The next time you sing the Star Spangled Banner, our national anthem, may you sing with a deep connection to the song’s true meaning. Francis Scott Key was an attorney and a gifted amateur poet. During the war of 1812, after his efforts to negotiate American prisoner release, he watched the bombardment of Fort McHenry by the Royal Navy. The following morning, inspired upon seeing the American flag still flying, he scribbled the initial notes for a poem on the back of a letter. This poem, The Defense of Fort McHenry, later became America's national anthem. The following recording is an amazing description of the whole story and the heart and resolve of America. Listen to it in its entirety and forever deepen your appreciation of our anthem.
Click Here to Open: Inspiration of the Star Spangled Banner.
(Click on Download: StarSpangledBanner_as_you_have_never_heard_it.wma)
The above photo is the actual flag that flew that morning at Fort McHenry. It is preserved today at Smithsonian’s National Museum of American History in Washington, D.C. The photo below is of one of two surviving copies of the 1812 broadside printing of the Defense of Fort McHenry, the poem that later became America's national anthem. Note the forth verse includes our nation's motto: "In God is our trust."
