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At first, Ross and Cochrane refused to release Beanes, but relented after Key and Skinner showed them letters written by wounded British prisoners praising Beanes and other Americans for their kind treatment.īecause Key and Skinner had heard details of the plans for the attack on Baltimore, they were held captive until after the battle, first aboard HMS Surprise and later back on HMS Minden. Key and Skinner boarded the British flagship HMS Tonnant on September 7 and spoke with Major General Robert Ross and Vice Admiral Alexander Cochrane over dinner while the two officers discussed war plans. Beanes was accused of aiding the arrest of British soldiers. William Beanes, the elderly and popular town physician of Upper Marlboro and a friend of Key's who had been captured in his home. Their objective was to secure the exchange of prisoners, one of whom was Dr.
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On September 3, 1814, following the Burning of Washington and the Raid on Alexandria, Francis Scott Key and John Stuart Skinner set sail from Baltimore aboard the ship HMS Minden, flying a flag of truce on a mission approved by President James Madison. It is now on display at the Maryland Historical Society.
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Set to Key's poem and renamed "The Star-Spangled Banner", it would soon become a well-known American patriotic song. "The Anacreontic Song" (or " To Anacreon in Heaven"), with various lyrics, was already popular in the United States. The poem was set to the tune of a popular British song written by John Stafford Smith for the Anacreontic Society, a men's social club in London. The lyrics come from "Defence of Fort M'Henry", a poem written in 1814 by the 35-year-old lawyer and amateur poet, Francis Scott Key, after witnessing the bombardment of Fort McHenry by British ships of the Royal Navy in Chesapeake Bay during the Battle of Fort McHenry in the War of 1812. " The Star-Spangled Banner" is the national anthem of the United States.
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