The Star-Spangled Banner

[Darwin]

Who wrote it?

[Zenrax]

It was written by Francis Scott Key, when he was watching the British bombarding Fort McHenry.

[Darwin]

Ok, so congratulations, you have just been the subject of my social experiment, and you confirmed my hypothises.

Now for part two, I'll tell everyone that is was NOT Francis Scott Key who wrote the Star-Spangled Banner. Yes, that's right, you were LIED to in elementary school. It's an uncomfortable truth you will have to live with, get over it.

So now that we know who did not write it, does anyone want to guess who wrote the Star-Spangled Banner?

[Crypteia]

Who wrote ?The Star Spangled Banner?? The lyrics of the song that became the Star Spangled Banner came from the 1814 poem ?Defence of Fort McHenry? by Francis Scott Key. The poem was then set to the tune of a popular British drinking song written by John Stafford Smith for the Anacreonetic Society. When the music was placed with the lyrics and the song was called ?The Star Spangled Banner?. It became a well-known American patriotic song and commonly only the first stanza is commonly sung.

?The Star Spangled Banner? became recognized for official use by the Navy in 1889 and the President in 1916 and was named the national anthem by a congressional resolution on March 3, 1931.

There have been many other songs that have been made hymns for officialdom, such as ?My Country, ?Tis of Thee? and ?Hail Columbia? but the songs were overtaken for popularity at public events by ?The Star Spangled Banner?.

Key wrote the lyrics... So I guess by clever wording he didn't "write" the song.

[LovelyPoet]

On September 3, 1814, Francis Scott Key and John Stuart Skinner, an American prisoner-exchange agent, set sail from Baltimore aboard the ship HMS Minden flying a flag of truce on a mission approved by President James Madison. Their objective was to secure the release of Dr. William Beanes, the elderly and popular town physician of Upper Marlboro, and a friend of Key’s who had been captured in his home. Beanes was accused of aiding the arrest of British soldiers. Key and Skinner boarded the British flagship HMS Tonnant on September 7 and spoke with Major General Robert Ross and Admiral Alexander Cochrane over dinner, while they discussed war plans. At first, Ross and Cochrane refused to release Beanes, but relented after Key and Skinner showed them letters written by wounded British prisoners praising Beanes and other Americans for their kind treatment.

Because Key and Skinner had heard details of the plans for the attack on Baltimore, they were held captive until after the battle, first aboard HMS Surprise, and later back on the HMS Minden. After the bombardment, certain British gunboats attempted to slip past the fort and effect a landing in a cove to the west of it, but they were turned away by fire from nearby Fort Covington, the city's last line of defense.

During the rainy night, Key had witnessed the bombardment and observed that the fort’s smaller "storm flag" continued to fly, but once the shell and rocket barrage had stopped, he would not know how the battle had turned out until dawn. By then, the storm flag had been lowered, and the larger flag had been raised.


15-star, 15-stripe "Star-Spangled Banner" flagKey was inspired by the American victory and the sight of the large American flag flying triumphantly above the fort. This flag, with fifteen stars and fifteen stripes, came to be known as the Star Spangled Banner Flag and is today on display in the National Museum of American History, a treasure of the Smithsonian Institution. It was restored in 1914 by Amelia Fowler, and again in 1998 as part of an ongoing conservation program.

Aboard the ship the next day, Key wrote a poem on the back of a letter he had kept in his pocket. At twilight on 16 September, he and Skinner were released in Baltimore. He completed the poem at the Indian Queen Hotel, where he was staying, and he entitled it "Defence of Fort McHenry".

Interestingly, much of the idea of the poem and even some of the wording is arguably derived from an earlier song by Key, also set to the tune of "Anacreon in Heaven". The song, known as "When the Warrior Returns", is said to have been written in honor of Stephen Decatur and Charles Stewart on their return from the First Barbary War.

Key gave the poem to his brother-in-law, Judge Joseph H. Nicholson. Nicholson saw that the words fit the popular melody "The Anacreontic Song", composed by John Stafford Smith, which was the official song of the Anacreontic Society, an 18th-century gentlemen's club of amateur musicians in London. Nicholson took the poem to a printer in Baltimore, who anonymously printed broadside copies of it – the song’s first known printing – on September 17; of these, two known copies survive.


Francis Scott Key's original manuscript copy of his "Star-Spangled Banner" poem. It is now on display at the Maryland Historical Society.On September 20, both the Baltimore Patriot and The American printed the song, with the note "Tune: Anacreon in Heaven". The song quickly became popular, with seventeen newspapers from Georgia to New Hampshire printing it. Soon after, Thomas Carr of the Carr Music Store in Baltimore published the words and music together under the title "The Star-Spangled Banner", although it was originally called "Defence of Fort McHenry". The song’s popularity increased, and its first public performance took place in October, when Baltimore actor Ferdinand Durang sang it at Captain McCauley’s tavern.


Commemorative plaque in Washington, D.C. marking the site at 601 Pennsylvania Avenue where "The Star-Spangled Banner" was first publicly sungThe song gained popularity throughout the nineteenth century and bands played it during public events, such as July 4 celebrations. On July 27, 1889, Secretary of the Navy Benjamin F. Tracy signed General Order #374, making "The Star-Spangled Banner" the official tune to be played at the raising of the flag.

In 1916, President Woodrow Wilson ordered that "The Star-Spangled Banner" be played at military and other appropriate occasions. By a law signed on March 3, 1931 by President Herbert Hoover, "The Star-Spangled Banner" was adopted as the official national anthem of the United States.

So as was said, Key penned the words to a peom that Mr. Smith wrote the melody to.