Less wellknown. We may be familiar with his name and the key bridge over the potomac, but that is about all. It has been more than 75 years since the biography of key has been published, and our speaker today, marc leepson, is here to tell us about what he has discovered through researching and writing his new book about key, what so proudly we hailed. Historian john coppola said leepson tells a multifaceted story of the author of the starspangled banner with clarity, precision, and passion, a literary performance akin to a great soloist nailing the high notes in the land of the free and the home of the brave. Marc leepson is a journalist, historian, and author of eight rooks books. Marc is a former staff writer for Congressional Quarterly and has been a freelance writer since 1986. He has written for many newspapers and magazines, and is arts editor and columnist for the newspaper published by the Vietnam Veterans of america, he teaches u. S. History at Lord Fairfax Community college in virginia. Ladies and gentlemen, please welcome marc leepson. [applause] thank you, david. Thanks for inviting me to be here today. Thank you all for coming. Ill knock off early so we can see the rest of the soccer match. No, i wont. It is my pleasure to talk to you today about this book that i wrote. It is the first biography of Francis Scott key in more than 75 years, and it is particularly important because it is coming out this year, 2014, the 200th anniversary of him writing the starspangled banner. As david mentioned, what percentage of americans know the name Francis Scott key . I dont know 95 , 98 who does not know the name . But then go to step b. What do you know about this guy . He wrote the starspangled banner. What else . Not much. What i set out to do was illuminate this man and this time, and a player in the early republic. He was born in 1779 during the american revolution. He was born in a place called terra rubra, which was his Family Plantation in maryland, north of frederick maryland, not far from the pennsylvania border, not far from gettysburg, pennsylvania. His great grandfather came over here. He was a lawyer who became a rich planter, prominent citizen of southern maryland, and he purchased this place, which Francis Scott keys father inherited, and that is where frank grew up. They called him frank, by the way. So that is something you all know now that people do not know. And im going to call him frank for the rest they call him frankie when he was a kid, but they called him frank, his friends and family. That is where frank grew up, and he had kind of an idyllic childhood there. His father was named john ross key, and he served in the Continental Army. The records are kind of sketchy, but we do know that he wound up serving under the marquis de lafayette. He was also a lawyer. So was Francis Scott keys uncle. Philip barton key turns out to have more influence on frank than his father did. They schooled him at home. Let me tell you about Philip Barton key. John ross key served in the Continental Army in the revolution. His brother became a loyalist. Not only was he a loyalist, he joined the british army and fought against us. He wound up fighting in florida. He got captured along with everybody else. He went not back to england he had never been to england, but he went to england after the war and got tired of life in england and came back to the united date. I think you probably know that loyalist who came back, especially from england, especially for those who fought against us they were not tarred and feathered, but most of them did not exactly get a good welcome. Well, philip argan key did Philip Barton key did. He became a big lawyer in annapolis maryland. He became rich. When frank they sent frank to st. Johns college in annapolis. You all know about st. Johns. It is still there. Its a Small Liberal Arts College that offers classical education. When we say classical, we mean greek and latin, and frank studied greek and latin and graduated in 7096. He read the law in annapolis with his uncle. One of his fellow Young Lawyers was a man named roger brooke tawny, who later became chief justice of the united states. He and frank became very good friends. They practiced not together, but they did argue cases together because frank went back to frederick where he hung out, and he and tony were so close that tunney married franks only sister, so they were friends, colleagues for the rest of franks life. He graduated from check from st. Johns. When he was in annapolis, he did not board at the college. He lived with his great uncle in a Beautiful House near the scott house, which is still in annapolis today. It is privately owned, but it is really he had a good life there. Read the law, came back, and then he married polly lloyd, so the lloyd family was also in the upper income brackets. Her father, colonel lloyd, huge land owner. For those of you who live around here, when you go to chesapeake they bridge, towards the eastern shore, he owned thousands of acres. Big slaveowning family, as was the key family. As we will see later, slavery becomes a big issue and Francis Scott keys life. He married polly lloyd, and they had two children. He was a young lawyer in frederick, and then they moved to washington, d. C. , in 1805. They moved to a house on Bridge Street in georgetown, the main eastwest street in georgetown. Their house is on the river, and its not there anymore. There is a park called Francis Scott key park. If you come over the key bridge, which is named after Francis Scott key, and surprisingly, there is a park if you turn right onto m street, there is a park. Thats not where the house was. The house was to the left of the bridge because it was turned down in 1947 to make way for the entrance ramp onto the whitehurst freeway. The National Park service founded by that time, and the park service was going to rebuild the house, so they put the brakes and the logs and everything on the other side where the park is, and then they disappeared. Thats all we have left. That is where they lived. They wound up having 11 children, and he became a big lawyer in town. He had a thriving practice. He would wind up arguing over 100 cases before the supreme court. He later becomes u. S. Attorney for washington for eight years under Andrew Jackson. So lets go up to the events that happened in 1814. The pivotal thing that got Francis Scott key to baltimore that day was the battle of bladensburg, which took place on august 20 6, 1814. You all know about that one. That was when the british now, the war of 1812 had been going on not much i mean, stuff happened, but the war took on a new complexion in the spring of 1814 when the british defeated napoleon and sent over more troops. So these troops had made their way up the Chesapeake Bay raiding towns up and down the Chesapeake Bay, and then in august, they invaded washington, d. C. The army that we put up was not good. It might have been one of the most in our military history. The british just rolled through, and then what did they do . They burned washington. They burned the white house. They burned public buildings. Francis scott key, by the way, was a guest adamantly against america getting into the war. He called it a lump of wickedness. He saw no purpose in it. The war hawks won out, and we went to war against england. He changed his mind i was about to say changed his tune, but maybe well talk about that later he changed his mind about the war when the british darted doing this rating up and down the chesapeake. Things were getting a little too close for comfort, so he actually joined a militia unit, a militia artillery unit in georgetown, and he went out to around the chesapeake. He did not see any action. He came close. And he did not like being in the military, so he kind of hung up his uniform after serving 14 aboard three weeks. He did show up at the battle of bladensburg. Key came out to see what he could do to help because he knew the terrain. He lived around here. He knew people. He did not help people very much. He was among americans who treated anonymously off of that battlefield, and then the british burned washington. The british did not earn any private buildings in washington, d. C. They said they were burning washington to avenge what happened when we burned the city of york, which is toronto, canada. Frank and a lot of civilians he sent polly and the kids back up to maryland, and, you know, it was a very trying time. They did not know the british were not going to burn the entire city, so after the battle, a physician, a surgeon named william beans, a prominent surgeon who lived in upper marlboro, maryland, got involved somehow in the war. He was not in uniform, but there were some straggler british officers as the british were leaving washington, and he took them prisoner and held them for a couple of days. When the british came and released the prisoners, they were not happy, so they took dr. Beans and two other men prisoner. So they put him on the ships, and then the british left and sailed up toward baltimore. Key was a family friend of beans and was prevailed upon to help arrange their release. Prisoner exchanges and prisoner releases were common in the war of 1812, so we had a few british prisoners. What happened was we prevailed upon the british, the officer in charge, to get letters from the british prisoners saying how well they were treated, and they were treated well. He went up to baltimore, wrote on his horse, up about 35 miles, with borders and with the letters from british prisoners saying that the americans were ok, letting them eat more than bread and water. They were positive letters. He was met in baltimore by a man named john skinner, who was a lawyer. He was sort of working for the state department that had the rank of colonel in the army, and he had held a range prisoner exchanges as well. Key road to baltimore and met up with skinner. They got on an American Ship and began looking for the british fleet. And they found them. The british welcome to them on board. They did these things all the time. They had dinner. They drank wine. They negotiated the release of dr. Beans. We believe it was the letters that did the trick. They said, you can go, but, wait, we are going to bomb baltimore back to the stone age, so you cannot leave until then. They took skinner, beans, and key and put them on another british ship, and they moved as they move closer to baltimore and put them back on that american sloop that they sailed out to find the british, but under guard. You sometimes hear that Francis Scott key wrote it when he was being held prisoner by the british. He was not free to go, but he would be free to go. Why did the british want to bomb baltimore back to the stone age . The war was controversial before and during not in baltimore. Baltimore people they are not called baltimorons, are they . Someone will have to tell me that later because i have to do it talk in baltimore coming up, and i definitely do not want to say that. The people of baltimore were adamant war hawks from the beginning. The british hated they called it a nest of thieves. The navy needed all the help it can get, and it asks private ship owners to help raid british ships. They are called privateers. There were more privateers from baltimore than anywhere else. People could not wait to get after the british. The british, contrary to what they were going to do in washington, which was not burned public rulings, they wanted to raze the city. They had a pretty armada. They had four om ships bomb ships, just ships that threw bombs. You know about fort mchenry. It sticks out in baltimore harbor. Colonel armstead, who was in charge of defending fort mchenry let me just back up a little bit as bad as the American Army did in bladensburg, folding they build defenses. They built fortifications, so they were ready for the british, and the british were ready for them. There were a kid of components to the british attack on baltimore. We do not often hear about the land component. Those started about the same time. We all know about the rockets and the bombs bursting in air, but the battle of northpoint started just before the bombs bursting in air, and the british were on their way towards baltimore when their commanding colonel shot dead off of his horse, and that sort of took the steam out of the british. The americans also put up a really good fight. But the british got very close to the gates of baltimore on the land part. Then we had a tremendous storm that happened. Storms have a way of influencing military history throughout the world. It had an influence on this battle. The british sort of got stalled. The bombardment happened. 25 straight hours, 1500 bombs, cannons, artillery, rockets. It was maybe unprecedented in the history of warfare to that time that continuous a bombing. What armstead did also was he purposely scuttled old ships in the harbor so that the british could not get close enough. After the 25 consecutive hours of bombing, not one person was killed on land in baltimore. Houses shook to their foundation. People were scared out of their wits. Only four soldiers were killed at fort mchenry. By the way, we were throwing out a lot of bombs ourselves. Key, skinner, and beans were in a ship behind the two british lines. Baltimore has a key cam online where you can look at baltimore 24 hours a day lives and see what Francis Scott key saw. Well, not exactly, but anyway, he was an amateur poet, Francis Scott key was. He wrote that amateur poetry. It was never meant to be seen outside family and friends. After he died, somebody published a book. If you go on google books, you can read it. So dont just take my word for it. The poetry was bad. So he was stirred to write a poem that night by what he saw and into the morning. He wrote it on the back not an envelope, a letter that he had in his pocket. Or he started it on the back of a letter. What did he see . Well, the 1500 bombs, this tremendous thunderstorm, and then it all ended about 3 00 in the morning. But it was dark. It was rainy. They could not see. They did not know who one won. Correct me if im wrong they did not have twitter back then. They could not see. They waited until the dawns early light blue, thats a good phrase. But when don happened, the storm had not gone away, and they still could not see. Finally, don rises enough. They can see a flag, but they cannot see what it is. It is hanging limp. Then a breeze comes, and our flag was still there, and he was moved to write this poll and. The british let him go. Once he saw the flag, of course, he knew we had prevailed. The other thing people do not remember about the battle this is a turning point of the war of 1812. After the british slunk off in defeat is slunk a word . It is now. Thank you. After the british left in defeat with their tail between their legs, they sort of lost heart for the fight. Peace talks were going on before that. They intensified. By the end of the year, we had the treaty of ghent signed. Of course, there was one more big idol in the war of 1812, which happened after the signing of the treaty of ghent, the battle of new orleans, which Andrew Jackson made his name. To his credit, the treaty had not been ratified, so the war was not quite over yet. Remember this the battle of baltimore is the turning point of the war of 1812. We could be speaking with british accents today if the british had prevailed. Key goes back to a hotel in baltimore and finishes you know, there were 4 versus to this poem or song, and we will talk about whether it was a poem or a song in a little bit. He wrote one letter on october 4 in which he talked about what happened. Never mentioned writing a song or a poem. He talked about dr. Beans and the british officers, whom he did not like. The account we have about what happened that night, the one you have already, the one i read, comes from something that was written by franks brotherinlaw published in 1853, 40 years later. He said that frank had told him this after the battle, and so many people wanted to know, he wrote it down for posterity. That is what we have, along with an article that john Stewart Skinner wrote after tonic tawnys book came out, which sort of makes skinner the hero, although he does not claim to write the poem. Somebody, maybe franks brotherinlaw, who married one of polys sisters, took this poll him to a printer in baltimore. Within two days, broadsides with this poem had appeared all over the city. Including distributed out of fort mchenry. We know that from current accounts. The title was the defense of fort mchenry. We do not know why, but a few days later, it appeared on sheet music. The name was changed to the starspangled banner, and it said, to be sung to the tune of anacreon in heaven, which was a wellknown song in the early republic, and it was not uncommon in those days in fact, it was common for words of songs to be put on wellknown melodies. It was so popular there were 30, 40, 50 different songs that people knew. And did not have franks name on it, although did have a little introduction to it, in which it talked about how it came to be written. Then it appeared in newspapers around the country, and then his name became on it. And, of course, it became a popular patriotic song. Not the most popular, but it was one of the patriotic songs laid at patriotic occasions. Fourth of july, picnics, other gatherings one of the patriotic songs played at patriotic occasions. It was not until the late 1800s that is sort of became the de facto National Anthem, but it did not become the official National Anthem until 1931. President hoover signed the bill. Was he writing a song or a poem that night . Up until relatively recently, most historians believed that he was writing a poem. He was an amateur poet. He had not written one song in his life. He was a very religious man. He almost went into the episcopal priesthood. But he was very pious, very patrio