Francis Scott Key
1779 – 1843
Francis Scott Key was an American attorney and poet. He witnessed the bombardment of Fort McHenry in 1814 and was inspired to write a poem about its survival. Set to music, it became known as The Star Spangled Banner. In 1931, it was declared the United States of America's National Anthem.
In addition to giving the American Flag another name, "The Star Spangled Banner" altered and gave depth and meaning to the way Americans viewed their flag. National flags, in the early 1800’s, were viewed by Americans and people from other countries, as a military emblem.
The song, "The Star Spangled Banner", had become so popular in the 1860’s, and so closely related to the (stirring) events of the Civil War, that the American Flag was elevated and encumbered deep in the hearts of the American people.
Today, our American Flag is our primary and paramount symbol of American patriotism.
Francis Scott Key left Baltimore, under a truce flag with the intent and purpose of obtaining the release of a friend, who was captured at Marlborough, by the British command.
Key went to the mouth of the Patuxent, but was not permitted to return so that the intended attack on Baltimore would not be disclosed. He was brought up the Bay, to the mouth of the Patapsco, where the flag vessel was kept under the guns of a frigate. Key was compelled to witness the bombardment of Fort McHenry, which the Admiral had boasted that would be carried out shortly and that the city must fall.
He watched the flag at the Fort throughout the entire day with an emotional anxiety until nightfall when the sounds were magnified. He watched the bomb shells fall all that night. As the first signs of dawn rose, Key’s eyes were breathlessly greeted by the proudly waving flag of his country… The American Flag.
That day, Francis Scott Key jotted down the emotional, immortal words that would become the lyrics to the American National Anthem. These words would later be set, to music, to the tune of “Anacreon In Heaven”. A Baltimore actor sang Key's new song in a public performance and called it "The Star-Spangled Banner".
Popular from the onset, Key's lyrics remained one of many patriotic songs of the day. It was adopted as our National Anthem on March 3, 1931. The actual words were not included in the legal documents. Key had written several versions, with slight variations, so discrepancies in the exact wording still occured.
The original flag, the "Star-Spangled Banner", was originally on view flying over Fort McHenry, on January 1, 1876, at the Old State House in Philadelphia for the nations' Centennial celebration. It now resides in the Smithsonian Institution's Museum of American History. An opaque curtain shields the now fragile flag from light and dust. The flag is exposed for viewing for a few moments once every hour during museum hours.
Francis Scott Key witnessed the last enemy fire on Fort McHenry. The Fort, designed by Frenchman Jean Foncin, was named James McHenry, Secretary of War. Fort McHenry holds the unique designation of being a national monument and historic shrine.
Since May 30, 1949, by a Joint Resolution of Congress, the American Flag has flown continuously, over a monument erected to Francis Scott Key's birthplace in Terra Rubra Farm, Carroll County, Keymar, Maryland.
Source: American Educator Encyclopedia
O! say can you see, by the dawn's early light,
What so proudly we hailed at the twilight's last gleaming,
Whose broad stripes and bright stars through the perilous fight,
O'er the ramparts we watch'd, were so gallantly streaming,
And the Rockets' red glare, the Bombs bursting in air,
Gave proof through the night that our Flag was still there.
O! say does that Star-Spangled Banner yet wave,
O'er the Land of the Free, and the Home of the Brave.
(2nd Verse)
On the shore dimly seen through the mists of the deep,
Where the foe's haughty host in dread silence reposes,
What is that which the breeze, o'er the towering steep,
As it fitfully blows, half conceals, half discloses,
Now it catches the gleam of the morning's first beam,
In full glory reflected now shines in the stream,
'Tis the Star-Spangled Banner, O! long may it wave,
O'er the Land of the Free, and the Home of the Brave.
(3rd Verse)
And where is that band who so vauntingly swore,
That the havoc of war and the battle's confusion,
A home and a country, shall leave us no more,
Their blood has washed out their foul footsteps pollution.
No refuge could save the hireling and slave,
From the terror of flight or the gloom of the grave,
And the Star-Spangled Banner in triumph doth wave,
O'er the Land of the Free, and the Home of the Brave.
(4th Verse)
O! thus be it ever when freemen shall stand,
Between their lov'd home, and the war's desolation,
Blest with vict'ry and peace, may the Heav'n rescued land,
Praise the Power that hath made and preserv'd us a nation.
Then conquer we must, when our cause it is just,
And this be our motto -- "In God is our Trust",
And the Star-Spangled Banner in triumph shall wave,
O'er the Land of the Free, and the Home of the Brave.
And to the Republic, for which it stands,
One Nation, Under God, Indivisible,
With liberty and justice for all!
