Free Republic
Browse · Search
General/Chat
Topics · Post Article

Skip to comments.

The Star-Spangled Banner: Family Keepsake
Smithsonian ^ | retrieved 2014 | unattributed

Posted on 09/21/2014 8:38:44 AM PDT by SunkenCiv

While Francis Scott Key's song was known to most Americans by the end of the Civil War, the flag that inspired it remained an Armistead family keepsake. It was exhibited occasionally at patriotic gatherings in Baltimore but largely unknown outside of that city until the 1870s. The flag remained the private property of Lieutenant Colonel Armistead's widow, Louisa Armistead, his daughter Georgiana Armistead Appleton, and his grandson Eben Appleton for 90 years. During that time, the increasing popularity of Key's anthem and the American public's developing sense of national heritage transformed the Star-Spangled Banner from a family keepsake into a national treasure.

(Excerpt) Read more at amhistory.si.edu ...


TOPICS: History; Science; Travel
KEYWORDS: armistead; godsgravesglyphs
Lieutenant Colonel George Armistead The commander of Fort McHenry during the 1814 bombardment, Armistead became an instant hero after the battle. Portrait by Rembrandt Peale, 1816. Courtesy of Maryland Historical Society.

Lieutenant Colonel George Armistead
The commander of Fort McHenry during the 1814 bombardment, Armistead became an instant hero after the battle. Portrait by Rembrandt Peale, 1816. Courtesy of Maryland Historical Society.

1 posted on 09/21/2014 8:38:44 AM PDT by SunkenCiv
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | View Replies]

The Star-Spangled Banner

O say can you see, by the dawn’s early light,
What so proudly we hail’d at the twilight’s last gleaming,
Whose broad stripes and bright stars through the perilous fight
O’er the ramparts we watch’d were so gallantly streaming?

And the rocket’s red glare, the bombs bursting in air,
Gave proof through the night that our flag was still there,
O say does that star-spangled banner yet wave
O’er the land of the free and the home of the brave?

On the shore dimly seen through the mists of the deep
Where the foe’s haughty host in dread silence reposes,
What is that which the breeze, o’er the towering steep,
As it fitfully blows, half conceals, half discloses?

Now it catches the gleam of the morning’s first beam,
In full glory reflected now shines in the stream,
’Tis the star-spangled banner - O long may it wave
O’er the land of the free and the home of the brave!

And where is that band who so vauntingly swore,
That the havoc of war and the battle’s confusion
A home and a Country should leave us no more?
Their blood has wash’d out their foul footstep’s pollution.

No refuge could save the hireling and slave
From the terror of flight or the gloom of the grave,
And the star-spangled banner in triumph doth wave
O’er the land of the free and the home of the brave.

O thus be it ever when freemen shall stand
Between their lov’d home and the war’s desolation!
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.


2 posted on 09/21/2014 8:39:35 AM PDT by SunkenCiv (https://secure.freerepublic.com/donate/)
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | View Replies]

To: StayAt HomeMother; Ernest_at_the_Beach; decimon; 1010RD; 21twelve; 24Karet; 2ndDivisionVet; ...
The Smithsonian is asking people to donate bits of the origianl flag that were clipped off and given to friends of the Armistad family as keepsakes preseumably passed down generations, as part of the ongoing restoration.

And yes, our flag is still there.


3 posted on 09/21/2014 8:42:45 AM PDT by SunkenCiv (https://secure.freerepublic.com/donate/)
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | View Replies]

To: SunkenCiv
For McHenry
4 posted on 09/21/2014 8:56:43 AM PDT by Salvation ("With God all things are possible." Matthew 19:26)
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 1 | View Replies]

To: Salvation

That should have been
Fort McHenry


5 posted on 09/21/2014 8:57:24 AM PDT by Salvation ("With God all things are possible." Matthew 19:26)
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 4 | View Replies]

To: SunkenCiv

this is a good one- all verses

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=piT33GV2EMA


6 posted on 09/21/2014 9:14:13 AM PDT by silverleaf (Age takes a toll: Please have exact change)
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 2 | View Replies]

To: silverleaf; Salvation

Thanks!


7 posted on 09/21/2014 10:11:22 AM PDT by SunkenCiv (https://secure.freerepublic.com/donate/)
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 4 | View Replies]

To: SunkenCiv

We visited Fort McHenry on September 11 and got to see the World Trade Center flag. I was not prepared for the effect that seeing that flag had on my emotions.


8 posted on 09/21/2014 11:22:07 AM PDT by Bigg Red (31 May 2014: Obamugabe officially declares the USA a vanquished subject of the Global Caliphate.)
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 3 | View Replies]

To: SunkenCiv

PS: Here’s a little local news coverage about the flag’s visit to the Fort.

Of course, the idiots at the station mess up and identify a female ranger as “Gregory”, but the clip does give you a good shot of the flag and the way it was displayed at the Fort.

http://www.wbaltv.com/news/national-911-flag-visits-fort-mchenry/28017556


9 posted on 09/21/2014 11:34:36 AM PDT by Bigg Red (31 May 2014: Obamugabe officially declares the USA a vanquished subject of the Global Caliphate.)
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 7 | View Replies]

To: Salvation
The US flag in 1814 had 15 stars and 15 stripes.

They added a star and a stripe for Vermont and Kentucky, but not for the states that entered the Union later (Tennessee, Ohio, and Louisiana). Then someone got the bright idea of reducing the number of stripes to 13 (as it had been originally) and just adding a star for each new state. But a flag with 15 stars and 13 stripes was never the official US flag.

10 posted on 09/21/2014 12:21:41 PM PDT by Verginius Rufus
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 4 | View Replies]

To: SunkenCiv

Can’t believe they cut it up. Prophetic in a way.


11 posted on 09/21/2014 12:40:41 PM PDT by huldah1776
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 1 | View Replies]

To: Bigg Red

Thanks.


12 posted on 09/21/2014 2:07:39 PM PDT by Salvation ("With God all things are possible." Matthew 19:26)
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 9 | View Replies]

To: silverleaf

I was in tears at the end of the video.

Just fabulous. Everyone needs to watch it.


13 posted on 09/21/2014 2:26:54 PM PDT by Salvation ("With God all things are possible." Matthew 19:26)
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 6 | View Replies]

To: SunkenCiv

His nephew was Lewis “Lo” Armistead, who died at Gettysburg fighting for the Confederacy.


14 posted on 09/25/2014 4:36:29 PM PDT by colorado tanker
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 1 | View Replies]

Disclaimer: Opinions posted on Free Republic are those of the individual posters and do not necessarily represent the opinion of Free Republic or its management. All materials posted herein are protected by copyright law and the exemption for fair use of copyrighted works.

Free Republic
Browse · Search
General/Chat
Topics · Post Article

FreeRepublic, LLC, PO BOX 9771, FRESNO, CA 93794
FreeRepublic.com is powered by software copyright 2000-2008 John Robinson