This month we celebrate the 200th anniversary of the writing of the "Defence of Fort McHenry," a poem by Francis Scott Key that was put to music and became "The Star-Spangled Banner," the national anthem of the United States of America.
I am sure that everyone reading this column knows the anthem. It is sung before most public events, and we all know the words to sing it, although there is a section of it where voice training would be helpful. Thankfully, at those events we, many times, have someone who can hit those notes perfectly, or at least better than most of us can, as they lead us.
I've seen a few references to the bicentennial anniversary of the poem here and there, but not very much. That is sad, since it is our national anthem. It speaks of courage during adversity and that the United States of America, although only a few decades old at the time, was worth fighting and dying for. It still is.
For some quick background, with some information from Wikipedia, the bombardment by British Royal Navy ships of Fort McHenry in the Chesapeake Bay happened during the War of 1812. There are a number of reasons for the fighting between England and America, and I'll leave that for another time. This is a war that is a forgotten one, at least it seems to me.
The bombardment of the fort was Sept. 13-14 during the Battle of Baltimore.
Well, the writer of the poem was Francis Scott Key, who was a lawyer who wrote poetry on the side. He was 35 years old and was traveling on a British ship under a flag of truce on a mission from President James Madison to secure a prisoner exchange. One of the prisoners was Key's friend, Dr. William Beanes, who had been captured by the British. Key and John Stuart Skinner boarded the British flagship HMS Tonnant on Sept. 7 to discuss a possible exchange of prisoners, including Beanes. The two British officers were reluctant to give up their prisoners, but did relent because of letters from wounded British prisoners who had been treated very well by Beanes.
Even though the deal was made, Key and Skinner were not released at the time since they had heard the plans to attack Baltimore and Fort McHenry. The were held on the HMS Surprise, then moved to the HMS Minden.
Key observed the bombardment of the fort during the night. He was able to see the fort's "storm flag," which is a small national flag flown over a military post during bad weather. At Fort McHenry, it really was "a dark and stormy night."
Once the illumination of the rockets' red glare ended as the shelling stopped, Key had to wait until the dawn's early light to see what had happened. Had the fort been taken? Well, when it was light enough, he saw that the storm flag has been lowered and the large American flag with 15 stars and 15 stripes had been raised. The flag has been designated the "Star-Spangled Banner Flag" and can be seen at the Smithsonian Institution's National Museum of American History.
The next day, Key wrote the poem on the back of a letter he had in his pocket. On Sept. 16, he and Skinner were released in Baltimore. Key completed the poem at a city hotel as the "Defence of Fort McHenry." Ironically, the music that eventually became attached to the poem is a British tune from "The Anacreontic Song," also known as "To Anacreon In Heaven," which was the official song of the Anacreontic Society, an 18th century gentlemen's club of amateur musicians in London. Attributed to composer John Stafford Smith, the tune was later used by several writers as a setting for their patriotic lyrics.
While it seems that the song has been the national anthem forever, it was only declared such by the U.S. Congress in 1931. Before that, it and other songs were used during official functions, such as "Hail, Columbia" and "My Country, 'Tis of Thee."
We only sing one stanza of the national anthem at events, but the song has four stanzas. For your edification, here is the complete song. I would love to hear all stanzas sung sometime at an event.
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 watched, 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?
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.
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.
O thus be it ever, when freemen shall stand
Between their loved 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 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!
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"Determine never to be idle. No person will have occasion to complain of the want of time, who never loses any. It is wonderful how much may be done, if we are always doing. And that you may be always doing good, my dear, is the ardent prayer of yours affectionately."
- Thomas Jefferson, letter to Martha Jefferson, 1787
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"Not one of us deserves anything in this world; it is the Lord who is benevolent toward us and it is His infinite mercy that bestows everything because He forgives everything."
- St. Padre Pio
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My wife was hinting about what she wanted for our upcoming anniversary.
She said, "I want something shiny that goes from 0 to 165 in about 2 seconds."
I bought her a bathroom scale.
And then the fight started...
(Staff writer Usalis can be reached at jusalis@republicanherald.com)