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News Article
Star Spangled Banner: From poem to anthem to collectible
By Elizabeth Johnson

We all know the verse. Two hundred years after the creation of the poem that would ultimately become the national anthem of the United States, The Star Spangled Banner is sung in schoolrooms, at Little League baseball diamonds and even during international events. The words, penned on Sept.14, 1814, are ingrained in the hearts and minds of American citizens.

Quotability, however, does not equal knowledge, and many have only a sketchy understanding of the origins of this iconic American tune. The verses didn’t start life as a song, the piece wasn’t originally titled The Star Spangled Banner, and it took more than 100 years for the melody to be officially named the national anthem. In the name of education, a history lesson is in order.

America won its independence from Great Britain after the Revolutionary War, and the resulting 1783 Treaty of Paris formally recognized the colonies as free, sovereign and independent states. The agreement, however, did not mean the fledgling nation was free from British interference. Not even three decades later, the two countries were once again at odds. A series of trade disagreements, coupled with conflicts over American expansionism and Britain’s seizure of American ships and seamen engaging in commerce with France led Congress to declare war on Great Britain on June 18, 1812.

The young nation wanted to reaffirm its independence, but a series of defeats early in the war demoralized American citizens. (Note: In one of those quirky twists of history, the War of 1812 actually lasted three years.) Finally, in August 1814, it seemed a fatal blow had been dealt, and the populace was stunned when British troops staged a surprising attack on the capital, invading Washington, D.C., and burning the heart of American government, including the Treasury, the Capitol, the Library of Congress and the President’s House (not widely referred to as the White House until Theodore Roosevelt’s presidency in 1901).

The British then turned their sights on Baltimore, the third most populous metropolitan area in the country. More importantly, the city was strategically located; its capture would leave the entire East Coast vulnerable. Intent on seizing Fort McHenry and gaining access to the city, Britain sent a flotilla of warships, the world’s most powerful siege artillery, to Baltimore Harbor.

Francis Scott Key was there to witness the subsequent battle. Although an outspoken critic of America’s involvement in the war, Key’s position as a Washington attorney meant he was a capable negotiator, and that talent put him right in the middle of the conflict. Dr. William Beanes, one of Key’s colleagues, had been taken prisoner during the capture of Washington, D.C., and Key had been asked to help negotiate his release.

On Sept. 7, 1814, Key and Col. John Skinner, a prisoner-of-war exchange officer, boarded the H.M.S. Tonnant, where Beanes was being held. The flagship of the British fleet, the Tonnant was anchored in Chesapeake Bay, under the command of British Army officer Maj. Gen. Robert Ross. After nearly a week of negotiations, Ross agreed to release Beanes, but there was one catch. Because it was possible the trio of Americans had obtained vital information about the British plan of attack, they were told they could not leave until after the assault on Baltimore. Transferred to a small sloop and guarded to prevent escape, the men anxiously observed the bombardment of Fort McHenry from about eight miles away.

Just after dawn on the morning of Sept. 13, the British began firing. Determined to annihilate the American garrison of approximately 1,000 soldiers, they continually showered the fort with shells, bombs and rockets for 25 hours, with only two short intermissions. In a post-battle letter to Secretary of War James Monroe, Maj. George Armistead, commander of Fort McHenry, stated that 16 ships had fired between 1,500 and 1,800 rounds, approximately one per minute. A soldier in the fort during the bombardment wrote, “We were like pigeons tied by the legs to be shot at.”

The onslaught was ferocious, and the situation seemed intolerable, given that American guns and mortars could not effectively return fire, unable to span the two-mile distance and reach the British ships. To Key, it seemed unlikely the fort could withstand such an assault. As night descended and the shelling continued, he was afforded only momentary glimpses of the action, courtesy of the fiery red glare emitted by the enemy’s gunpowder-propelled Congreve rockets.

As the smoky haze and early-morning mist dissipated at dawn on Sept. 14, Key was overwhelmed to see an American flag still waving in defiance over undefeated Fort McHenry. And what a flag it was.

When Armistead assumed command of Fort McHenry in the summer of 1813, he commissioned Mary Pickersgill, a Baltimore flag maker, to sew two flags for the fort: a smaller storm flag and a larger garrison flag. The latter was to be “so large that the British would have no difficulty in seeing it from a distance.” At 30 feet by 42 feet, the enormous garrison flag served as a spectacular symbol of American success during the Battle of Baltimore, inspiring Key to record the events he had just witnessed.

Still aboard the Tonnant, he began composing a poem about the experience, writing on the back of a letter he was carrying in his pocket. Following his release as the British fleet withdrew, Key found lodging at a Baltimore hotel, and it was there he revised his draft into four stanzas recording America’s victory.

Key showed the verses to Judge Joseph Nicholson, the brother-in-law of Key’s wife and commander of a volunteer militia at Fort McHenry. Impressed with the work’s quality, Nicholson had the poem printed so it could be distributed to the public. Initially titled The Defence [sic] of Fort McHenry, only two copies of that original broadside are known to exist.

The first dated publication of the poem occurred on Sept. 20, 1814, when it appeared in the Baltimore Patriot, accompanied by the note “Tune: Anacreon in Heaven.” The reference was to an 18th century English drinking song composed for a London club of amateur musicians. Musicologists believe Key had the melody in mind when he penned his ode to American patriotism and resilience witnessed at Fort McHenry. It was common practice for tavern tunes of this type to be used for songs in the New World, and Key himself had previously used the piece to accompany When the Warrior Returns from the Battle Afar, a song he wrote in 1805.

The work was printed in newspapers across the nation and quickly became popular. Music publisher Thomas Carr capitalized on the song’s success, arranging and printing the tune under a new title, The Star Spangled Banner. It didn’t take long for Key’s “land of the free and the home of the brave” to become a mainstay of American life, performed at political rallies, sporting competitions and public gatherings. Even so, more than a century would pass before the melody would gain the ultimate measure of respect.

9/5/2014
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