September 13
Just weeks after the British burned the U.S. Capitol, they set out to burn the city of Baltimore.
On the way they caught an elderly physician of Upper Marlboro, Dr. William Beanes.
The town feared Dr. Beanes would be hanged so they asked a young lawyer, Francis Scott Key, to sail with Colonel John Skinner under a flag of truce to the British flagship TONNANT and arrange a prisoner exchange.
Concerned their plans of attacking Baltimore would be revealed, the British placed Francis Scott Key and Colonel Skinner under armed guard aboard the H.M.S. SURPRISE, then on a sloop where they watched the night of SEPTEMBER 13, 1814, as Fort McHenry was bombarded.
The next morning, "through the dawn's early light," Key saw the flag still flying. Elated, Key penned The Star-Spangled Banner.
On March 22, 1814, Francis Scott Key told the Washington Society of Alexandria:
"The patriot who feels himself in the service of God, who acknowledges Him in all his ways, has the promise of Almighty direction, and will find His Word in his greatest darkness, 'a lantern to his feet and a lamp unto his paths'...
He will therefore seek to establish for his country in the eyes of the world, such a character as shall make her not unworthy of the name of a Christian nation."
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