In 1814, on Sept 14, Francis Scott Key wrote a poem inspired by the Battle of Fort McHenry, which becomes national song of United States, The Star-Spangled Banner. He watched a battle between Britain and America which happened in Baltimore at Fort McHenry during the War of 1812.
When the American flag was still flying in the morning he wrote a poem starting with these lines
- 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?
A survey shown that most of the Americans ain’t know all the words to the sentence of national anthem. If they know history behind this national song, they might find it easy to remember. Here is the story:
Francis Scott Key was a lawyer and a poet. He was not happy when the United States declared war on Britain, the War of 1812. The GB outgunned the young US navy & army. This war was also not good for American business perspective because, Britain was their big trading partners.
United States army struggled to match the British forces. In Aug 1814, British army raided the Washington. They torched the White House, and other government offices. The destruction in the United States capital down the morale of lots of Americans. But it also impassioned many citizens, like Francis Scott Key, to get behind the US in this war.