He showed the verses to his brother-in-law, Joseph H Nicholson, commander of a militia at Fort McHenry, who pointed out that the words would fit perfectly to the tune of a popular English ditty written in 1775 by the composer John Stafford Smith. But as the smoke cleared in “the dawn's early light” on 14 September, Key watched in astonishment and relief as the US flag, not the Union Jack, was raised over the fort.Īccording to the Smithsonian Institution, which boasts among its many historical treasures that original star-spangled banner, Key was so overcome by what he had witnessed that he was inspired to poetry.

“It seemed as though mother earth had opened and was vomiting shot and shell in a sheet of fire and brimstone,” he observed. As night fell, he saw the sky turn red, and given the scale of the attack, was convinced the British would triumph. Fearful he knew too much, the Brits kept him on board a ship eight miles from shore. The War of 1812 had been raging for more than 18 months and Key was negotiating the release of an American prisoner. It was on the rainy night of 13 September, 1814, that a 35-year-old US lawyer named Frances Scott Key watched as a barrage of British shells rain down on Fort McHenry in Baltimore Harbour.

Origin of the star spangled banner song