Each year inspiration hits me again after reading this story, enjoy!
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It was on September 13, 1814 that Francis Scott Key was inspired to write the words to "The Star Spangled Banner" by witnessing the British attack on Fort McHenry in Baltimore Harbor. It had been a dark summer for the young United States. Just three weeks earlier, on August 24, British troops had set fire to much of Washington D.C., including the Capitol, the Treasury and the President's house. President James Madison had been forced to flee for his safety. Americans were terrified the British might choose to invade New York or Philadelphia or Boston and destroy those cities as well.
The British had recently been using rockets, a new military weapon adapted from Chinese technology. Francis Scott Key was horrified as he watched these rockets raining down on Fort McHenry at the mouth of the Baltimore Harbor. He watched the bombardment all night and he had little hope the American fort would withstand the attack. But just after sunrise on September 14th he saw the American flag still flying over the fort. In fact, he might never have seen the flag if the fort commander, Major Armistead, hadn't insisted on flying one of the largest flags then in existence. The flag flying that day was 42 feet long and 30 feet high.
Francis Scott Key began writing a poem about the experience that very morning. It turned out the battle at Baltimore was the turning point of the war. Before the war the American flag had little sentimental significance for most Americans. It was used mainly as a way to designate military garrisons or forts. But after the publication of "The Star Spangled Banner" even non-military people began to treat the flag as a sacred object.
*Entirety shared from "The Writer's Alamanac" by Garrison Keillor
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