Superintendent Scott J. Bentley is pleased to announce that the River Raisin National Battlefield Park will present “Poets & Patriots:  Francis Scott Key, Songwriting and Citizenship on Sunday September 28, 2014 at 2pm.

In celebration of the 200th Anniversary of Francis Scott Key’s lyric and pivotal battles in the War of 1812, University of Michigan musicologist Dr. Mark Clague will offer a musical review of how a British musicians’ club song became the national anthem of the United States of America.

Mr. Clague will review some of Key’s other songs and demonstrate how the 1931 bill making the song the nation’s official ballad, was not an act of legislative creativity, but simple recognition of a role the song had played in American life for decades.

The park will also be flying a 15 Star and 15 stripe flag replica of the “Star Spangled Banner” that was actually flown over Fort McHenry.

September 13-14, 1814, during the Battle of Baltimore, Francis Scott Key witnessed the bombardment of Fort McHenry while being held under British guard on an American truce ship in the Patapsco River. When he seen the flag still flying over the Fort the next morning, he was inspired to write “The Star-Spangled Banner.”

The oversized flag, which was presented to the River Raisin National Battlefield Park by the Friends of the River Raisin Battlefield at the Bicentennial of the Battle of the River Raisin in 2013, was sent to Fort McHenry National Monument and Memorial, and flown this year to commemorate their Bicentennial year. This flag has now been flown at two of the National Parks that are devoted to battles of the War of 1812.