Oh say does that star-spangled banner yet wave?

America

Many people in the United States are unhappy with its national anthem. Some complain that it's too war-like and mean. Others find it hard to sing. However, I believe that it has a redeeming value in the question that it asks: “Does that star-spangled banner yet wave?” I ask myself the same thing almost every morning now almost two hundred years after Francis Scott Key penned that question.

Key was a captive of the British while their fleet bombarded Fort McHenry in Baltimore harbor all day and night, until 3 am on the morning of September 14th. He wondered why the shelling had stopped. Had the fort fallen? That would seem the most likely outcome. The British had besieged the defenders since September 12th during which time not a shot had reached the British ships from the fort's guns. Thus, Key stood (popular myth has him standing atop the bulwarks, clinging to the ship's standing rigging to steady himself) as he strained to see which flag flew above the walls: The American stars and stripes or the British Union Jack. Alas, not a breath of air stirred and the flag hung limply from its standard, its nationality indistinguishable.

Why didn't Key ask one of his captors? Most likely, they couldn't have answered him. They were awaiting word from Robert Ross, the British general who led the troops that had disembarked at Sparrows Point, at the confluence of the Patapsco River and the Chesapeake Bay, and were supposed to capture Baltimore. Ross's force had already captured and burned Washington. Surely they could brush aside the Maryland militia and recreate their victory in Baltimore. When Ross's courier arrived, they were stunned to learn that he was dead and that his forces had been defeated by Sam Smith.

Who the hell is Sam Smith? I asked the same question when I stumbled upon a brass plaque embedded in a curbstone in a parking lot at the foot of Baltimore harbor. It read "Sam Smith Park". I was playing hooky at the time from my pre-law classes at the University of Baltimore. Although I was born and raised in that city, I had never before heard of Sam Smith let alone been advised that he had been memorialized with a city park. Poor schmuck, I wondered, his park had been paved over and all that remained was this tiny bronze memento. 

Major General Samuel Smith (portrait by Rembrandt Peale)

I doubted that any of the reprobates loitering along the waterfront could enlighten me, so I retraced my steps to the Enoch Pratt Free Library and began researching. There I learned that Samuel Smith was a major general of the Maryland militia who defeated the British in the Battle of Baltimore and ended their enterprise to retake their North American colonies. Imagine that. The man who saved the United States is forgotten, but the bombardment of the fort, little more than a diversionary tactic, is remembered to this day in song and legend. Too bad that Smith didn't have a publicist like Francis Scott Key to memorialize his exploit.

So, does that star-spangled banner yet wave? Thanks to Sam Smith, it still does. Sadly, some say it doesn't wave quite so bravely nor over people who are quite as free. Many see it at half-staff, as in mourning for a nation diminished. Others see it flown upside-down as in distress. Bullies and tyrants around the world see its colors fading and are emboldened to loose the dogs of war. Still, it waves, however limply, like that morning two hundred years ago today when Francis Scott Key penned a poem reflecting his fears. 

Maybe that's what is so compelling about America's national anthem. It resonates with the fears that many feel as we find ourselves, once again, under attack from without and within.

September 14, 2014