Key based his poem, some sources say, on an earlier song he wrote titled "When the Warrior Returns," in honor of soldiers returning from the First Barbary War, in 1805. Key was moved to write a poem, which he titled "Defence of Fort M'Henry." (Lyrics are at the bottom of the page.) One source says that Key wrote the poem on the back of a letter he had in his pocket.
This was a particularly key development since just 10 days earlier, British troops had burned Washington, D.C. The British had failed to capture Fort McHenry. Key pinned his hopes for knowing whether the fort had been saved on whether the larger flag would be flying in the morning.Īt dawn, on September 14, Key saw the normal flag in place. It was a rainy night, and so the fort was flying its "storm flag," a smaller version of the normal 15-star-15-stripe flag. Key was a temporary prisoner of war during the attack, his mission to secure an exchange of prisoners suspended while British ships poured round after round into the fort's defenses, on September 13, 1814. Poet Francis Scott Key wrote the lyrics in 1814, after witnessing the British bombardment of Fort McHenry during the War of 1812. "The Star-Spangled Banner" is America's national anthem, so designated by Congress in 1931.
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