James McHenry, MD: physician, patriot, politician and poet

James McHenry emigrated from Ireland to the American colonies in 1771. He studied medicine with Dr. Benjamin Rush in Philadelphia and immediately volunteered as an Army surgeon when the Revolutionary War began. After serving in the medical department in Massachusetts, New York and at Valley Forge in Pennsylvania, he became an aide to General George Washington and subsequently an aide to the Marquis de Lafayette. President Washington appointed McHenry Secretary of War and he continued in that post under president John Adams. While Secretary, he revised military regulations, established a professional standing Army, pacified the Indians, enlarged the naval forces, organized the armed forces under civilian authority and initiated plans for a military academy. Baltimore's Fort Whetstone was renamed Fort McHenry in his honor. During the War of 1812, Fort McHenry gained fame as the birthplace of the national anthem of the United States.