In memory of his beloved late father, actor Chris O'Donnell investigates the paternal side of his family and finds ancestors on the front lines of American history. Chris explores a legacy of courage and patriotism, and a family devotion that extends deeper than he ever imagined.
00:00So according to this article, my family's history in this country goes back so much further than I thought,
00:05and it reveals even more of my family trait.
00:08I know Michael McInnis' father was John McInnis.
00:11Now, he must have married the daughter of George McNair, my four-times great-grandfather.
00:16Looks like I'm going to find out something about George McNair. Where would I do that?
00:21Because they mention George McNair by name in here,
00:25it's quite possible that the National Archives might have some records of his service in the War of 1812.
00:30Sounds like that's my next stop. Thank you so much.
00:34You're welcome.
00:34Appreciate it.
00:35I think that Michael McInnis wanted his family to be proud of their history and to pass that along to everybody.
00:40And I think if he knew that his great-great-grandson, all these years later, was holding that sword in the Smithsonian,
00:47he'd be pretty amazed and pleased.
00:49Michael McInnis is the ninth generation in this country, which means I am the 13th generation,
00:57which means my children are 14th generation.
01:01It's hard to even fathom.
01:04But obviously the big news, we learn about George McNair, my four-times great-grandfather,
01:11fought in the War of 1812.
01:12And I'm curious to learn more about George now.
01:17So I'm heading over to the National Archives to see if Vani Zulo was able to locate any records
01:23pertaining to McNair's service in the War of 1812.
01:26You're in luck.
01:28I have right here his compiled military service record for the War of 1812.
01:34This is the real one.
01:35This isn't even a copy.
01:36No, this is the real thing.
01:37That's unbelievable, the War of 1812.
01:401812, yes.
01:41It was at a time when the future of America, of that young nation, really hung perilously in the balance.
01:49They had earned their freedom from Britain, but not their total independence.
01:55In 1812, Great Britain was at war with Napoleon's France.
01:59To get the upper hand, Britain crushed America's sea trade with France and used its mighty navy to force U.S. sailors to fight for Britain.
02:08Citizens like George McNair rallied to defend their nation as it declared war on the same empire from which it had just won independence.
02:17I can't believe this.
02:19So this shows you?
02:21George McNair, 3rd Lieutenant, Captain John Gill's Company of Sea Fencibles.
02:26I've never heard of a sea fensible.
02:28The sea fencibles were groups of local men that were brought into the existing forts at key port cities to protect them.
02:40Gotcha.
02:41So what exactly would a 3rd Lieutenant do?
02:45He would have been in charge of the men who actually fired the cannons, the cannoneers.
02:52Gotcha.
02:53So it's a pretty big job.
02:54Gotcha.
02:55So he probably had really bad hearing.
02:57Probably.
02:58February 28th to March 31st, 1814.
03:04This is when he enlisted.
03:061814, by then, it was not a good year for our military.
03:11We were not doing well in this battle.
03:14The British Royal Navy has a lot more ships, a lot more men.
03:17So they send them over?
03:18Yeah, they destroy entire towns, burn them to the ground, take anything that they wanted, and they kept doing this with the idea that this was going to destroy our willingness to fight.
03:31Right.
03:32And then they had their sights, you know, on the Capitol, Washington, D.C. Why not?
03:39They burned the Capitol, they burned the White House.
03:41That's unbelievable.
03:42It is unbelievable.
03:43Yeah.
03:43It was an outrage.
03:44Imagine if you saw the destruction on villages all around you.
03:50It would definitely motivate you to fight if suddenly it's threatening your safety.
03:54Yes.
03:55Wow.
03:55Yeah.
03:56That's amazing.
03:59And then we go to April 30th to June 30th, Fort McHenry.
04:05Where's Fort McHenry?
04:06Fort McHenry is in Baltimore.
04:09So would that mean that he was from that area?
04:13Gotcha.
04:15August 31st, October 31st, 1814.
04:19That's the last muster roll card that was available for him.
04:23Does that mean that he left at that point or was discharged?
04:26Well, there were a few more documents in his service record.
04:30You are really lucky.
04:31This is not common.
04:32Really?
04:33Almost 200 years old.
04:34Oh, my God.
04:35All right.
04:37Sir, the situation on my family is such that it calls imperiously for my continual presence.
04:46I therefore solicit you to have the goodness to prevail on the secretary of war to accept my resignation as third lieutenant, your obedient servant, George McNeer.
05:02October 22nd, 1814.
05:04So just like my great-great-grandfather who had to leave because of his family.
05:10Huh.
05:12That's crazy coincidence.
05:14Coincidence, huh?
05:14Yeah.
05:15So what happened?
05:17Was the resignation granted?
05:20Chris O'Donnell is at the National Archives, where he's just learned that George McNeer asked to resign from the War of 1812.
05:27He's about to find out if McNeer's resignation was granted.
05:31There's one more document that you can look at.
05:35The suspense.
05:36Thanks.
05:36It appears by the records of this office that George McNeer of C. Fencibles accepted his appointment on the 22nd of March, 1814, and resigned on the 24th of November, 1814.
05:57So his resignation was accepted.
06:00It was accepted.
06:01Was this normal for someone to request something like this?
06:05No, it's not necessarily totally normal.
06:08And you often don't find this sort of thing in a service record, the letters like this from the 1812 time period.
06:15So pretty lucky.
06:17That's unbelievable.
06:19So he, as of November 24th, 1814, was back home with the family.
06:23Back home with the family.
06:24So I wonder what the situation of the family is.
06:29Why he had to go back and what was going on.
06:32Now, since we know he was from Baltimore area, right?
06:36Baltimore County.
06:39The Maryland State Archives would be the best place for you to look in Annapolis.
06:43Okay.
06:44Because they would have the records of citizens that lived in Baltimore or Baltimore County.
06:49I've got to find out more.
06:50I know, I know.
06:51You're not done yet.
06:52I'm on my way.
06:53Yeah, you are.
06:55So there's a trend here.
06:56McGinnis and McNair made choices.
06:58It was, they chose family.
07:00Which, you know, is definitely a pattern I've seen in our lives.
07:03My dad always put our family first.
07:04And it's, for sure, the choice I've always made in life.
07:08I don't know why George McNair needed to leave.
07:12Maybe someone got sick.
07:14Maybe somebody died.
07:15Maybe he was just sick of hearing all these cannons blast all day.
07:18I don't know.
07:19But I want to find out.
07:23Because my four-time great-grandfather wrote that a family situation was the reason for his resignation,
07:30I'm meeting with genealogist Michael Haight at the Maryland State Archives to find out more.
07:35Nice to meet you.
07:36Nice to meet you.
07:36So I got some muster rolls here on my four-time great-grandfather, George McNair.
07:45It says something in here that he had to leave the War of 1812 for some family reasons.
07:51I'm trying to kind of figure out what that might have been.
07:54Okay.
07:55I've actually done a little bit of research already, and I have a few things to finish up.
08:01But why don't you take a look at the U.S. federal census?
08:06Since he was serving in Baltimore in 1814, you should take a look at the census in Baltimore in 1810,
08:13which will give you an idea of the household composition and family dynamics and that sort of thing.
08:18Okay, great.
08:19I'll check it out.
08:20I'll be back in just a minute.
08:21Okay.
08:22Great.
08:22Okay.
08:271810, federal census.
08:30Okay.
08:31So I got a little something here.
08:34That's McNair, George McNair.
08:36Looks like right now there's two.
08:37There's the parents, and it looks like they've got four kids.
08:42Well, I found in the 1810 census, I got George McNair down here.
08:46It says that he and his wife seem to have four kids, three young ones.
08:50So he's got a full house at home.
08:53One place you can go to get a little bit more detail about George would be the Baltimore City directories.
08:59I was able to find a city directory from 1812, and I printed out the page here.
09:05City directory from 1812.
09:10McNair.
09:12George.
09:12It's a tailor.
09:15So he's a tailor, and they were saying that he was a sea fensible, and that...
09:20So he was...
09:21He probably answered the call to duty because if the British came in, it destroyed his business.
09:26Right.
09:27It would be tough if he's got a little tailor shop right in town.
09:29Is this...
09:30Do you know where this address is?
09:31Is that somewhere near the water?
09:32Baltimore is a port city.
09:33Right.
09:34So...
09:34Everything's right around it.
09:35Everything's, you know, kind of around the water, and it didn't have to be right on the water to be affected by the war.
09:42Also found another record.
09:45These are court papers.
09:47Take a look at these.
09:48Oh, my God.
09:50Each...
09:50Are these the originals?
09:51These are the original records.
09:51And you're allowed to touch them?
09:52Yes, you are.
09:54Really?
09:55So you want to find 72.
09:5871.
09:5972.
10:01I see George McNair for house rent.
10:072110.
10:11April of 1813.
10:13So this is before he signs up to become a sea fensible.
10:16Right, exactly.
10:18A schedule of the goods and chattels of George McNair.
10:21Chattels?
10:21What are chattels?
10:22Personal property.
10:23Okay.
10:24Seized and taken for house rent.
10:29So someone came in and seized all his stuff.
10:32These were people who were empowered by William Smith, who owned the property.
10:36He obviously wasn't paying his bills.
10:38Right.
10:39Wow.
10:40Okay.
10:42All right.
10:43So it says here, 88 great coats.
10:46Is $704?
10:47Is that considered a lot of money?
10:49$704 was about $11,000.
10:52Today?
10:52Today.
10:53So he was a tailor.
10:54So he had made these coats.
10:56So they took his inventory, basically.
10:57Right.
10:58Exactly.
10:59He's in tough shape, business-wise, obviously.
11:01But I wonder why.
11:04A lot of the trade was with Europe.
11:06And great coats in particular, you know, were more for kind of the upper classes.
11:11And so a lot of those would have been going to Europe.
11:14The war with Britain, obviously, would have cut off trade to Britain.
11:19Which would be devastating to someone like George McNair.
11:22So it sounds like the war destroyed his business.
11:25Right.
11:26And he's got a household full of people, at least four kids, a wife.
11:31William Smith has just taken all of his inventory of coats.
11:34Because he's really in a tough, tough place.
11:40Chris O'Donnell is at the Maryland State Archives, where he's just learned that the War of 1812 contributed to the collapse of his ancestors' tailoring business.
11:49So in April of 1813, suddenly he's had everything seized.
11:55And then a year later, almost a year later, he enlists, or we see him in the muster records.
12:00Right.
12:01So he needs a job.
12:03Exactly.
12:05So he started in February of 1814.
12:08How much would a sea fensible be paid for something like this?
12:11They would have been paid about $23 a month, which was, in today's terms, probably about $300 or $400 a month.
12:19Okay.
12:20I guess it's something.
12:21Yeah.
12:22So 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 was endangered.
12:35George McNair obviously had a lot going on in his life at this point.
12:38But why he left the sea fencibles, I'm confused about.
12:42I still don't understand exactly why.
12:43The papers we looked at yesterday said that he resigned November 24th of 1814.
12:50Okay.
12:50Now, one thing I noticed is the time frame that he served.
12:55Mm-hmm.
12:55He was serving during September of 1814 at the garrison of Fort McHenry.
13:00Okay.
13:01And a very significant military event occurred there.
13:05Really?
13:06Yeah.
13:07During September?
13:08During September.
13:09So that would have been just a couple of months before he officially resigned from the sea fencibles.
13:15All right.
13:15Well, that, maybe that can give me some more information on, on what was going on.
13:18All right.
13:19All right.
13:20Thank you very much for helping me out.
13:21Sure.
13:22It seems pretty clear from what we've seen that George McNair had a lot on his plate.
13:28Having a house full of kids at home.
13:30I mean, I can imagine in my own life how crazy that is.
13:33Anybody with a, you know, family and kids, it's, it's always your first priority to make sure you're providing for them.
13:43It seems like McNair is going to fight for them.
13:45Literally.
13:47I'm not sure why he resigned from the sea fencibles.
13:52Hopefully, visiting Fort McHenry will help us to understand more of that.
13:57To get to the heart of George McNair's experience in the War of 1812, I'm headed to Baltimore, Maryland.
14:08Two months before resigning as a third lieutenant, my four times great-grandfather was involved in some military event that took place at Fort McHenry.
14:17So to find out what happened there, I'm going to go meet with historian Vince Face.
14:21So my four times great-grandfather, George McNair, joined as a sea fencible, and that he was in charge of the guys running the cannons and things like that.
14:29That's right. McNair was stationed, what we call, on the water battery.
14:33All right.
14:34That's the front row seat.
14:36By late 1814, the war with Britain had taken a terrible toll on the nation.
14:43Washington, D.C. had been burned, and the British set their sights on Baltimore.
14:47On September 12th, the preeminent British Royal Navy appeared on the horizon, forcing George McNair and the other soldiers at Fort McHenry to take up arms and prepare for a bombardment of legendary proportions.
15:02Six in the morning on the 13th, it's overcast, it starts to rain, the ships come within the gunnery range of the fort.
15:09The fort sounded like thunder when the fort's cannons opened up, but the British had a secret weapon that the Americans could not use here.
15:18What was that?
15:19They called them the bomb vessels.
15:20Wow.
15:21200 years ago, they had the technology to throw a 194-pound shell two miles.
15:26So that was further than our range.
15:27Right.
15:28Off a ship.
15:29Off a ship.
15:29So think about how the defenders of the fort and your ancestor would have had to feel.
15:36Here it's pouring down rain.
15:38You're standing between the city of Baltimore and here.
15:41You don't know you're going to win or not.
15:43Your bullets aren't reaching them.
15:44And then, as a matter of fact, knowing that, the orders are passed down the line, cease fire, don't waste your ammunition.
15:49So all these guys could do is just hunker down and take it.
15:52They said cease fire.
15:52Cease fire.
15:52And they're sitting here, and these guys are drilling them with 190-pound missiles.
15:56That's why one captain who was in the fort said, we felt like pigeons tied by the legs to be shot at.
16:03Oh, my God.
16:06Chris O'Donnell is at Fort McHenry, where he's about to learn the outcome of the battle in which his ancestor fought.
16:13They said you could hear the concussion of the shells in the city of Baltimore.
16:18Theoretically, if George McNair was out here in this battle, his family's up on the hill watching what's going on.
16:24Yeah, that's right.
16:25Wow.
16:25So how long did the battle last?
16:2725 hours.
16:29The next morning, they're out around 7 a.m. on the morning of the 14th.
16:33The British cease fire.
16:35And then there's this ominous silence.
16:39The people in Baltimore City are like, okay, did the fort win, or are the British moving in the fort?
16:44The silence could mean that the British won.
16:45Right.
16:46If you're in the fort, you're like, okay, what's next?
16:49I survived the night.
16:51Are the British going to come up, and we got a bigger battle on our hands?
16:53Are we going to make it through this day?
16:55And so what was our plan at that point?
16:58The British, they're the ones essentially holding the cards.
17:02They're like, okay, we wasted all this ammunition.
17:04They don't have infinite stockpiles.
17:07That's right.
17:07So the second option was to bring the ships in close, but they figured, man, they're going to tear us up.
17:13Sure.
17:14So the only option left is to turn and sail away.
17:17You know, it kind of showed the British, you threw your best at us, and we took it.
17:22That's right.
17:23Then as the British ships are sailing away at nine in the morning, the morning cannon fires probably from this bastion right here.
17:30Boom.
17:31The small, sopping, wet American flag is taken down, and that gigantic American flag.
17:37Yeah.
17:3830 feet high, 42 feet long is hoisted as the fifes and drums played Yankee Doodle.
17:44So your ancestor would have seen that huge American flag go up.
17:48It had to be an amazing sight.
17:50I would say the most recognizable individual who saw the flag and immortalized what happened is a lawyer.
17:57He was negotiating the release of a prisoner.
18:00He defines the whole experience.
18:02He writes this poem,
18:04Tis the star-spangled banner, O long may it wave, O'er the land of the free and the home of the brave.
18:10And that lawyer was Francis Scott Key, and those words will become the national anthem of the United States of America.
18:17That's amazing.
18:17Yeah. Part of your family history is part of the national anthem.
18:21Jeez. My gosh. I had no idea.
18:24But, I mean, this was a huge turning point in the War of 1812, and it really had a major impact on the treaty that ended the War of 1812.
18:33Wow.
18:34Saved the city of Baltimore.
18:37So I'd like to invite you to change the flag, just like they did on the morning of September 14th.
18:43That would be amazing. Thank you so much.
18:44I'll see you down there.
18:44Alrighty. I'll be there in a sec.
18:47I never knew what the national anthem was written about.
18:53And to learn that it was written about this incident, the Battle of Baltimore in 1814, and that one of my relatives was out here, is pretty amazing.
19:03Are you ready?
19:04Yep.
19:05All right.
19:05I 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 going to survive?
19:17On 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.
19:28This was important to serve, but he figured it was in good hands here, and he needed to get back to more important things.
19:34To me, that makes sense that maybe that's why he made his way back to Baltimore to his family.
19:37Well, I will never hear the song and not think about this.
19:43That's pretty good.
19:44That's awesome, isn't it?
19:45You're welcome.
19:45To 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, it's insane.
20:01My dad would be so excited to know all this.
20:04I know he would have been very proud.
20:05I mean, who wouldn't be so proud to hear this about your family?
20:09They're amazing stories.
20:11McNeer and McInnes both answered the call to service, but, you know, what's the most important thing to them in life?
20:20Your family.
20:23I think there is a through line as far as these guys putting their family first.
20:27You know, maybe that's part of why it feels so natural to me or so right to me, that that is your instinct.
20:34You know, maybe it comes from past generations that have kind of instilled that in you without you even knowing.
