{"id":1620,"date":"2014-09-03T19:01:11","date_gmt":"2014-09-03T19:01:11","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/news.maryland.gov\/ng\/?p=1620"},"modified":"2017-07-22T08:59:19","modified_gmt":"2017-07-22T08:59:19","slug":"when-free-men-shall-stand","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/news.maryland.gov\/ng\/2014\/09\/03\/when-free-men-shall-stand\/","title":{"rendered":"When Free Men Shall Stand"},"content":{"rendered":"

[vc_row][vc_column][vc_single_image image=”1624″ img_size=”full” add_caption=”yes” css_animation=”fadeIn” css=”.vc_custom_1500491847944{margin-top: 0px !important;margin-right: 0px !important;margin-bottom: 0px !important;margin-left: 0px !important;border-top-width: 0px !important;border-right-width: 0px !important;border-bottom-width: 0px !important;border-left-width: 0px !important;padding-top: 0px !important;padding-right: 0px !important;padding-bottom: 0px !important;padding-left: 0px !important;}”][vc_column_text css_animation=”fadeIn” css=”.vc_custom_1500490924430{margin: 0px !important;border-width: 0px !important;padding: 0px !important;}”]By Maj. Rick Breitenfeldt, Maryland National Guard Public Affairs Office<\/em>[\/vc_column_text][vc_column_text css_animation=”fadeIn”]As the city of Baltimore celebrates the 200th Anniversary of the National Anthem, the Maryland National Guard is commemorating the occasion with the grand opening of its War of 1812 museum display.<\/p>\n

The new display \u201cWhen Free Men Shall Stand\u201d was unveiled to the public during a ribbon cutting ceremony at the 5th Regiment Armory on Sept. 3, 2014.<\/p>\n

Joe Balkoski, historian and author of several books on the history of the Maryland National Guard said the new display shows the unchanging nature of the American defense of the homeland; a mission familiar to the Maryland National Guard.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt was a perfect storm,\u201d said Balkoski. \u201cThe 200th anniversary of the defense of Baltimore was a perfect time for people to say \u2018hey this is our history; we saved our city from complete destruction; it changed all our lives; and we\u2019re living that
\nlegacy today.\u2019\u201d<\/p>\n

The museum exhibit was funded through a series of generous donations and grants from many military organizations and supporters of the Maryland National Guard and is the culmination of three decades of dedicated work from retired Soldiers and Airmen from the Maryland National Guard.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe started out with a grain of sand and due to the dedication of so many people we kept it going when we had no money. Finally, now, we have reached a point where people understand that the history is of such profound value to young Soldiers and to the families that it\u2019s an integral part of our story,\u201d said Balkowski.<\/p>\n

The interactive display focuses on the real life stories of both British and American Soldiers from the war of 1812 and portrays the time period through their personal experiences.<\/p>\n

\u201cThese people were living and breathing people just like you and me and when it\u2019s 200 years ago you get the general impression that they weren\u2019t really. They were some iconic figures from the past that you couldn\u2019t touch or you didn\u2019t realize that they were living breathing humans,\u201d said Balkowski. \u201cI want people to understand it was the present for them; it was the present moment in time and it was a crisis like this country had never seen before.\u201d<\/p>\n

Maryland Military Historical Society president H Steven Blum described the 1812 exhibit as magnificent. \u201cIt\u2019s as good as I\u2019ve seen anywhere,\u201d said Blum. This exhibit really tells a story.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cThe nation had its back up against a wall and we want people to know that the people who saved our city were just like you and me,\u201d said Balkowski. \u201cThey were just like members of the National Guard today.\u201d[\/vc_column_text][\/vc_column][\/vc_row][vc_row][vc_column][vc_raw_html css=”.vc_custom_1500491103139{margin: 0px !important;border-width: 0px !important;padding: 0px !important;}”]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[\/vc_raw_html][\/vc_column][\/vc_row]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

As the city of Baltimore celebrates the 200th Anniversary of the National Anthem, the Maryland National Guard is commemorating the occasion with the grand opening of its War of 1812 museum display. <\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":161,"featured_media":1624,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"_monsterinsights_skip_tracking":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_active":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_note":"","_monsterinsights_sitenote_category":0,"footnotes":"","_links_to":"","_links_to_target":""},"categories":[4,2],"tags":[430,429,433,406,432,431],"class_list":["post-1620","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-maryland-line","category-news","tag-200th-anniversary-of-the-national-anthem","tag-5th-regiment-armory","tag-defense-of-baltimore","tag-history","tag-museum","tag-war-of-1812"],"acf":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/news.maryland.gov\/ng\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1620","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/news.maryland.gov\/ng\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/news.maryland.gov\/ng\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/news.maryland.gov\/ng\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/161"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/news.maryland.gov\/ng\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=1620"}],"version-history":[{"count":7,"href":"https:\/\/news.maryland.gov\/ng\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1620\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":1641,"href":"https:\/\/news.maryland.gov\/ng\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1620\/revisions\/1641"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/news.maryland.gov\/ng\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/1624"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/news.maryland.gov\/ng\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=1620"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/news.maryland.gov\/ng\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=1620"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/news.maryland.gov\/ng\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=1620"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}