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Cannon Fire – From one single cannon.
Can you imagine being on a ship in a harbor with cannon being fired from the ship and cannon fire answering from the shore.
Well that was the situation that Francis Scott Key found himself in 200 years ago – September 14, 1814.
Key was a young attorney and an aspiring poet. And not only was he on a ship, he was on an enemy ship. But what kind of enemy was this. This enemy didn't speak a foreign language. Didn't look any different. As a matter of fact just a mere 38 years earlier this enemy had been his countryman. His own father and grandfather had been subjects of the king.
Now his country was under siege. British ships were in Chesapeake Bay. Fort McHenry was under fire.
And Francis Scott Key was forced to wait and watch through the night.
He had been sent to negotiate the release of prisoners. On September 3, 1814, following the Burning of Washington and the Raid on Alexandria, Francis Scott Key and John Stuart Skinner set sail from Baltimore aboard the ship HMS Minden, flying a flag of truce on a mission approved by President James Madison. Their objective was to secure the exchange of prisoners, one of whom was Dr. William Beanes, the elderly and popular town physician of Upper Marlboro and a friend of Key's who had been captured in his home. Beanes was accused of aiding the arrest of British soldiers. Key and Skinner boarded the British flagship HMS Tonnant on September 7 and spoke with Major General Robert Ross and Vice Admiral Alexander Cochrane over dinner while the two officers discussed war plans. At first, Ross and Cochrane refused to release Beanes, but relented after Key and Skinner showed them letters written by wounded British prisoners praising Beanes and other Americans for their kind treatment.
Although negotiations had gone well Key and Skinner were forced to stay on a British ship because they had heard details of the plans for the attack on Baltimore, they stayed first aboard HMS Surprise and later back on HMS Minden.
So all that Key could do was wait and watch and listen to the big guns fire away throughout the night.
Now at Fort McHenry, Major George Armistead, the commanding officer, desired Major Armistead got his wish when General John S. Stricker and Commodore Joshua Barney ordered two flags, especially made for the garrison, from Mary Pickersgill, a well-known flagmaker in Baltimore. She worked relentlessly on the heavy, woolen flags, one of which was to be the largest garrison flag ever flown. It measured 30 feet high by 42 feet long. The other flag, called a "storm flag," measured 17 feet by 25 feet.
The larger of the two flags had stripes two feet wide, and stars 24 inches from point to point. At that time, it was the practice to add one star and stripe for each new state joining the Union. In 1814, the United States flag had 15 stars and 15 stripes.
During the course of the battle the smaller or storm flag flew. After shelling the fort for hours the British realized they were having no effect. Slowly and silently their ships pulled away. And in the dawns early light Francis Scott Key saw what he had been searching for. What he had last seen at twilight the evening before. The largest American flag he had ever seen – flew over Ft. McHenry.
He took an envelope from his pocket and began his poem. He titled it “The Defence of Fort McHenry.” He wrote eloquently of seeing those broad stripes and bright stars so gallantly streaming. It was his proof through that long night that our flag was still there. And it was he that coined the phrase land of the free and home of the brave.
Key finished his poem and soon had it printed. The original copies that exist today show the date as September 17, not September 14 – but that was the date of the printing not the date of it's creation. Soon after he set it to music – the music of an existing song. Oddly enough it was a British gentlemen's drinking song.
But popular as it was it did not immediately become our national anthem. Other songs and other patriotic works came and went. In 1892 The original "Pledge of Allegiance" was published in the September 8 issue of the popular children's magazine The Youth's Companion. It included a salute in which the children started with their hand held out toward the flag – palm down and ended with it palm up. During WWII the gesture was thought to to closely resemble the Nazi salute and was replaced with a hand over the heart.
We now invite our Cub Scout Pack 269 to come up and recite the pledge for us.
If each of the children will come forward The Painted Stone Settlers would like to give each child a flag for participating today.
It was in 1931 that another wave of patriotism swept our country. "The Star-Spangled Banner" was recognized for official use by the Navy in 1889, and by President Woodrow Wilson in 1916, But it wasn't until 1931 that the poem Francis Scott Key had written on an envelope was finally made the national anthem by a congressional resolution and was signed by President Herbert Hoover.
The Governor Isaac Shelby Chapter of the Sons of the American Revolution have placed on the field the flags of our nation. From the flag known as The Betsy Ross Flag to today's 50 state stars and stripes.
It is the 2nd flag over that that Francis Scott Key saw in all it's amazing glory flying over Fort McHenry in 1814.
As The Painted Stone Settlers we enjoy bringing history to life. Whether it be the history of 1781 or the history of 1814. Our gentlemen on the cannon crew are wearing the uniforms of the war of 1812. I thought that the 200 year Anniversary of The Star Spangled Banner was just too important not to commemorate. As we conclude this special presentation Painted Stone member Katie Hundly will honor us by singing The Star Spangled Banner.
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