Although
the British raids have left Washington a devastated, blackened
city, the battered Constitution has held and the presidency
has survived!
But the struggling government
has no home. The British saw to that. Gone is the Capitol
and her magnificent library, the chambers of the Supreme
Court, the President’s House, and every relic and document
not secreted out of the city.
Next on the list of British prizes—the
rebellious port city of Baltimore! A victory here would assure
the Americans’ defeat, but a loss would dilute the importance
of the destruction of Washington.
But has the raid on Washington stiffened the
backs of the Americans? This is the question gnawing at the
leaders of both armies as the toll of the war mounts on both
sides.
The Willows women are mourning their absent
men, gone to war, or wounded, or captured, as they await the
birth of a blessed child.
Attorney Francis Scott Key, was once inclined
to the clergy and a staunch opponent of the war, but following
the humiliating American defeat on the field at Bladensburg,
and after watching the senseless devastation of Washington
D.C., he receives word that his friend has been taken prisoner
by the British. His will steeled, he embarks on a diplomatic
mission that will leave an everlasting mark on America.
Wielding a pen more powerfully than a sword,
Key records his fears and hopes—the fears and hopes of his
embattled people—as he watches the bombardment of Baltimore
while detained in the midst of the British fleet.
What changed in this noble man’s pacifist
heart, empowering him to pen the powerful anthem, known today
as “The Star Spangled Banner,” an epic poem that rallied
a shattered nation to rise from its knees to claim the dream
of “one nation under God?”
Experience the personal sacrifice of five
families placed in the firestorm of the War of 1812, citizen
heirs of the sacrifice of the Founding Fathers.
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