How & why was the Star Spangled Banner written, why does it end with a question, what was the battle like, and why does it still contain so much meaning for Americans today? It's a pretty good story... For 25 straight hours in 1814, British rockets and mortars hammered Fort McHenry—while a young nation waited to see if its flag, and its future, would survive the night. In part two of our Star-Spangled Banner series, the British march on Baltimore, and the 25-hour bombardment that lit up the sky over the harbor. From inside the fort, citizen-soldiers endured an unending storm of shells and rockets. Out in the bay, a Georgetown lawyer named Francis Scott Key watched it all (under-guard) from a British ship, unsure whether the flag he saw by bomb-light would still be flying at dawn. Because if it was lowered, then the American troops surrendered. Out of that fear and exhaustion came a private poem that, over a century later, became America’s national anthem. This episode explores not just the battle, but what the flag meant that night—and what perseverance has to do with the American experiment now. The anthem, Key’s question, and our politics today all meet on that rampart in Baltimore. Please consider supporting the show on Patreon! It would take so little from you but mean so much for the show. Head to: https://www.patreon.com/c/RemedialPolymath Full article + picture + maps + custom episode music: Star Spangled Banner Pt II If you missed part one on the origins of the war and the road to Baltimore, start there—then come back for the night the anthem was born. Click here for part one!