Olympic Fan
09-14-2014, 02:30 AM
On the morning of Sept. 14, 1814, the sun came up over Baltimore harbor and the view inspired an American lawyer on a British ship to write a poem that we're all familiar with.
The latter verses are a mite bombastic, but the first verse is a wonderful, clear expression of his sentiments as the dawn's early light revealed that the Star Spangled Banner was still flying over Fort McHenry after a 25-hour British bombardment. For most of the night, Francis Scott Key was able to tell that the fort held out because the British still bombarded it (more than the glimpses of the flag he caught by the rockets red glare and the bombs busting in air), but at a little after 3 a.m., the bombardment stopped. For two hours he wondered if the fort had fallen. His fear wasn't quieted until the first rays of the rising sun showed the American flag still flying over the fort.
Interesting to me that the flag he saw -- the Star Spangled Banner -- was the only official US flag with more than 13 stripes. It had 15 stars and 15 stripes ... as more and more states lined up for admission to the union, somebody realized that we couldn't keep adding stripes. So they went back to 13 stripes for the original 13 states and merely added stars for each subsequent state.
But here's the odd thing -- in 1814 there were not 15 states -- there were 18 states. I guess the flag had just not caught up.
The latter verses are a mite bombastic, but the first verse is a wonderful, clear expression of his sentiments as the dawn's early light revealed that the Star Spangled Banner was still flying over Fort McHenry after a 25-hour British bombardment. For most of the night, Francis Scott Key was able to tell that the fort held out because the British still bombarded it (more than the glimpses of the flag he caught by the rockets red glare and the bombs busting in air), but at a little after 3 a.m., the bombardment stopped. For two hours he wondered if the fort had fallen. His fear wasn't quieted until the first rays of the rising sun showed the American flag still flying over the fort.
Interesting to me that the flag he saw -- the Star Spangled Banner -- was the only official US flag with more than 13 stripes. It had 15 stars and 15 stripes ... as more and more states lined up for admission to the union, somebody realized that we couldn't keep adding stripes. So they went back to 13 stripes for the original 13 states and merely added stars for each subsequent state.
But here's the odd thing -- in 1814 there were not 15 states -- there were 18 states. I guess the flag had just not caught up.