September 14, 1814

Today is remembered as the day that Francis Scott Key penned what would become a very, very famous poem later declared to be our country’s national anthem, “The Star Spangled Banner.”   We don’t think much about the event that provoked the writing of the poem when I think that we should.  I believe that it was one of those near-death experiences for our young country for if Fort McHenry had fallen, so might the country and we’d all been Brits today.  I believe God had other plans.  Here is some history:

During the War of 1812, the Brits burned our capitol building in Washington D.C. –

(From Wikipedia) It was the only time since the American Revolutionary War that a foreign power has captured and occupied the capital of the United States. Following their defeat of an American force at the Battle of Bladensburg on August 24, 1814, a British army marched on Washington City. That night,  forces set fire to multiple government and military buildings, including the Presidential Mansion and the United States Capitol…Less than four days after the attack began, a heavy thunderstorm—possibly a hurricane—and a tornado extinguished the fires and caused further destruction. The British occupation of Washington lasted for roughly 26 hours…Following the storm, the British returned to their ships, many of which required repairs due to the storm.

A couple of weeks later 35 year old Key went to the British seeking the release of an American captive:

[The remainder of that fascinating account can be read here, but has been deleted from this musing due to copyright restraints.]

Aboard the ship that morning, Key began writing his lyrics on the back of a letter he had kept in his pocket….

The Star-Spangled Banner – Francis Scott Key

1 O 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 and bright stars through the perilous fight O’er the ramparts we watch’d were so gallantly 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 banner yet wave O’er the land of the free and the home of the brave?

2 On the shore dimly seen through the mists of the deep Where the 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 and the home of the brave!

3 And where is that band who so vauntingly swore, That the havoc of war and the battle’s confusion
A home and a Country should leave us no more? Their blood has wash’d out their foul footstep’s pollution.
No refuge could save the hireling and 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 and the home of the brave.

4 O thus be it ever when freemen shall stand Between their lov’d home and the war’s desolation!
Blest with vict’ry and peace may the heav’n rescued land Praise the power that hath made and 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 and the home of the brave.

PK: I believe we should give more attention to the night of September 13-14, 1814  as a brush with death – but God!