History of The Star-Spangled Banner

In 1776, after the American Revolution, Great Britain fell back, choosing to dominate the U.S. economically rather than through violence. However, after a series of trade disagreements with Great Britain, which included the kidnapping of U.S. seamen and the disruption of trade with France, the American senate voted in favor of a declaration of war on June 17, 1812, with a 19 to 13 split, signifying the differences between the largely pro-war Republicans versus the largely anti-war Federalists. In the House of Representatives, the vote was 79 to 49, again with the Republicans in favor.

This was the closest vote on any declaration of war in American history, and the first time America ever officially declared war. The War of 1812 would last two-years and eight-months.

Due to his religious beliefs and his belief that the disagreement could be handled without armed conflict, Francis Scott Key was opposed to the war, but much like his relationship with slavery, he would find his relationship with the war to be complicated. Key served as a quartermaster in the Georgetown Light Field Artillery against the British. Key served as a volunteer aide to General Walter Smith at the Battle of Bladensburg in August 1814 where he relayed tactical information and reportedly served to inform artillery positions based on his knowledge of the area.

The Battle of Bladensburg was an embarrassing defeat for the U.S. that allowed British troops to invade Washington, D.C. that same month. In the capitol city, the British burned the White House, Capitol Building, and Library of Congress.

On top of all of this, the British also captured William Beanes, who was a physician from Upper Marlborough, Maryland, and a friend of Key’s. Family and friends of Beanes were unsuccessful in negotiating his release, and hoped that Key, due to his background as a prominent Washington attorney, would have better luck.

Key received permission from President James Madison and Commissioner General of Prisoners John Mason to intercede.

It’s important to understand Key in this moment. He is watching foreign troops invade his homeland, destroy the capitol and all these important buildings that are supposed to represent his home—the country that he loves. And now he finds out that his friend has been captured in this war that he did not want. The amount of outrage that he must have felt would be unsurmountable. Not only this, but Beanes’ family and friends are going to him, basically as their last chance of getting their loved one back, and so now he has become, for these people, the last hope of possibly ever seeing their loved one again. Talk about pressure. 

Before Key left, Mason asked the senior British prisoner in Washington, Colonel William Thornton to have his fellow prisoners write letters describing their humane treatment. It was only after Key had collected these letters that he left.

Accompanying Key on the potentially dangerous mission was Army Colonel John Skinner who had arranged many exchanges of British naval officers. Skinner and Key met in Baltimore on September 4 where British naval forces were located along Chesapeake Bay. The following day, Skinner and Key sailed under a safe-conduct flag on an American cartel ship.

They found the Tonnant, which was the flagship of the British fleet that was holding Beanes, on September 7 at the mouth of the Potomac River. The two men soon entered into negotiations with General Robert Ross and Rear Admiral George Cockburn.

The letters written by the British prisoners were presented to Ross and Cockburn who, upon reading the letters, were swayed into letting Beanes go free with Key and Skinner on one condition…. With the assault on Baltimore now imminent, the three American men were not allowed to go back on land until after the bombardment of Fort McHenry.

Guarded by British marines, they were obliged to wait out the battle aboard the British sloop (which is a type of small sailing warship with two or three masts). Anxiously, they watched through the daylight hours of September 13 as the 25-hour attack on Fort McHenry, which was the main fort that guarded the city, began.

According to Key, “It seemed as though mother earth had opened and was vomiting shot and shell in a sheet of fire and brimstone.”

As day turned to night, Key could hardly see anything except for the “red glare” of the enemy’s newly designed gunpowder-propelled Congreve rockets that traced fiery arcs across the sky.

Key would later write to his friend, John Randolph about his experience on the enemy’s ship, stating, “The heavens aglow were a seething sea of flame.”

The night was stormy and Key called the sea “angry” and said the flag-of-truce sloop was “tossed as though in a tempest.” He was alarmed by the British shells detonating short of their target—which he would later describe in his famous poem as “bombs bursting in air.”

Throughout the night Key felt it was unlikely that the American resistance would be able to withstand such a pounding. However, in the early dawn of September 14, Key was surprised and delighted to see that Fort McHenry was still standing. Not only this, but there was an American flag flying over the fort. And this flag was huge—30 by 42 feet.

This glorious sight was thanks to a couple of people time would not soon forget. In fact, this sight was in preparation for Fort McHenry’s defense as the fort commander, Major Armistead commissioned Mary Young Pickersgill to stitch a banner large enough that the enemy would “have no difficulty in seeing it from a distance.”

Pickersgill would have help in this massive project, as she had an indentured servant (which was basically a slave that had to work for a set period of time before they were able to claim their freedom) named Grace Wisher, who helped stitch much of the banner by hand.

The flag was sewn of wool bunting with each one of its 15 stars about two feet across with its 15 stripes being about two feet wide.

Some historians suggest that a smaller 17 by 25-foot storm flag also stitched by Mrs. Pickersgill may have been flown during the downpour as that was common practice, but either way, Key was inspired and began to pen on the back of a letter he had in his pocket the first few lines of the iconic poem upon the enemy ship.

That poem would be called, “Defence of Fort M’Henry,” Later, being changed to “The Star-Spangled Banner.”

The British gave up their assault on the fort and retreated almost immediately, but not before allowing Key, Beanes, and Skinner to go freely back on land.

The following day, at a Baltimore Inn, Key expanded on the lines he had written, polishing the draft into four stanzas. The Star-Spangled Banner we hear at ballgames today is just the first stanza.

Joseph Nicholson, a commander of a militia at Fort McHenry, and a man who just so happened to be Key’s brother-in-law, was able to get the poem printed and distributed to the public. Key was considered an amateur Poet, and this poem—his only significant piece—would originally be published anonymously.

Despite this, Key’s poem would be republished on September 20, not even a week later, by Baltimore Patriot Newspaper. The paper announced that the poem was a “beautiful and animating effusion” that is destined “long to outlive the impulse which produced it.”

The poem started appearing in newspapers across the country and it was set to the tune of a drinking song by John Stafford Smith called, “To Anacreon in Heaven.” And was also retitled The Star-Spangled Banner soon after.

The war had still been tough on the U.S. It induced a financial crisis, and there was a realization that no substantial benefits were likely to be made from the conflict. President Madison along with Congress moved to have a peace settlement and negotiations were conducted at Ghent in Belgium which was considered neutral ground.

The treaty was rapidly concluded, being signed on December 24, 1814, and it did not provide the U.S. nor Great Britain with any major concessions. There were no   significant territorial exchanges and the U.S. quietly accepted its failure to annex Canada.

So, the U.S. didn’t really win the War of 1812, but due to their circumstances, they really felt like just surviving was cause for celebration enough, and it actually brought the nation international prestige to be able to go up against an Army like Great Britain’s who was the world superpower at the time.

As for the Star-Spangled Banner, while it was popular, and Key’s line, “land of the free home of the brave” quickly became a fixture to political campaigns and July 4th celebrations, it would not become the national anthem for a hot minute. In fact, Key—along with everyone else from this time—would not live long enough to see this poem become the national anthem.

During the Civil War, many Americans turned to music to express their feelings, and this patriotic song was one that many Americans loved dearly to do just this. The military had adopted the song for ceremonial purposes, requiring it to be played at the raising and lowering of the flag in the 1890s. The song was designated the “national anthem” by both the army and navy in 1917, but it still wasn’t officially the National Anthem. The Star-Spangled Banner would not be considered the official National Anthem until March 3, 1931 when President Herbert Hoover along with Congress passed a bill declaring the song as the U.S. national anthem. However, this did not come without backlash for this decision.

Critics said the lyrics were too lengthy and elaborate and that the tune was too unfamiliar for most people (which is crazy to think today). Some complained that Key’s words celebrated military glory, equating patriotism “with killing and being killed… with intense hatreds and fury and violence,” as dean of Columbia University’s Teacher’s College Clyde Miller said in 1930. New York Civic Leader Albert S. Bard argued that “America the Beautiful” would be a more suitable and singable anthem.

However, proponents of the Star-Spangled Banner won the day after two sopranos, backed by a Navy band, demonstrated the song’s “singability” before the House Judiciary Committee.

As for the flag that inspired the song, it is being conserved in a climate-controlled laboratory in the National Museum of American History in Washington, D.C. The flag has also gone on quite the journey, itself.

If you are to go see it, it may be a little shorter than the 42 feet I had originally told you… by about 8 feet. This is because objects that were significant in American history became these huge collectable items in the late 1800s and pieces of this flag were no exception. However, while it may sound kind of gross to think people were just carelessly ripping apart this major historical artifact for status points, that actually wasn’t the case.

Remember Major Colonel George Armistead, the commander of Fort McHenry who commissioned the sewing of the banner by Mary Pickersgill? Before his death in   1818, he obtained the flag which stayed in his family, being passed down to his daughter Georgiana Armistead Appleton after the death of his wife in 1861. So he had the banner until he died in 1818. Then his wife had it until she died in 1861. Then their daughter had it, and she recognized its national and familial significance, and due to this, she allowed the flag to be exhibited to the public on several occasions.

One of these occasions was in 1873 when a canvas backing was attached to the flag to be displayed and photographed for the first time at the Boston Navy Yard by Admiral George Preble. The backing is no longer on there thanks to restoration efforts in 1914, but more on that soon.

Georgiana’s son, Ebon Appleton, would inherit the flag in 1878, and he would notice the increase in public interest. People wanted to see it, so 29 years after getting the flag, in 1907, he lent the flag to the Smithsonian Institution in Washington, D.C. It wasn’t until 1912, however, that he would offer the flag as a permanent gift to the nation, later writing, “It is always such a satisfaction to me to feel that the flag is just where it is, in possession for all time of the very best custodian, where it is beautifully displayed and can be conveniently seen by so many people.”

Though many wanted a piece of the flag, as the Armistead family received frequent requests for pieces of the flag, they reserved the right of ownership only to veterans, government officials, and other honored citizens.

As Georgiana Armistead Appleton noted, “had we given all that we have been importuned for little would be left to show.”

Despite her efforts to be conservative with how much of the flag she would give away, she still ended up giving away over 200 square feet including one star.

Nevertheless, conservation of the banner began in 1914 thanks to a woman named Amelia Fowler who worked with a team of ten needlewomen. She got rid of the canvas backing from 1873, and the women attached a new linen backing. Their work to restore the flag took eight weeks.

The banner remained on view for nearly 50 years with the exception of two years during WWII when it was housed in a government warehouse in Virginia, to be protected from possible bombing raids on the nation’s capital.

Through the years since, the flag has had more work done, with the new goal being to keep it from further deterioration. If you want to see the flag you can see it at the National Museum of American History in Washington, D.C.