By the Dawn's Early Light

People come here and they want to stand where Key stood. I have to explain: Key wasn't at the fort. He was miles away in the Patapsco River, aboard a British truce vessel, having gone out to negotiate a prisoner exchange. The British wouldn't let him leave until the attack was over. So he watched the whole bombardment from the British perspective, waiting to see whether the fort would fall.

The bombardment went on for twenty-five hours. That surprises visitors most — they imagine a single dramatic night. It started in the morning, paused, and continued through the night into the following dawn. The rockets were Congreve rockets, unreliable but spectacular. The bombs bursting in air were mortar rounds designed to detonate above and scatter fragments. The flag was 30 by 42 feet. On a smoke-filled night miles from shore, it was difficult to see. He had to wait for the dawn's early light.

What gets missed in the anthem narrative is that the fort worked. The garrison held against a fleet that fired nearly 1,800 projectiles and could not silence the American guns. Four Americans died. The British withdrew. The fort stood because the Revolutionary generation had understood this was where you had to make the stand. The flag flew because the fort stood.