The Story of the STAR-SPANGLED BANNER

The Widow Pickersgill made it. Her daughter Caroline helped her, because the flag with its fifteen stars must be flying over Fort McHenry before the British fleet attacked it. It was August 24, 1814, in Baltimore.

So begins the story in which Francis Scott Key and his friend, John Skinner, slip out of the harbor in a small boat flying a white flag. Their mission is to intercept the British flagship and beg for the release of Dr. William Beanes, who is a prisoner of war.

Their errand is successful, but only after they spend a wild night as prisoners themselves while the British bombard the fort and threaten to burn the city.

The welcome sight of the flag at dawn inspires Mr. Key to jot down the lines of a poem on an old envelope. He called it The Defense of Fort McHenry. We call it The Star-Spangled Banner.

This is the story of the dramatic events that led a man to write a poem and of what has happened to it.

From the full pictorial edition