Robert Surgenor

Let me tell you the true story...

"Francis Scott Key was a lawyer in Baltimore..."
>>Francis Scott Key was from Georgetown, D.C.

"The colonies were engaged in vicious conflict with the mother country, Britain..."
>>This was the war of 1812. The colonies had ceased to exist over 30 years before. The United States of America was a sovereign nation.

"Because of this conflict and the protractedness of it, they had accumulated prisoners on both sides."
>>There were no prisoners.

"The American colonies..."
>>There were no colonies in 1812...

"...had prisoners, and the British had prisoners."
>>...there were no "prisoners".

"And the American government initiated a move. They went to the British and said let us negotiate for the release of these prisoners. They said we want to send a man out to discuss this with you."
>>Dr. William Beanes had been captured by the British for his role in arresting and jailing British deserters. Francis Scott Key, a Georgetown lawyer, was approached by friends of Dr. Beanes with the permission of President James Madison, and dispatched to travel along with John S. Skinner, a US Agent for Prisoner Exchange, to negotiate Bean’s release from the British. British Major General Robert Ross, who had arrestedDr. Beanes, was reluctant to let him go. Skinner produced letters from wounded British prisoners of war who described their good treatment at the hands of Dr. Beanes and Ross agreed to his release.

"They were holding the American prisoners in boats about 1000 yards offshore and they said we want to send a man by the name of Francis Scott Key he will come out and negotiate to see if we can make a mutual exchange."
>>Again, there were no American prisoners. Just Dr. Beanes

"On the appointed day in a rowboat..."
F.S. Key and J. S. Skinner were ferried out to the British flagship on the HMS Minden, a Royal Navy 74-gun third-rate ship of the line.

"... he went out to this boat and he negotiated with the British officials and they reached a conclusion that men could be exchanged on a one for one basis."
"Francis Scott Key, jubilant with the fact that he had been successful, went down below in the boats and what he found was a cargo hold for all of humanity, men. And he said, "Men I've got news for you: tonight you are free. Tonight I have negotiated successfully your return to the colonies. He said you'll be taken out of this boat out of this filth out of your chains."
As he went back up on board to arrange for their passage to the shore, the Admiral came and he said, "We have a slight problem. We will still honor our commitment to release these men, but it will be merely academic after tonight. It won't matter."
>>In reality: no one-for-one prisoner exchange, no filthy hold full of prisoners, no men in chains.

And Francis Scott Key said, "What do you mean?"
He said, "Mr. key tonight we have laid an ultimatum upon the colonies. Your people will either capitulate and lay down the colors of that flag that you think so much of or, you see that fort right over there? Fort Henry? We're going to remove it from the face of the earth."
He said, "How are you going to do that?"
He said, "If you will, scan the horizon of the sea."
And as he looked he could see hundreds of little dots.
And he said, "That's the entire British war fleet. All of the gun power and all of the armament is being called upon to demolish that Fort. It will be here within striking distance in about 2 1/2 hours. The war will be over. These men would be free anyway."
>>Sixteen British ships were involved in the attack.

He said, "You can't shell that fort. That's a large fort. It's full of women and children. It's predominantly not a military fort."
>>Fort McHenry was most certainly a military fort. It guarded the approach to the Port of Baltimore, a major commercial and Naval seaport. It was under the Command of Lt. Col. George Armistead. It had 1,000 Regulars under his command with access to several thousand more Militia in the surrounding countryside.
It's armement included large, long range cannons, capable of covering the approaches to Baltimore. Their range exceeded the cannons of the British warships. Because of that, the British fleet had to stay out of the range of the Fort's cannons and use rockets ("the rockets red glare") and barge mounted mortars ("the bombs bursting in air"), both of which were much less accurate and much less effective than cannons.

He said, "Don't worry about it. We've left them a way out."
He said, "What's that?"
He said, "Do you see that flag way up on the rampart? We have told them that if they will lower that flag the shelling will stop immediately. And we'll know that they have surrendered, and you will now be under British rule."
Francis Scott Key went down below and told the men what was about to happen. They said, "How many ships?" He said, "Hundreds."
The ships got closer. Francis Scott Key went back on top. He said, "Men, I'll shout down to you what's going on as we watch."
As twilight began to fall and as the haze hung over the ocean as it does at sunset, suddenly the British war fleet unleashed. He said the sound was deafening. There were so many guns that there were no reliefs. He said it was absolutely impossible to talk or hear. He said suddenly the sky although dark was suddenly lit.
From down below all he could could hear was the men, the prisoners, saying, "Tell us where the flag is. What have they done with the flag? Is the flag still flying over the rampart? Tell us!"
One hour. Two hours. Three hours into the shelling. Every time a bomb would explode close to the flag they could see the flag in the illuminated red glare of that bomb. And Francis Scott Key would report down to the men below, "It's still up. It's not down."
The admiral came and said, "Your people are insane. What's the matter with them? Don't they understand this is an impossible situation?"
Francis Scott Key said he remembered what George Washington had said. He said, "The thing that sets the American Christian apart from all other people in the world is he will die on his feet before he will Live on his knees."
>>There is no record of George Washington saying this or anything like it.

The Admiral said, "We have now instructed all of the guns to focus on the rampart to take that flag down." He said, "We don't understand something: our reconnaissance tells us that that flag has been hit directly again and again and again and yet it is still flying. We don't understand that. But, now we're about to bring every gun for the next three hours to bear on that point."
Francis Scott Key said the barrage was unmerciful. All that he could hear was the men down below praying. The prayer: "God keep that flag flying where we last saw it."
Sunrise came. He said there was a heavy mist hanging over the land but the rampart was tall enough, there stood the flag, completely nondescript, in shreds. The flagpole itself was at a crazy angle but the flag was still at the top.
>>The flagpole was intact and erect. It had suffered no damage.

Francis Scott Key went aboard and immediately went into Fort Henry to see what happened. And what he found had happened was that that flag pole and that flag had suffered repetitious direct hits. And, when it had fallen, that men, fathers, who knew what it meant for that flag to be on the ground, although knowing that all the British guns were trained on it, walked over and held it up humanly until they died. Their bodies were removed and others took their place. Francis Scott Key said, "What held that flagpole in place at that unusual angle were patriots' bodies."
>>The flagpole was nearly one hundred feet tall and was two feet in diameter at the base. It's highly doubtful that any number of men would be able to hold it erect from the ground, much less a pile of dead bodies.

He penned the song, "Oh say can you see by the dawn's early light what so proudly we hailed at the twilight's last gleaming. O'er the rockets red glare, the bombs bursting in air gave proof through the night that the flag was still there."
"Oh say does that Star-Spangled Banner yet fly and wave o'er the land of the free and the home of the brave."
>>The only statement of significance in this entire presentation that is true.

>>The men and women who founded this Nation and fought in its defense are worthy of our respect and gratitude. What they actually is impressive on its own. This version of events does them a disservice.