13 as bombs from British vessels fired through the night on Fort McHenry in Baltimore, which, with 50,000 residents, was the nation’s third-largest city at the time. – including the White House and Capitol building – in August 1814.īut US troops eventually pushed back British attacks on New York, Baltimore and New Orleans and the ratification of the Treaty of Ghent on 17 February, 1815, ended the war.Key was a 35-year-old lawyer and amateur poet in 1814, tasked with obtaining the release of William Beanes, a physician from Upper Marlboro, Md., who was taken by the British after they withdrew from Washington, D.C.įrom a truce ship in the Chesapeake Bay, Key watched on Sept. The United States suffered many defeats including the capture and burning of the nation’s capital, Washington, D.C. It was fought over British attempts to restrict US trade, the Royal Navy press ganging American seamen and America’s desire to expand its territory. The War of 1812 was a conflict fought between the United States and its allies, and the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Ireland and its dependent colonies in North America and indigenous allies. The White House is seen in the background (Photo: Bettmann/Bettmann Archive) What was the War of 1812? Undated wash drawing shows the burning of Washington, DC, by the British in 1812. It was recognised for official use in 1889 by the US Navy and was designated as the national anthem by a congressional resolution on 3 March 1931, signed by President Herbert Hoover. It soon became one of the US’s most patriotic songs especially during the Civil War.
The poem was then set to the tune of a song that was written by Brit John Stafford Smith for a men’s social club in London called the Anacreontic Society.
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