Ahoy - Mac's Web Log

Mac,

I've enjoyed your recent articles that touch on US history (the Liberty Bell and the Star Spangled Banner). Even though I am now American and you an Aussie, I suspect our ancestors were quite British during the times that these were making history. I did want to point out a minor error in your story about the US national anthem. It was actually 1931 (not 1831) before Congress got around to finally making that song the official anthem. It was considered the unofficial anthem from a much earlier time. It began to surpass "Yankee Doodle" just after the American Civil War and was ordered to be played at official military flag raisings after 1889.

You also mention that Ft. McHenry, where the flag flew is pentagon-shaped. The fort is often referred to as a "star fort" since there are extended points coming off each of the five corners of the fort to provide overlapping fields of fire. From the air, it more resembles the stars on the US flag than the Pentagon, the US military headquarters. One other unusual thing about the flag itself is that it had 15 of both stars and stripes - the initial custom was to add both a star and a stripe for each new state. Someone soon realized that we would have a pinstriped flag eventually so the number of stripes was reset to 13 to honor the original 13 states with just a new star added for new states. The current 50 star version will soon become the longest serving design, replacing the 48 star version that you saw in WW II that flew from 1912 to 1959.

There are also periodic attempts to replace the Star Spangled Banner as the official anthem with a different patriotic tune such as "America the Beautiful" or "God Bless America." One reason is to have a somewhat less bombastic anthem and the other is to have something that mere mortals can sing with reasonable ease. Stories of singers either confusing the lyrics or crashing on the final high notes are legion.

Roy

Roy,
 
Nice to hear from you and thank you for that, I obviously pressed the wrong key in typing 1831, and did not notice my error. I guess its always more difficult to proof read something one has written than doing it to some one elses' work. Anyway that applies to me.

Its an interesting story, and notwithstanding attempts to change it, this anthem has stood the test of time, but I do agree it is not an easy anthem to sing.

But, I believe its a stirring one, and up there with the Marseillaise as one of the best known anthems when heard around the world.

Best regards,
Mac.