Key’s poem he called “Defence of Fort McHenry.” These lyrics were later combined at his suggestion with the melody of, “In Anacreon in Heaven,” a song already popular in England and America at the time. Like a lot of old patriotic songs, “The Star-Spangled Banner” predates the nation’s formation and actually comes from an older tune. This was before the Statue of Liberty supplanted it as the female symbol of the U.S. “Columbia” is an 18 th century name for the Americas, and more specifically the United States, sometimes personified by a woman wearing an American flag. Here’s Mike Pence earlier this year at his swearing in. president, “Hail Columbia” is now the ceremonial entrance march of the Vice-President. Composed in 1789 for George Washington’s first inauguration and thus the inauguration of the first U.S. One, called “Hail Columbia,” (Hail Columbia) you might not recognize even though to this day it’s played fairly frequently. Some of them are still around, like “America the Beautiful” and “My Country ‘Tis of Thee.” For more than a century a number of songs competed for the title and drifted in and out of popularity at public national events. The national anthem hasn’t always…exactly been the national anthem. But its national anthem has only been official for 86 years, when it was finally adopted by Congress and President Herbert Hoover in 1931. But what do you really know about Francis Scott Key? And what about the next verse? That’s today…on Signal Cannon. That poem you know as the Star-Spangled Banner. Francis Scott Key was, in that moment, inspired to commemorate the victory and began writing a poem which he would later finish once he returned ashore. The British had not taken Fort McHenry during the night and retreated to beyond artillery range. During the night, British naval vessels pounded with fort with bombs and cannonballs, and attempted a landing nearby.īut in the morning, as the mist cleared, Francis Scott Key witnessed the raising of the ceremonial American flag above the fort. They were forced to stay where they were under British guard and wait out the battle, which came during the night of September 13 th, 1814. Beanes was successfully released, but the exchange party, including Key and a man named John Stuart Skinner, the federal Prisoner Exchange Agent in the area, was not permitted to leave because now they had information about an impending attack on Fort McHenry, a critical embattlement defending the city. William Beanes, a friend of Key’s who had misled the British command into thinking he was sympathetic to the Crown.ĭr. And on September 7 th, a lawyer and soldier by the name of Francis Scott Key was dispatched by then President James Madison to facilitate a prisoner exchange, specifically for a man named Dr. Within a week, the British had turned their attention to the busy port city of Baltimore. The occupation lasted just 26 hours however, after a hurricane and subsequent tornado put out the fires and forced the British into an early retreat, back to their ships which were heavily damaged by the freak storm. It was the only time in American history that the capital had been under the command of a foreign force. On August 24th 1814, British forces attacked Washington and burned down many government buildings, including the Navy Yard and the White House, then known as the Presidential Mansion.
0 Comments
Leave a Reply. |
AuthorWrite something about yourself. No need to be fancy, just an overview. ArchivesCategories |