During the War of 1812, the British Army burned Washington, D.C. in August, 1814, and attacked and plundered other spots in the same general vicinity. On August 28, 1814, in the nearby town of Upper Marlboro in Maryland, William Beanes, the town physician, was arrested by British Forces for assisting in the capture of wounded British troops by American forces. He was taken onto one of the British ships used for detaining prisoners stationed in and around the Chesapeake Bay. The doctor summoned his attorney who later arrived along with an agent that dealt with prisoners of war. They were also detained temporarily as the British Navy was preparing for a major assault on the fort that protected Baltimore’s harbor. The attorney’s name was Francess Scott Key.
War of 1812 Background: There are many reasons or underlying causes for the War of 1812, but the ones that led to the American response were centered around the same reasons the U.S. entered World Wars I and II—freedom of the seas. Britain was at war with France at the time fighting Napoleon. That part of the war was dealt with on land, but British authorities moved their actions to the high seas to disrupt trade bound for French ports. Acting with impunity the British Navy blockaded neutral ports and apprehended ships of neutral nations checking and seizing cargoes at will. They discovered an added bonus when they seized American flagged ships by impressment of the captured crews into the British Navy to replace crew member losses from naval clashes with France. Although annexation of parts of Canada was contemplated by the U.S. government and a failed attempt made, the overarching concern by most Americans was the tyranny brought on by the British Navy. After President Monroe asked Congress for war, he further declared open season on all British shipping. The U.S. Navy was small at the time and no match for even a small squadron of British ships. But open season brought about the rise of privateering, an endeavor that was not only patriotic, but very profitable. However, one man’s privateer is another man’s pirate, and the British sought out to capture and/or destroy the Baltimore harbor they believed to be the center of this “piracy.” The harbor was protected strategically by the formidable guns of Ft. McHenry.
Key’s Poem: Key and the agent were transferred to a truce vessel in the quest to gain Beanes release. Later, Beanes was released and they were joined with Beanes on a British warship. After protesting being transferred to a combatant ship, the trio went back to the truce vessel, but the truce vessel was then tied up to the warship which soon became the command ship for the upcoming operation against Ft. McHenry. The command ship moved into place along with the attacking squadron on September 13, 1814, and at daybreak the fleet began firing at the fort in a barrage that would last twenty-five hours. The fleet kept their distance from Ft. McHenry’s powerful guns, a fact that negatively impacted their accuracy. They accomplished only modest damage to the fort, killing four defenders and wounding another twenty-four. Key witnessed the battle from a safe distance and was impressed with what he saw. Owing to inclement weather, the fort flew the smaller storm flag rather than the garrison flag. The shelling continued all day and into the night with rockets being fired at the fort along with the fleet’s heavy artillery. The next morning when the shelling stopped, Key observed that the much larger garrison flag had been hoisted to replace the storm flag, signaling that the fort had survived the barrage mostly intact. To Key, the garrison flag became the star-spangled banner. He began writing the words to a poem that morning using the back of an envelope that he had in his pocket. A few days later, the trio were released from the British command ship, and Key returned to his hotel in Baltimore where he finished the poem on September 16, without signing it or giving it a title.
Set to Music: Key gave the finished poem to Joseph H. Nicholson, his brother-in-law. Nicholson observed that the words to the poem were a fit to the melody of “The Anacreontic Song,” a popular tune written by John Stafford Smith for the Anacreontic Society, a social club for amateur musicians in London. On September 17, Nicholson had the song printed and distributed as a broadside with the title “The Defence of Fort M’Henry.” A few days later on September 20, the song was printed by two publications—The Baltimore Patriot and The American. It became widely popular and was printed in seventeen newspapers as far south as Georgia, and as far north as New Hampshire. Thomas Carr, a music store proprietor, put the words to his own music arrangement and entitled the song “The Star-Spangled Banner.” His arrangement had significant deviations from the music source, “The Anacreontic Song.” It was this arrangement that eventually became the National Anthem. The song’s popularity continued to rise being performed publicly and printed in numerous publications. The original poem consisted of four stanzas, but was reduced over time to just the first stanza as it is known and used today.
The Rise of the National Anthem: The song continued to increase in popularity throughout the 19th century being played at public events that had patriotic overtones such as Independence Day parades and celebrations. In 1889, the U.S. Navy officially adopted the “The Star-Spangled Banner” for its use in raising and lowering the flag. In 1892, Colonel Caleb Carlton, the post commander at Fort Meade, South Dakota, mandated that the song be played at the end of parades and concerts. Secretary of War, Daniel S. Lamont took it a step further and ordered that the song would be played at the close of each day in every Army post. In 1916, President Woodrow Wilson signed an executive order requiring that the song be played at military functions and other official government occasions. In the 1918 World Series, the song was played during the traditional seventh inning stretch, setting a precedent that continues to this day, although modified during World War II to being sung before the beginning of the game. Politics entered the picture in 1918 as six bills were introduced to congress over the next eleven years to make “The Star-Spangled Banner” the national anthem, albeit to no avail. In 1927, the National Federation of Music Clubs conducted a contest to nominate a national anthem as the U.S. still did not have one. The contest drew 901 entries, but no winner was chosen. In 1930, the Veterans of Foreign Wars began a petition to make the “Star-Spangled Banner” the national anthem. The petition grew to five million signatures, and passed its way through both houses of congress by the end of the year. On March 4, 1931, President Herbert Hoover signed the bill into law.
Conclusions: “The Star-Spangled Banner” is a difficult song for non-professionals to sing as the range of notes runs from low to high. But many famous renditions have been made throughout the course of time particularly when sung at the beginning of televised major or championship sports events.
Sources: Wikipedia, The Star-Spangled Banner.
Wikipedia, The War of 1812.
History.com, “The Star-Spangled Banner” Becomes Official U.S. National Anthem.