When Was the Star Spangled Banner Written?

The national anthem of the United States of America is the Star Spangled Banner. It was penned on September 16, 1814 during the War of 1812 between the United States and England and it is now probably the best known national anthem in the world.

The War of 1812 was a particularly vengeful war between England and the United States. The British had burned down the White House and the Capitol. Then the British moved on towards Baltimore. Before the attack on Baltimore, the British Navy moved into Chesapeake Bay and began bombarding the forts around Baltimore incuding the most important at the time: Fort McHenry. The British military action went on for a full twenty-four hours before the British finally gave up. They withdrew their ships and headed for home.

Francis Scott Key

Just before the battle at Fort McHenry began, two Americans were dispatched under a flag of truce to negotiate the release of an American doctor. The doctor had been taken hostage by the British following the attack on Washington.

One of the Americans who had been asked to negotiate for the doctor’s release was a friend of the doctor, Francis Scott Key. The British agreed to release the doctor but prevented the three men from returning to Baltimore because they had already heard too much about the impending attack. The British tied their boat to the Admiral’s flagship and kept them there until the battle was over.

Writing of the Star Spangled Banner

They knew that if the fort fell it would mean the British had won and Baltimore would have been ransacked. All through the bombardment of the fort, Key and his friends kept a watch on the US flag that flew over the fort. They would make sure that the flag still flew between the smoke and clouds.

As night drew to a close, they would catch glimpses of the flag when cannons were ignited and shot their balls towards the fort. Finally, in the dim light of the dawn, they had lost sight of the flag and searched for it in the sky. The wind was light but eventually a breeze caught the flag and stretched it out to show that it was not a Union Jack flying but the Stars and Stripes. The fort had held and the British had been defeated.

As they watched the flag, they were set adrift from the British flagship and allowed to return to Baltimore. As they sailed away from the ship on September 16, 1814, Key penned the words to the poem on the back of an old letter he had in his pocket.

Popularity of the Star Spangled Banner

Upon their return to Baltimore, he showed the poem “Defense of Fort M’Henry” to his uncle who was helping defend the fort during the battle. The uncle liked it so much he had flyers printed and handed them out throughout Baltimore.

As far as any of Key’s personal notes indicate, he never intended the poem to be anything but a poem. The uncle took the flyer to a restaurant where many patriots were assembled and read the poem. They were so moved they applied the verses to the tune of an English drinking song “To Anacreon in Heaven."

Song Becomes the National Anthem

In 1916, President Woodrow Wilson ordered that the poem and tune should be declared the National Anthem of the United States of America. It was not until 1931 that it was made the official National Anthem by an act of Congress.

It took over a hundred years before the country adopted the Star Spangled Banner as the national Anthem. The irony of the anthem is that it was set to the tune of an English drinking song. However, this is nothing unheard of... if you look at the hymns of the Christian church, many of the famous hymns are set to the tune of drinking songs of that era.