Gilbert Gutknecht: “lying aboard a British warship in Baltimore Harbor, Francis Scott Key listened through the night as shells rained down…”

“lying aboard a British warship in Baltimore Harbor, Francis Scott Key listened through the night as shells rained down on Fort McHenry. The small, undermanned garrison suddenly found itself under the attack of the greatest Navy in the world. One thousand American soldiers were charged with the daunting task of defending Fort McHenry against 30 British warships and thousands of enemy ground troops. The bombs fell for 25 straight hours. Many hit their target. Others burst overhead, raining shrapnel on the soldiers below. When the rocket explosions ceased on the morning of September 14, 1814, Key surely thought that Fort McHenry had been taken. Straining to see through the smoke that hung over the water in the early morning light, Key wiped away tears to see the Stars and Stripes still flying defiantly over that battered fort. The Americans had achieved the unthinkable. They had bravely held their position against all odds. The magnificent sight moved Key to pen the words that have stirred American hearts ever since, the Star-Spangled Banner. Two weeks ago, 187 years after the defense of Fort McHenry, our Nation stared in horror at the smoke hanging over New York City and Washington, D.C. We looked on in disbelief as the towers of the World Trade Center crumbled before our very eyes. Yet out of the destruction shone a beacon of hope.…”