiles.

-That's right.

So the second option was to bring the ships in close

-but they figured, "Man, they're gonna tear us up."

-Sure.

So the only option left is to turn and sail away.

-You know, it kind of showed the British you threw your best at us and we took it and...

-That's right.

Then as the British ships are sailing away at nine in the morning,

the morning cannon fires probably from this bastion right here.

Boom! The small sopping wet American flag is taken down

-and a gigantic American flag...

-No way.

-Yeah.

30 feet high, 42 feet long is hoisted as the fifes and drums played Yankee Doodle.

So your ancestor would have seen that huge American flag go up.

That had to be an amazing sight.

I would say the most recognisable individual who saw the flag

and immortalized what happened, is a lawyer.

He was negotiating a release of a prisoner.

He defines the whole experience. He writes this poem.

'Tis the Star Spangled Banner Oh long may it wave.

O'er the land of the free and the home of the brave.

And that lawyer was Frances Scott Key

and those words would become the National Anthem of the United States of America.

That's amazing!

Yeah. Part of your family history is part of the National Anthem.

Jeez. My gosh. I had no idea.

But I mean this was huge turning point in the War of 1812 and it

really had a major impact on the treaty that ended the War of 1812.

-Wow.

-Saved the city of Baltimore.

So I would like to invite you to change the flag,

just like they did on the morning of September 14th.

-That would be amazing. I thank you so much.

-I'll see you down there.

-All righty. I'll be there in a sec.

I never knew what the National Anthem was written about.

And to learn that it was written about this incident, the Battle of Baltimore in 1814.

And that one my relatives was out here, is pretty amazing.

-OK.

-You ready?

-Yeah.

-All right, haul away.

'I can only imagine what those 24 hours must have'

seemed like a lifetime,

that night, for the kids, for his wife,

and for him, wondering what's going on back home. Are they gonna survive?

On the one hand, you know, he was answering that call to duty

'for his country and for his city and for his family and their safety.

'This was important to serve, but he figured it was in good hands here'

and he needed to get back to more important things.

To me that makes sense that maybe that's why he made his way back to Baltimore, to his family.

Well I will never hear the song and not think about this.

-That's pretty good.

-That's awesome, isn't it?

-Thank you.

-You're welcome.

'To hear these stories of great grandparents that

'served in the cholera epidemic'

and being a part of the battle that inspired the National Anthem, that's insane.

My dad would be so excited to know this.

I know he would have been very proud.

I mean, who wouldn't be so proud to hear this about your family?

They're amazing stories.

McNeir and McEnnis both answered the call to service,

but you know, what's the most important thing to them in life?

Your family.

'I think there is a through line as far as,

'these guys putting their families first,'

maybe that's part of why it feel so natural to me, or so right to me.

That that is your instinct, maybe it comes from past generations

that have kind of instilled that in you without you even knowing.

That's amazing, yeah, really amazing.