“Star‐Spangled Banner, The,”

“Star‐Spangled Banner, The,” song by Francis Scott Key, became the U.S. national anthem by act of Congress (1931), although it had long been popularly considered the anthem and had been officially used by the army and navy since the Spanish‐American War. Key, on a legal mission, was detained by the British and forced to view the bombardment of Fort McHenry, near Baltimore, during the night of September 13–14, 1814. The sight of the flag still flying inspired his verses, set to the music of Anacreon in Heaven by the Englishman John Stafford Smith (1750–1836), the anthem of the Anacreontic Societies, clubs of musical amateurs. Key's song was published as Defence of Fort M'Henry in Baltimore Patriot (Sept. 20, 1814), perhaps preceded by a broadside. It was collected in Key's Poems (1857).