Capitol at Washington and all public buildings except the patent
office.

They then proceeded against Baltimore. The land troops were almost in
sight of the city of their desires, when they were halted and held in
check by American troops under General Sticker, whose name, it may be
said, meant as it sounded, and who effectually prevented their further
advance. But the fleet on the waters sailed into the bay of Baltimore
and up to Fort McHenry at the mouth of the Patapsco River, in the
determination to bombard the fortress and compel entrance to the city in
that way. The British admiral had boasted the fort would fall to his
hand an easy prey.

Prior to this, Dr. William Beane, a citizen of Baltimore and a
non-combatant, had been captured at Marlboro and was held a prisoner on
one of the vessels of the British fleet. To secure his release, Francis
Scott Key and John Skinner set out from Baltimore on the ship _Minden_
flying a flag of truce. The British admiral received them kindly and
released Dr. Beane; but detained the three on board ship pending the
bombardment of the fort, lest in their return to land the intentions of
the British might be frustrated.

[Illustration: FROM SUNRISE TO SUNSET THEY WATCHED THE SHOT AND SHELL
POURED INTO THE FORT AND NOTED WITH INFINITE JOY THAT THE FLAG STILL
FLEW.]

Thus from the side of the enemy they were constrained to witness the
efforts of destruction urged against the protecting fortress of their
own city. From sunrise to sunset they watched the shot and shell poured
into the fort and noted with infinite joy that the flag still flew.
Through the glare of the artillery, as the night advanced, they caught
now and then the gleam of the flag still flying. Would it be there at
another sunrise? Who could tell! Suddenly the cannonading ceased. The
British, despairing of carrying the fort, abandoned the project. In the
emotion of the hour and inspiration born of the victory, Key composed
the immortal lines now become our national anthem, "The Star-Spangled
Banner."

The flag is preserved in the museum of Washington and is distinctive in
having fifteen stripes and fifteen stars, one of the very few national
flags with this number.

THE STAR-SPANGLED BANNER

OH, say, can you see, by the dawn's early light,
What so proudly we hailed at the twilight's last gleaming;
Whose broad stripes and bright stars thro' the perilous fight
O'er the ramparts we watc