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Tag: Star Spangled Banner

The Star-Spangled Banner and Its Heirs: The Flags of the Revolutionary Village

On September 14, 1814, as dawn broke over Baltimore’s Fort McHenry, Francis Scott Key looked across the harbor and saw an American flag still flying after a night of bombardment by British forces. Inspired by the sight, Key wrote the poem “Defence of Fort M’Henry,” which would eventually become “The Star-Spangled Banner,” the national anthem […]

The Star Spangled Banner and the Village

After witnessing twenty-five hours of heavy bombardment of Fort McHenry on September 14, 1814 during the War of 1812, lawyer and amateur poet Francis Scott Key was sure that when dawn came, the British flag would be flying over Baltimore. That was not the case, and when he saw the American flag still flying, he wrote the first verse […]