By the dawn's early light

In 1812 the United States of America declared war against the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Ireland. The War of 1812 would end in victory for the United States and the withdrawal of British troops from American soil and its Pacific waters. America had flexed its fledgling muscles and convinced the British and the world that it was a force to be reckoned with and that its declared independence was not to be taken lightly.

Prior to this declaration of war and in preparation for the potential of future armed conflict America built Fort McHenry on the peninsula at the Port of Baltimore. Begun in 1798 and completed by 1800 this fort would be of strategic military importance during the War of 1812. The fort was named in honor of James McHenry a Scots-Irish immigrant and statesman who was among the signers of the Constitution of the United States. He would later serve as the Secretary of War under presidents George Washington and John Adams.

Included among the many military activities of war was the commissioning of a Battalion Flag for Fort McHenry. The flag that was ordered for the fort was to be forty-two feet tall by seventy feet in length. Each of the fifteen stripes, in alternating red and white, would be slightly under three feet in width. The fifteen stars sewn to the field of blue would each measure two-feet tall.

The commission for the construction of this monumental banner was granted to a flag maker by the name of Mary (Young) Pickersgill. Mary was a young widow who had been born in 1776, the year of Independence for the newly formed United States of America. Experienced in flag making, with prior orders from the U.S. Military and merchant mariners, Mary was also assisted by her 13 year old daughter Caroline, nieces Eliza and Margaret Young and her 13 year old African-American indentured servant, Grace Wisher.

The Battalion Flag, as well as a smaller, 17 by 25-foot Storm Flag, was completed in seven weeks.

The smaller Storm Flag was to be used in times of severe weather conditions whereas the much larger Battalion Flag was to be flown in fair weather and used for special military occasions. The flags were issued to Fort McHenry, upon their completion, in 1813.

On August 24th 1814 a British force of 2,500 soldiers, under the command of Major General Robert Ross, routed the American troops around Washington then captured and occupied Washington city. Members of Congress and the House of Representatives fled the capital building as British troops set it ablaze.

Despite heavy rains that likely saved the exterior walls of the building, the interior of the Capital and its contents were destroyed. The entire collection of works in the Library of Congress was lost. Later, Thomas Jefferson sold his personal library of more than 6,000 volumes to the U.S. Government to restock the shelves of the Congressional Library.

After torching the Capital building, the United States Treasury and several other government buildings, the British troops moved next to the White House. President Madison’s wife, Dolly, managed to salvage a few personal effects and scant other items of historical significance before she escaped and the White House was destroyed. While the U.S. Capital and the White House sent sputtering flames into the summer downpour, British soldiers raised the Union Jack above the city. Amid the flicker of orange flames, the scarlet mass of British uniforms and the dreary downpour of heavy rain it must have appeared that all was lost.

To prevent the British from gaining a stronger foothold and penetrating deeper into the Colonies, U.S. forces destroyed the munitions at the U.S. Naval yard and sank nearly two dozen warships in the seaport near Fort McHenry, blocking the way inland. The British fleet then determined to capture Fort McHenry and complete the rout.

Beginning on September 3rd 1814, for more than 24 hours, the British battleships laid down a constant barrage of cannon fire sending explosive shells in and around the fort. Under the constant bombardment, American troops returned fire and held their ground while the American flag, the Storm Flag, hand sewn by Mary Pickersgill, flew gallantly overhead.

Meanwhile, under guard of the British command, an American lawyer by the name of Francis Scott Key, on a diplomatic mission, stood on the deck of a British frigate and watched, helpless and in despair, as American patriots withered under the relentless attack. Counter fire from the fort against the British fleet was ineffective and it appeared as though the fort would surely fall. As darkness turned the coastal waters to inky black Francis could not see the toll that the British shells were inflicting. However, when the bombs exploded over the ramparts he could see the rippling flag of red, white and blue in each bright flash.

Throughout the long night Francis held tight to the ships rail as he rocked with the recoil of the ships guns and peered into the darkness. The constant cannon fire had long since dulled his hearing and muffled explosions thrummed against his chest. But always, each flash of fire, each blood red streak of a rockets trail showed that the flag still waved above his countrymen.

As the early morning sun rose out of the eastern sea, the British bombardment slowed then stopped. The powder magazines were empty, the stores of explosive shells had been exhausted, and the British fleet was out of ammunition. Francis Scott Key gazed across the bay to the Port of Baltimore. There above the ragged, shell shattered ramparts of Fort McHenry he watched the battle worn Storm Flag being slowly lowered. It seemed that along with the ceasing cannon fire his heart also had stopped. He fought against the tears that welled behind his swollen eyelids and braced himself for the first glimpse of the Union Jack, as it would rise above Fort McHenry.

But it was not the Union Jack that climbed above the walls to greet the sun. First it was a tip of blue that rose above the ramparts, then the bright point of a white star, then another appeared on the field of blue and as the breeze caught in the folds of the seventy foot long stripes of red and white, the star spangled banner unfurled in all its glory. So moved by the sight of the American flag in the dawns early light and the certainty that there was no surrender, Francis Scott Key put pen to paper and quickly scratched out the first few lines of a poem that he titled, “The Defense of Fort McHenry”.

The flag that was raised over Fort McHenry that morning of September 14, 1814 was given to the fort’s commander, Lieutenant Colonel George Armistead. He and his heirs gave small pieces of the flag to soldiers, friends and dignitaries as mementos of that great battle.

In 1902, descendants gave the flag to the Smithsonian for safekeeping and in 1914 gifted it to the institute. The first attempted restoration of the flag was done in 1914 by Amelia Fowler who, along with ten workers, sewed the 1,020 square foot flag to a canvas backing with 1.7 million stitches.

Francis Scott Key’s poem became known as “The Star Spangled Banner” and would become the official United States National Anthem, by Congressional resolution, on March 3, 1931.

The poem in its entirety is as follows:

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 bomb 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?

On the shore dimly seen through the mists of the deep

Where the foe's haughty host in dread silence reposes,

What is that which the breeze, o'er the towering steep,

As it fitfully blows, half conceals, half discloses?

Now it catches the gleam of the morning's first beam,

In full glory reflected now shines in the stream,

'Tis the star-spangled banner - O long may it wave

O'er the land of the free and the home of the brave!

And where is that band who so vauntingly swore,

That the havoc of war and the battle's confusion

A home and a Country should leave us no more?

Their blood has wash'd out their foul footstep's pollution.

No refuge could save the hireling and slave

From the terror of flight or the gloom of the grave,

And the star-spangled banner in triumph doth wave

O'er the land of the free and the home of the brave.

O thus be it ever when freemen shall stand

Between their lov'd home and the war's desolation!

Blest with vict'ry and peace may the heav'n rescued land

Praise the power that hath made and preserv'd us a nation!

Then conquer we must, when our cause it is just,

And this be our motto - "In God is our trust,"

And the star-spangled banner in triumph shall wave

O'er the land of the free and the home of the brave.

M. Timothy Nolting is an award winning Nebraska columnist and freelance writer. To contact Tim, email; acrossthefence2day@gma