The Star Spangled Banner

Maryland Historical Society

Adopted as the National Anthem of the United States in 1931, “The Star-Spangled Banner” was written by Francis Scott Key after he witnessed the bombardment of Fort McHenry on September 13–14, 1814, during the War of 1812. Key was on a flag-of-truce ship with an attacking British fleet in the Baltimore harbor on a mission to negotiate the release of an American citizen, Dr. William Beanes, who had been arrested by British soldiers after the burning of the capital. Key wrote a draft of the song, intended as a broadside poem, after realizing that the fort and the city of Baltimore had survived the all-night attack.

The text of the poem was written to the music of a well known drinking song “To Anacreon in Heaven,” by John Stafford Smith. Key’s new verses were quickly published under the title “Defence of Fort M’Henry” and regularly reprinted throughout the nineteenth century. Their continued use by the military and popular acceptance led to the song’s adoption as the national anthem more than a century after its creation.

Song Origins
A poem entitled “To Anacreon in Heaven” had been written before 1771 by Ralph Tomlinson, a London lawyer, for the social and musical organization known as The Anacreontic Society. This text was set to music by John Stafford Smith and became the official song of the society before it was dissolved in the 1790s. The exact transmission of the song to America is unknown but it was likely performed at the Columbian Anacreontic Society founded in New York in 1795 and may well have been the “Anacreontic Song” song sung by Mr. J. West in Savannah, Georgia, in 1796.

The tune was used as the basis for other popular songs and was published no less than 14 times between 1796 and 1813. For example, a widely popularized version, “Adams and Liberty,” was written by Robert Treat Paine and performed for the anniversary of the Massachusetts Charitable Fire Society in Boston on June 1, 1798. Moreover, in 1805, Francis Scott Key himself used the music as the basis for his song honoring Commodore Stephen Decatur for his fight against the Barbary Pirates. The poem, entitled “The Warrior’s Return,” includes several phrases anticipating his soon famous work, including “O! warm be the welcome,” “Star-Spangled” flag, and the final stanza:

“Where, mixed with the olive, the laurel shall wave,
And form a bright wreath for the brows of the brave.”

Rescue of Doctor Beanes
During the War of 1812, coastal Maryland came under repeated attack by British military forces. The high-water mark of the British campaign came in late August 1814 with the successful attack on Washington, D.C., marked by the burning of numerous public buildings. As the invaders retreated back to their ships from the successful sortie, they arrested for treason an elderly physician named William Beanes, from his house in Upper Marlboro, Maryland. Dr. Beanes was a leading citizen of Prince George’s County and his arrest led to several unsuccessful attempts to regain his freedom, among them efforts by Maryland governor Levin Winder.

One of Dr. Beanes’ patients, Richard West of the Woodyard Estate (near current-day Andrews Air Force Base), rode to Washington to enlist the aid of federal officials. While in the District of Columbia, West paid a visit to his brother-in-law, Francis Scott Key, who agreed to help him. Key was given official sanction for the mission by the American Commissary of Prisoners and rode off alone to Baltimore to embark on his task. Before leaving Washington, Key picked up a package of letters from wounded British soldiers that, in the end, would help gain Dr. Beanes’ release.

In Baltimore, Key met with American agent John Skinner, who was a veteran of many prisoner exchanges with the British during the war. The Americans hired a packet and soon caught up with the British fleet near the mouth of the Potomac River where they were invited to dine. Aboard the British ship HMS Tonnant, Skinner and Key dined with the combined command staff of the British army and navy. Despite his skill as a courtroom lawyer, recent scholarship argues, that Francis Scott Key played only a supporting role in the release of Dr. Beanes, and that the American agent Skinner made the case with British general Robert Ross in private, after dinner.

Ross declared that in light of the wonderful treatment the Americans were giving the wounded he had left behind, he would release Dr. Beanes. Because the pending attack on Baltimore was also under discussion at dinner, the British declined to release the Americans until military operations were complete. Thus it came about that Key and Skinner accompanied the Royal Navy into Baltimore Harbor and witnessed the naval bombardment of Fort McHenry with shot, shell, and rockets.

In the early light of September 14, 1814, the Americans could see that the enormous flag was still waving over the fort and that the British were withdrawing from the attack. Francis Scott Key, inspired by the events, began composing an ode to celebrate this American military success. The first verses were penned on the back of an envelope as Key and his companions awaited their release and return to American soil.

Anonymously published as a broadside under the title, “The Defence of Fort M’Henry,” the poem captured the ebullient mood in the city of Baltimore. It was republished in the Baltimore Patriot on September 20, and in the Baltimore American on September 21, 1814, providing wider distribution. The Maryland Historical Society now owns the manuscript in Key’s hand from which the printers worked. The song continued to gain greater circulation through its addition to “songsters” (songbooks) published throughout the nineteenth century.

Adoption of the National Anthem
Between 1910 and 1929, numerous resolutions and bills were introduced in Congress attempting to establish “The Star-Spangled Banner” as the national anthem. Acceptance was not easily won because of objections to the lyrics, tune, and the existence of strong alternative candidates. Other competitors included “My Country! ’Tis of Thee,” “Hail Columbia,” “The Battle Hymn of the Republic” and “America the Beautiful.” Among the objections to “The Star-Spangled Banner” were that it was difficult to sing, difficult to remember, and difficult to harmonize. Key’s text celebrated war and appeared to denigrate the British at a time when they had become fast allies of the United States. Maryland Congressman J. Charles Linthicum introduced legislation in 1918 to declare “The Star-Spangled Banner” as the national anthem, but it was not until his sixth bill nearly 13 years later that the resolution was passed. The law passed the Senate on March 3, 1931, and was signed into law by President Herbert Hoover on the same day.

Text of the National Anthem
Oh, say can you see by the dawn’s early light
    What so proudly we hail’d at the twilight’s last gleaming,
Whose broad stripes & bright stars through the perilous fight
    O’er the ramparts we watch’d were so gallantly streaming?
        And the rockets’ red glare, the bombs bursting in air,
        Gave proof through the night that our flag was still there,
Oh, say does that star-spangled banner yet wave
O’er the land of the free & the home of the brave?

On the shore dimly seen through the mists of the deep,
    Where foe’s haughty host in dread silence reposes,
What is that which the breeze, o’er the towering steep.
    As it fitfully blows, half conceals half discloses?
        Now it catches the gleam of the morning’s first beam
        In full glory reflected now shines in the stream.
‘Tis the star-spangled banner—O long may it wave
O’er the land of the free & the home of the brave!

And where is that band, who so vauntingly swore,
    That the havoc of war & the battle’s confusion.
A home & a Country should leave us no more?
    Their blood has wash’d out their foul footstep’s pollution
        No refuge could save the hireling & slave
        From the terror of flight or the gloom of the grave
And the star-spangled banner in triumph doth wave
O’er the land of the free & the home of the brave.

O thus be it ever when freemen shall stand
    Between their lov’d home & the war’s desolation!
Blest with vict’ry & peace may the heav’n rescued land
    Praise the power that hath made & preserv’d us a nation!
        Then conquer we must, when our cause it is just.
        And this be our motto—“In God is our Trust,”
And the star-spangled banner in triumph shall wave
O’er the land of the free & the home of the brave.

Sheads, Scott S. The Rockets' Red Glare: The Maritime Defense of Baltimore. Centreville, Md.: Tidewater Publishers, 1986.

Sonneck, Oscar GT. Report on the Star-Spangled Banner, Hail Columbia, America & Yankee Doodle. Washington, D.C.: Government Printing Office, 1914.

Svedja, George J. History of the Star-Spangled Banner from 1814 to the Present. Washington, D.C.: U.S Dept of Interior, National Park Service, 1969.

Tyler, Samuel, LL.D. Memoir of Roger Brooke Taney, LL. D., Chief Justice of the Supreme Court of the United States. Baltimore: John Murphy and Co., 1876.

Weybright, Victor. Spangled Banner: The Story of Francis Scott Key. New York: Farrar and Rinehart, Inc, 1935.