Today marks the day that almost 200 years ago, Francis Scott Key wrote our national anthem. The story goes that Key, visited the British fleet in Chesapeake Bay to secure the release of Dr. William Beanes, who had been captured after the burning of Washington, DC. The release was secured, but Key was detained on ship overnight during the shelling of Fort McHenry, one of the forts defending Baltimore. In the morning, he was so delighted to see the American flag still flying over the fort that he began a poem to commemorate the occasion. First published under the title “Defense of Fort M'Henry,” the poem soon attained wide popularity as sung to the tune “To Anacreon in Heaven.” The origin of this tune is obscure, but it may have been written by John Stafford Smith, a British composer born in 1750. “The Star-Spangled Banner” was officially made the national anthem by Congress in 1931, although it already had been adopted as such by the army and the navy.
The flag that Key was writing about was made by Mary Young Pickersgill, a Baltimore widow who had had experience making ship flags. With the help of her 13-year-old daughter, Caroline, Mrs. Pickersgill spent several weeks measuring, cutting, and sewing the 15 stars and stripes. When the time came to sew the elements of the flag together, they realized that their house was not large enough. Mrs. Pickersgill thus asked the owner of nearby Claggett's brewery for permission to assemble the flag on the building's floor during evening hours. He agreed, and the women worked by candlelight to finish it. Once completed, the flag was delivered to the committee, and Mrs. Pickersgill was paid $405.90.
In August 1813, it was presented to Major Armistead. I had the opportunity to see the flag at the Museum of American History last year when I visited Washington DC. It is quite a site to behold. There are places where the flag has been damaged, restored and even places where pieces had been cut away to be buried with fallen soldiers, but its beauty and more importantly its symbol lives on.
Despite all the things that I do not like about our political system, it reminds me of how lucky we are to live in a place where our rights are protected and where we have the freedoms that we enjoy everyday. Part of that credit must go not to the policy makers, but to our soldiers who sacrifice so much and who defend our rights, ironically to even disagree with what they do and how they do it.
Deep down I always knew this, and knew that someone had to make these sacrifices, but selfishly always thought that it did not have to be someone I knew and loved. Well now it is. So thank you Rory, for making me a better and more cognizant citizen of the world. I am a better person for having known you and I will not take these priviledges for granted again.
Most of us know the first verse to "The Star Spangled Banner" as that is all that is played at public ceremonies. Today in honor of 190 years of US history, I thought I would print the verse in its entirety as it was originally written.
The Star-Spangled Banner
—Francis Scott Key, 1814
O say, can you see, by the dawn's early light,
What so proudly we hail'd at the twilight's last gleaming?
Whose broad stripes and bright stars, thro' 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 thro' 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?
On the shore dimly seen thro' 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 on 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!
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 wash'd 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.
O thus be it ever when free-men 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 Pow'r 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!
