Francis Scott Key American The Attack on Washington and Baltimore

Francis Scott Key was a successful Georgetown lawyer. Although he did not play a direct role in the War of 1812, his name is associated with the conflict because he wrote the Star-spangled Banner to commemorate the bombardment of Fort McHenry. In September of 1814, as the British forces withdrew from their temporary occupation of Washington, they abducted Dr. William Beanes, an American physician. Key was asked to negotiate his release. Key took a boat out to the British fleet and soon secured the doctor’s freedom, The British officers then invited Key to dinner, after which they ordered him to be detained onboard for the night; the British were about to bombard Fort McHenry. Key stayed up all night to watch the battle. At dawn, he was so moved to see the American flag still flying over the fort that he wrote a poem that began with the lines "Oh say can you see, by the dawn's early light...." Shortly after he was released by the British, Key had his new poem printed on a handbill under the title, “Defence of Fort McHenry.” It became popular and was set to the music of the British drinking song, “To Anacreon in Heaven.” The American Congress adopted Key’s lyrics as the official national anthem in 1931. This is the first stanza of the famous poem: “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 galantly streaming? And the rocket’s red glare, the bombs bursting in air, Gave proof through the night that our flag was still there: O say! does that star-spangled yet wave O’er the land of the free and the home of the brave?”