The Star Spangled Banner

By Tony Cross

The national anthem of the United States of America is probably one of the most recognizable tunes in the world. Yet few people outside the United States know the words, even fewer know what they mean or why they were written, and almost no-one knows that the tune itself was written almost 50 years before the words and that it was written in Britain.

The story of the creation of the anthem is a story of presidents and emperors, of admirals and generals, but mostly it is the story of a doctor and a lawyer. It is also the story of a war, or at least a part of one, a war that has been largely forgotten because it was a war within a greater war that rocked the very foundations of Europe.

This book tells the whole story of how the anthem came into being, from the very beginnings of the war, and the greater war that caused it, to the official recognition of The Star Spangled Banner as the national anthem of the United States of America. Also included as an appendix is original and previously unknown research conducted by the author for the US National Park Service. This now forms part of the official history of the writing of the anthem.

• Language: English
• Publisher: Tony Cross
• Release date: Aug 30, 2012
• ISBN: 9781476126708

Book preview

The Star Spangled Banner

Tony Cross

Copyright 2012 by Tony Cross

First Edition

Published at Smashwords

ISBN 9781476126708

Table Of Contents

Preface

A War With A War

The North American Station

Washington Burns

Baltimore Prepares

The Attack Begins

The Bombardment Of Fort McHenry

To Anacreon In Heaven

The Seed Bears Fruit

The Star Spangled Banner

Postscripts

Appendix – Original Research

Websites Referenced In This Book

Preface

The national anthem of the United States of America is probably one of the most recognisable tunes in the world. Yet few people outside the United States know the words, even fewer know what they mean or why they were written, and almost no-one knows that the tune itself was written almost 50 years before the words and that it was written in Britain.

The story of the creation of the anthem is a story of presidents and emperors, of admirals and generals, but mostly it is the story of a doctor and a lawyer. It is also the story of a war, or at least a part of one, a war that has been largely forgotten because it was a war within a greater war that rocked the very foundations of Europe.

This book tells the whole story of how the anthem came into being, from the very beginnings of the war, and the greater war that caused it, to the official recognition of The Star Spangled Banner as the national anthem of the United States of America. Also included as an appendix is original and previously unknown research conducted by the author for the US National Park Service. This now forms part of the official history of the writing of the anthem.

History with its flickering lamp stumbles along the trail of the past, trying to reconstruct its scenes, to revive its echoes, and kindle with pale gleams the passion of former days. ~Winston Churchill

A War Within A War

On the 14th July 1789 a crowd of less than a thousand political demonstrators stormed the Bastille prison in Paris, in so doing they effectively began the French Revolution. Over the next 10 years France engaged in an orgy of blood-letting and revenge that culminated in the execution of the deposed king, Louis XVI. On 9th November 1799 a 30-year old Corsican army general sized power in a coup-d'etat, five years later he declared himself the Emperor of France. His name was Napoléon Bonaparte.

Bonaparte's aggressive policy of dominating Europe by turning his neighbours into subservient client states gave rise to what became known as the Napoleonic Wars. Fought between Bonaparte's France and an often changing coalition of various countries including Great Britain, Austria, the Ottoman Empire, the Papal States, Russia, Prussia and Sweden, they would last from 1803 until 1815.

A superb strategist, Bonaparte understood almost from the first that Great Britain was the key to the coalition. Britain's industrial strength and powerful navy meant that unless she could be suppressed he could have no peace in mainland Europe. His preparations for an invasion of Great Britain were thwarted however by the near bankruptcy of France and the overwhelming power of the Royal Navy. The first problem was resolved by the sale of France's American possessions to the United States for $15 million, they could not be defended in any case. Known as The Louisiana Purchase, at a stroke it doubled the land area of the United States, though almost the only people living in the newly acquired territory were Native-Americans. The second problem appeared to have been solved when the French fleet managed to successfully slip away from the British blockade of Toulon during a storm in June 1805 and sailed out of the Mediterranean to rendezvous with their Spanish allies.

On 21st October 1805, after a chase across the Atlantic Ocean to the Caribbean and back, the Franco-Spanish and British fleets finally came to battle off Cape Trafalgar, on the Atlantic coast of Spain. The British, under the tactically brilliant Admiral Lord Nelson, had slightly fewer ships than the French & Spanish but Nelson adopted a radically new tactic, deliberately splitting the Franco-Spanish line by sailing perpendicular to it. It resulted in a comprehensive and overwhelming victory for the British, but at the height of the battle Nelson was hit by a musket ball fired from a French ship. He died three hours later as the British fleet lay at anchor assessing the battle damage.

Nelson's decisive