Question

What inspired Key to write "and the flag was still there"?

Answer 1

On September 13, 1814 Francis Scott Key, an American, was being guarded by British soldiers as the British began an overnight bombardment of Ft. McHenry in Baltimore on the Chesapeake Bay.

The bombardment was so massive Mr. Key later wrote: "It seemed as though mother earth had opened and was vomiting shot and shell in a sheet of fire and brimstone,"

Mr. Key and his companion waited anxiously for the night to come to an end and the smoke of the bombardment to clear. Then, at "the dawn's early light", they saw the American flag still flying over the fort and they new the Americans had defeated the British in this battle of the War of 1812.