On Sept. 13, 1814, Francis Scott 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.
Francis Scott Key's complete poem
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?
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!