The Unlikely Story of the U.S.'s National Anthem

September 14th will mark the 205th anniversary of the writing of America’s National Anthem. It is observed as "Star Spangled Banner Day.”

This episode shines the spotlight—and perhaps some of the rocket’s red glare—on the Star Spangled Banner, to highlight just how extraordinary this anthem is in both history and substance.

The show features an interview with Marc Ferris, author of the book "Star Spangled Banner: The Unlikely Story of America's National Anthem.” And it suggests that the Banner is a small but not insignificant part of the way God blessed America.

There is a very moving, but entirely wrong, video going around about the national anthem.

It sounds like a preacher live in front of a church. In the video, he repeatedly refers to the “Patriots” (yes, the Americans in 1812 were patriots, but historically this term always means the 1776 guys; he further repeatedly alludes to “if we lost this war England would take over America” or words to that effect, namely that HE thinks this was the Revolutionary War. (In 1812, even had we “lost,” there was no chance in hell England either wanted to or could re-take America). He has Francis Scott Key on the British ship watching the bombardment. No, Key was in a boat, not on the ship.

This is important because this guy has Key down to the prison hold to “report” to the men down there that the “flag was still there.” Key was there to negotiate a prisoner exchange, and because he had overheard British plans to bombard the ship, he was held overnight both on the HMS Minden, on which he arrived under a flag of truce, the HMS Tonnant, where he had dinner with the British commander during negotiations, and the HMS Surprise. Contrary to the video, Key was not running down to the hold and back reporting on whether the “flag was still there.” He was not on one of the warships during the bombardment.

Instead, he observed the bombardment that night, but the smoke and haze obscured his view. He saw that the smaller “storm flag” had been flying, but in the morning, when dawn came, he could see the storm flag had been lowered and replaced with the larger 15-star/15-stripe flag made by Mary Pickersgill. (This was the first time our flag was called the “star spangled banner”).

The narrator has a scene where the soldiers inside Fort McHenry kept the flagpole up by their bodies. There is simply no historical record of this at all.

The “Star Spangled Banner” was only set to music later, and the original title of Key’s poem was the “Defence of Fort M’Henry”. It was first published nationally in The Analectic Magazine. John Stafford set it to music, borrowing an English tune, “The Anacreontic Song”. shortly afterward. The US Navy used the song officially in 1889, but it wasn’t declared the “National Anthem” until 1931 by Herbert Hoover. Until that time, many other songs, including “My Country ‘Tis of Thee” (taken from “God Save the Queen”) was the de facto national anthem.

While I appreciate this preacher’s enthusiasm, if our kids are going to believe us, we have to tell them the truth. And the truth about Key’s song is as exciting and inspiring as it needs to be.

https://www.history.com/news/9-things-you-may-not-know-about-the-star-spangled-banner

It was some of the natural events that make you go
Hmmmm. The raging storm that saved DC from burning to the ground after the Brits torched the WH, the winds and tide that bottled up the British fleet in the Chesapeake and led to the decision after Bladensburg to backtrack and attack Baltimore instead of continuing to pillage down the Atlantic seaboard, the raging storm that struck during the Battle of Ft McHenry, hampering the aim and effect of the British bombardment.

The extremely fortuitous MD militia planning and battle results defeating the British infantry at North Point on Sep 12 and killing their Commander. And then the death or capture of over 1000 British infantry during the raging stormy night as they attempted a landing from the Patapsco to attack the Fort from the rear

My son chose to do a history project on the SSB so we learned a lot!

BTW did your source state that a Defender killed at Ft McHenry was a Black man, William “Frederick” Williams, a slave who escaped a MD plantation that was burned by the Brits, and lied his way into the MD Infantry to fight the British? The Brits were offering the slaves amnesty and freedom to fight against America ( the “ hirelings and slaves” mentioned in verse of Key’s poem) but Williams chose to fight and died for America

To Anacreon in Heaven

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/To_Anacreon_in_Heaven

“the official song of the Anacreontic Society, an 18th-century gentlemen’s club of amateur musicians in London. Composed by John Stafford Smith, the tune was later used by several writers as a setting for their patriotic lyrics. These included two songs by Francis Scott Key, most famously his poem “Defence of Fort McHenry”. The combination of Key’s poem and Smith’s composition became known as “The Star-Spangled Banner”, which was adopted as the national anthem of the United States of America in 1931.”

Very nice history of the u.S> Anthem.

Complete version of "The Star-Spangled Banner" showing spelling and punctuation from Francis Scott Key's manuscript in the Maryland Historical Society collection.

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 through the perilous fight
O'er the ramparts we watch'd were so gallantly streaming?
And the rocket's red glare, the bomb 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 wash'd out their foul footstep's 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 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.

SOURCE

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