I've posted the story a few times over the past 10 years I've had this diary, and do so again today.
Many people don't realize that our national anthem is not in reference to the Revolutionary War, but rather the war of 1812, with it's origins at Fort McHenry, just south of Baltimore.
On September 7th, 1814, Colonel John Skinner and the young lawyer Francis Scott Key, had gone out to one of the British ships to negotiate the release of Dr William Beanes. The British agreed, but all three had learned too much about the forthcoming attack on Baltimore and so were detained by the British on board the frigate Surprise until the attack was over.
The attack started on September 12th, 1814, Skinner, Beanes and Key watched from the deck of the frigate. The major attack started in heavy rain on the morning of September 13th. The men were able to catch glimpses of the star-shaped fort with its huge flag - 42ft long, with 8 red stripes, 7 white stripes and 15 white stars, which had been specially commissioned to be big enough that the British could not possibly fail to see it from a distance.
The shelling suddenly stopped during the night of September 13th. The three men couldn't tell whether the British forces had been defeated, or the fort had fallen. As the rain cleared, and the sun began to rise, Key peered through the early morning light, anxious to see if the flag was still flying. Key scribbled on the back of an envelope the first lines of a poem he called Defense of Fort M'Henry:
What so proudly we hail'd at the twilight's last gleaming
What is that which the breeze o'er the towering steep,
As it fitfully blows, half conceals, half discloses?
Finally the sun rose, and with relief and pride he saw that the stars and stripes still flew above the fort ...
O'er the land of the free and the home of the brave.
Keys completed all four verses of the poem, and took it to his brother-in-law, a local judge, who thought it so good that he arranged to have it printed as a handbill to be distributed to everyone at Fort McHenry.
The poem has been edited numerous times before the incarnation as our National Anthem, and set to the tune of a popular British drinking song of his day, finally becoming our National Anthem in 1916 at the order of President Woodrow Wilson played by the military and naval services, and finally on March 3rd, 1931 that it was officially designated as the National Anthem by an act of Congress.
Oh, 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 thru the perilous fight,
O'er the ramparts we watched were so gallantly streaming?
And the rocket's red glare, the bombs bursting in air,
Gave proof through the night that our flag was still there.
Oh, say does that star-spangled banner yet wave
O'er the land of the free and the home of the brave?
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! Oh long may it wave
O'er the land of the free and the home of the brave!
And where is that band who so vauntingly swore
That the havoc of war and the battle's confusion,
A home and a country should 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!
Oh! thus be it ever, when freemen shall stand
Between their loved home and the war's desolation!
Blest with victory and peace, may the heav'n rescued land
Praise the Power that hath made and preserved 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!