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Star Spangled Banner Flag Smithsonian

On this day in 1814, United States soldiers raised this 30′ x 42′ foot garrison flag over Fort McHenry in Baltimore to celebrate a critical victory over the British during the War of 1812:

Star Spangled Banner National Anthem

Seeing those “broad stripes and bright stars” inspired Francis Scott Key to write a poem entitled “Defence of Fort M’Henry.” It soon became the song we know as “The Star-Spangled Banner,” and eventually, Our national anthem.

In turn, that flag, and the following words from the fourth stanza of Key’s poem inspired Our Lost Founding to create this t-shirt design:

“Then conquer we must, when our cause it is just,
And this be our motto – “In God is our trust,”

Star-Spangled Motto

 

Fort McHenry Star Spangled Banner

On this day in 1931, President Herbert Hoover signs a congressional act making “The Star-Spangled Banner” the official national anthem of the United States.

On September 14, 1814, during the War of 1812, American attorney Francis Scott Key was detained aboard a British ship in Baltimore Harbor where he witnessed the massive overnight British bombardment of Fort McHenry. Seeing the American flag still flying in the morning inspired him to write his poem, the “Defence of Fort M’Henry.” A few months later, the poem was set to music of “To Anacreon in Heaven” and renamed “The Star-Spangled Banner.”

In God We Trust

As we (should) know, our National Motto is “In God We Trust,” and has been for over 60 years.
In fact, we find an early iteration of it in the fourth verse of “The Star-Spangled Banner”:

“Blest with vict’ry and peace may the heav’n rescued land
Praise the power that hath made and preserv’d us a nation!
Then conquer we must, when our cause it is just,
And this be our motto – “In God is our trust,”
And the star-spangled banner in triumph shall wave
O’er the land of the free and the home of the brave.”

It is that key couplet that inspired Our Star-Spangled Motto shirt, available HERE.

My visit to Fort McHenry in April 2014 was one “key” experience that led me to start Our Lost Founding.

Fort McHenry Star Spangled Banner National Anthem