Rensselaer Republican, Volume 18, Number 26, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 4 March 1886 — A Patriotic Poet [ARTICLE]

A Patriotic Poet

Francis Scott Key is famous for just one tiling; he wrote “The Star Spangled Banner,” which has been sung for twenty years, and is still our noblest patriotic song. Mr. Key was bora in Frederick County, Maryland, on the Ist of April, 1779, and died in Baltimore the 11th of January, 1843. He was a lawyer, and hfe wrote a good many poems, which were published in a bdok in 1857; but the only one of them good enough to be remembered or even read by people generally is “The Star Spangled Banner.” During the years from 1812 to 1815 this country was at war with Great Britain, and in 1714 a British fleet entered Chesapeake Bay. A force landed and marched to Washington City. The city fell into the hands of this , force, and the public buildings were burned. It was a gloomy time for Americans, for when the capital of the country was taken it seemed likely that we were to be conquered, and lose the liberty that Washington had won for us in the Revolution. After taking Washington City the British land force marched against Baltimore, and the war Ships in the Chesapeake sailed up at the same time to bombard the town from the water. The town was held by a small body of American soldiers, and its principal defense on the water side was Fort McHenry, which was held by Major Armistead, with about 1,000 men, mostly volunteers. Its guns were small ones, which could not throw their shot very far; but the men m the fort were brave fellows, who meant to do their best to save the city with such cannon as they had. - ~

A few: days before the attack the British had captured a well-known citizen, Dr. Beanes, and carried him to their ships, where they held him prisoner. Mr. Key, who then lived in Georgetown, near Washington, was sent under a flag of truce to ask for Dr. Beanes’ release, and he succeeded in persuading the British admiral, Cochrane, to set the good doctor free. But as the ships and land forces were about to attack Baltimore, it would not do to let the Americans go until the fight was over, lest they should carry information to their - countrymen. Bo it came about that Mr. Key was on board one of the British ships while the battle was going on. The fleet moved up on September 19, and at sunrise on the 2 3rd the ships opened fire on the fort. The fight that followed was a fierce one, which lasted till midnight, and the Americans on board the British ship could not make out in the darkness which side had the best of it. Even after the firing ceased, Key paced the deck of the ship in an agony of fear for his native city. He knew that- a British land force had made (in attack on the other side of the town, but he could not learn what the result Lad been. He had seen the bombard-ment-of the fort, but-he could not see whether it had fallen under the fire of the ships or had beaten them off, as the vessel he was on was at some distance in the rear and Hie night was dark. It is easy to imagine what his feelings were as he waited through the long hours from midnight till morning for the first light of dawn to show him whether or not the star spangled banner still floated over the fort. It was during that anxious timeyn waiting that be wrote on the back of an old letter the stanza:

“Ob, sav, can you see. by the dawn's early light, Wbat so proudly we bailed at the twilight’s last gleaming, Whose broad stripes and bright stars through the clouds of the fight O’er the ramparts we watched Were so gallantly streaming? And fcko locket’s red glare, tho bomb bursting In Ctaye proof through the night that our flag was still there; -. Oh, say, docs that star-spangled banner yet wave, O’er the land of the free and the home of the brave?” When the long-looked-for morning came, the patriotic poet at last learned the joyous truth that “our flag was still there,” that the British were beaten both by land and by sea, tljat tho city of his birth was saved, and that be still had a country free, strong and unconquered. When lie went ashore he wrote ’out the whole of his poem and read it to Judge Nicholson, one of the men who had fought to defend the fort. The Judge took it at once to n printer, and had it printed as a' hand-bill and distributed among the glad citizens of Baltimore. The song was set to music, and sung in the theaters, in private houses, and on the streets, and everywhere throughout the country, men, women and children joyfully took it up. From that day to this “The Star Spangled Banner” has been the song that can most quickly and deeply stir the hearts of Americans.---Harper’s Young People.