The Project Gutenberg eBook of The Star

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THE STAR-SPANGLED BANNER

by

John A. Carpenter

On August 18,gift puppet theaters for 12 months 1814, Admiral Cockburn, having returned with his fleetfrom the West Indies, sent to Secretary Monroe at Washington, thefollowing threat:

SIR: Having been called upon by the Governor-General of the Canadas toaid him in carrying into effect measures of retaliation against theinhabitants of United States for the wanton destruction committed bytheir army in Upper Canada, it has become imperiously my duty, inconformity with the Governor-General's application, to issue to thenaval forces under my command an order to destroy and lay waste suchtowns and districts upon the coast as may be found assailable.

His fleet was then in the Patuxent River, emptying into the Chesapeake
Bay. The towns immediately "assailable," therefore, were Baltimore,
Washington, and Annapolis.

Landing at Benedict's, on the Patuxent, the land forces, enervated by along sea-voyage, marched the first day to Nottingham, the second toUpper Marlborough. At the latter place, a town of some importance,certain British officers were entertained by Dr. Beanes, the principalphysician of that neighborhood; and a man well-known throughoutsouthern Maryland. His character as a host was forced upon him, buthis services as a physician were freely given, and formed afterward themain plea for his lenient treatment while a prisoner.

As the British army reached Upper Marlborough, General Winder wasconcentrating his troops at Bladensburg. The duty of assigning theregiments to their several positions as they arrived on the field wasperformed by Francis Scott Key, a young aide-de-camp to General Smith.Key was a practising lawyer in Washington who had a liking for themilitary profession. He was on duty during the hot and dusty dayswhich ended in the defeat of the American army. Subsequently, he couldhave read a newspaper at his residence in Georgetown by the light ofthe burning public buildings at Washington, and he passed withindignant heart the ruins left by the retreating army when, after anight of frightful storm, they silently departed in a disorderly forcedmarch of thirty-five miles, to Upper Marlborough. He then knew whatany other city might expect upon which the "foul footsteps' pollution"of the British might come.

The sorry appearance of the British army gave the Marlborough peoplethe idea that it had been defeated, and on the afternoon of thefollowing day Dr. Beanes and his friends celebrated a supposed victory.Had they stayed in the noble old mansion that the worthy but irascibledoctor inhabited near Marlborough, "The Star-Spangled Banner" wouldnever have been written. Tempted by the balminess of a warm Septemberafternoon, however, the party adjoined to a spring near the house,where, the negro servant having carried out the proper utensils, thecool water was tempered with those ingredients which mingle theircongenial essences to make up that still seductive drink, a Marylandpunch. It warms the heart, but if used too freely it makes a manhot-tempered, disputatious, and belligerent. Amid the patrioticjollity, therefore, when three British soldiers, belated, dusty, andthirsty, came to the spring on their way to the retreating army, theirboasting met with an incredulous denial, which soon led to theirsummary arrest as chicken-stealers and public enemies. Confined in theinsecure Marlborough jail, one of them speedily escaped, and reached ascouting-party of British cavalry, which, by order of Cockburn,returned to Upper Marlborough, roused Dr. Beanes out of his bed atmidnight, and conveyed him to the British ships at Benedict's.

As soon as Key heard of the arrest of Dr. Beanes, one of his mostintimate friends, he hurried, under the protection of a flag of truce,to the British fleet at the mouth of the Patuxent to arrange for hisrelease. John S. Skinner of Baltimore, then commissioner for exchangeof prisoners, accompanied him with his cartel ship.

When Key and Skinner reached the British fleet it was already on itsway up the Chesapeake Bay to the attack on Baltimore. Its destinationwas too evident for Cockburn to allow Key to depart and give the alarm.He was informed in the admiral's grimmest manner, that while he wouldnot hang Dr. Beanes at the yard-arm, as he had threatened, yet he wouldhave to keep every man on board a close prisoner until certaincircumstances occurred which would render their release advisable.When the ships arrived at their destination he assured them that itwould be only a matter of a few hours before they would be free.

From the admiral's flag-ship the Surprise, upon which he was thendetained, Key saw some of the finest soldiers of the British army,under General Ross, disembarked at North Point, to the southeast of thecity of Baltimore. Then on Tuesday morning, September 13, 1814, thefleet moved across the broad Patapsco, and ranged themselves in asemicircle two and a half miles from the small brick and earth fortwhich lay low down on a jutting projection of land guarding the waterapproaches to Baltimore on that side.

Cockburn's boast to Key that the reduction of the city would be "amatter of a few hours" did not look improbable. It was garrisoned by asmall force of regulars under General Armistead, assisted by somevolunteer artillerists under Judge Nicholson. It was armed withforty-two pounders, and some cannon of smaller caliber, but all totallyineffective to reach the British ships in their chosen position. Inaddition, a small earth battery at the Lazaretto—which, it will beseen, did good service—guarded the important approach to the city bythe north branch of the Patapsco; while Fort Coventry protected thesouth branch. These batteries were armed only with eighteen andtwenty-four pounders.

From seven on the morning of Tuesday until after midnight of Wednesdaythe fleet bombarded Fort McHenry at long range; occasionally thegunners in the fort fired a useless shot at the ships. But at midnightword was brought to Cockburn that the land attack on the North Pointroad to the east of the city had failed. Therefore, unless the fleetcould take Fort McHenry on the west, retreat was inevitable.

Taking advantage of the darkness, a little after midnight sixteenBritish frigates, with bomb-ketches and barges, moved up within closerange. At one o'clock they suddenly opened a tremendous anddestructive fire upon the fort. Five hundred bombs fell within theramparts; many more burst over them.

The crisis of the fight came when, in the darkness, a rocket ship andfive barges attempted to pass up the north channel to the city. Theywere not perceived until the British, thinking themselves safe and theruse successful, gave a derisive cheer at the fort under whose gunsthey had passed. In avoiding Fort McHenry, however, they had fallenunder the guns of the fort at the Lazaretto, on the opposite side ofthe channel. This fort, opening fire, so crippled the daring vesselsthat some of them had to be towed out in their hasty retreat.

From midnight till morning Key could know nothing of the fortunes ofthe fight. At such close quarters a dense smoke enveloped both theships and the fort, and added to the blackness of the night.

After the failure to ascend the north branch of the Patapsco, thefiring slackened. Now and then a sullen and spiteful gun shot itsflame from the side of a British vessel. Key, pacing the deck of thecartel ship, to which he had been transferred, could not guess thecause of this. The slackened fire might mean the success of the landattack, in which case it would not have been necessary to waste anymore powder on the fort. Again, it might be that the infernal rain ofshells had dismantled the little fort itself, and the enemy was onlykeeping up a precautionary fire until daylight enabled him to takepossession.

The long hours were nearly unbearable. Key had seen the fate of
Washington, and anticipated the fate of Baltimore.

At seven the suspense was unrelaxed. The firing from the fleet ceased.The large ships loomed indistinct and silent in the mist. To the westlay the silent fort, the white vapor heavy upon it. With eager eyesKey watched the distant shore, till in a rift over the fort he dimlydiscerned the flag still proudly defiant. In that supreme moment waswritten "The Star-Spangled Banner."

The British ships slowly dropped down to North Point. Dr. Beanes wenthome to Upper Marlborough, very thankful as he saw the yard-arm of theSurprise melt out of sight, unburdened.

Of all national airs, it breathes the purest patriotism. Those ofEngland, Russia, and Austria are based upon a sentimental loyalty longoutgrown by this agrarian and practical age. The "Marseillaise" is astirring call to arms, and upholds only the worst—the passionatemilitary—side of a nation's character. "The Star-Spangled Banner,"while it is animated, patriotic, defiant, neither cringes nor boasts;it is as national in its spirit as it is adequate in the expression ofthat spirit. Believing, then, that Key's poem will be the national airof succeeding generations of Americans, the facsimile of the originaldraft is here reproduced by the kindness of Mrs. Edward Shippen, agranddaughter of that Judge Nicholson who took the first copy of thepoem to the "American" office, and had it set up in broad-sheet form bySamuel Sands, a printer's apprentice of twelve. He was alone in theoffice, all the men having gone to the defense of the city. It iswritten in Key's hand. The changes made in drafting the copy will beseen at once, the principal one being that Key started to write "Theyhave washed out in blood their foul footsteps' pollution," and changedit for "Their blood has washed out their foul footsteps' pollution."In the second stanza, also, the dash after "'T is the star-spangledbanner" makes the change more abrupt, the line more spirited, and theburst of feeling more intense, than the usual semicolon. The othervariations are unimportant. Some of them were made in 1840, when Keywrote out several copies for his friends.

The song, in its broad-sheet form, was soon sung in all the campsaround the city. When the Baltimore theater, closed during the attack,was reopened, Mr. Hardinge, one of the actors, was announced to sing "anew song by a gentleman of Maryland." The same modest title ofauthorship prefaces the song in the "American." From Baltimore the airwas carried south, and was played by one of the regimental bands at thebattle of New Orleans.

The tune of "Anacreon in Heaven" has been objected to as "foreign"; butin truth it is an estray, and Key's and the American people's byadoption. It is at least American enough now to be known to everyschool-boy; to have preceded Burr to New Orleans, and Fremont to thePacific; to have been the inspiration of the soldiers of three wars;and to have cheered the hearts of American sailors in peril of enemieson the sea from Algiers to Apia Harbor. If the cheering of theCalliope by the crew of the Trenton binds closer together the citizensof the two English-speaking nations, should its companion scene, noless thrilling, be forgotten—when the Trenton bore down upon thestranded Vandalia to her almost certain destruction, and theencouraging cheer of the flag-ship was answered by a response, faint,uncertain, and despairing?

Almost at once, as the last cheer died away:

Darkness hid the ships. As those on shore listened for the crash,another sound came up from the deep. It was a wild burst of music indefiance of the storm. The Trenton's band was playing "TheStar-Spangled Banner." The feelings of the Americans on the beach wereindescribable. Men who on that awful day had exhausted every means ofrendering some assistance to their comrades now seemed inspired togreater efforts. They dashed at the surf like wild creatures; but theywere powerless.

No; it is too late to divorce words and music.

The song is generally accorded its deserved honor; the man who wrote ithas been allowed to remain in unmerited obscurity. The Pacific coastalone, in one of the most beautiful of personal monuments,* hasacknowledged his service to his country—a service which will terminateonly with that country's life; for he who gives a nation its popularair, enfeoffs posterity with an inalienable gift. Yet Key was theclose personal friend of Jackson, Taney,—who was hisbrother-in-law—John Randolph of Roanoke, and William Wilberforce. Heit was, in all probability, who first thought out the scheme of theAfrican Colonization Society; the first, on his estate in FrederickCounty, to open, in 1806, a Sunday-school for slaves; who set free hisown slaves; and who was, throughout his whole career, the highestcontemporary type of a modest Christian gentleman. This religious sideof Key's character found expression in that fine hymn found in thehymnals of all Protestant denominations,

Lord, with glowing heart I'd praise thee.

*In Golden Gate Park, San Francisco.

Foote, in his "Reminiscences," leads us to think highly also of Key'spersonal appearance, and of his powers as a public speaker.

Francis Scott Key was the son of John Ross Key, a Revolutionaryofficer. He was born in Frederick County, Maryland, August, 1780. Hestudied law, was admitted to the bar at Frederick, subsequently movedto Georgetown, and was district attorney for three terms. He wasfrequently intrusted with delicate missions by President Jackson. Avolume of his poems was published in 1856. He died in 1843, and isburied in the little cemetery at Frederick, Maryland. Efforts havebeen made in his native State to erect a monument over his grave, butunsuccessfully. In justice such a memorial shaft should be the gift ofthe whole American people.

As it is, his grave is not without tributes which are curious andhonorable. During the war Frederick was quietly a "rebel town," but itcontained one good patriot besides Barbara Frietchie. This loyal Mr.B——, when he received favorable news from the Northern army, orwhenever his patriotism had need of bubbling over, regularly made apilgrimage to Key's grave, and there, standing at the head of it,exultantly and conscientiously sang through the whole of Key's song.

On every Decoration Day the grave is covered with flowers, and the flagwhich always waves there—the Star-Spangled Banner which his strainedeyes saw on that 14th of September, 1814, rise triumphant above thesmoke and vapor of battle—is reverently renewed.

Perhaps, after all, it is his best monument.

The flag of 1814 and that of 1894 are nearly identical, the greatestchange being merely in smaller stars in the cluster. The flag of theUnited States, adopted June 14, 1777, was one of thirteen stripes,alternate red and white, with a union of thirteen white stars in a bluefield. Upon the admission of Kentucky and Vermont, two stripes and twostars were added. This flag continued in use until 1818, when, fivemore States having been admitted, the bars were reduced to the originalthirteen, with an added star for every new State, the star to be placedin position on the Fourth of July following the admission.

End of Project Gutenberg's The Star-Spangled Banner, by John A. Carpenter

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