Key wrote his poem on the backs of letters, with a barrel-head for a desk, and being landed next day he showed it to friends, and then made a fresh copy. It was taken to the office of the _Baltimore American_ and published anonymously in a handbill, afterwards appearing in the issue of that newspaper on September 21, 1814. The tune was "Anacreon in Heaven," and there was a brief introduction describing the circumstances under which it was written. It was first sung in the Baltimore Theatre, October 12th of that year, and afterwards became popular. The flag which floated over Fort McHenry on that memorable night is still preserved. Fired by patriotic impulses, various ladies of Baltimore had made this flag, among them being Mrs. Mary Pickersgill, who is described as a daughter of Betsy Ross, of Philadelphia, who made the original sample-flag during the Revolution. The Fort McHenry flag contains about four hundred yards of bunting and is nearly square, measuring twenty-nine by thirty-two feet. It has fifteen stars and fifteen stripes, which was then the official regulation, there being fifteen States in the American Union. The poem of the _Star-Spangled Banner_, thus inspired and written, has become the great American patriotic anthem, and has carried everywhere the fame of the fort, the city, and the flowery flag of the United States. The following is the song, with title and introduction, as first published: DEFENCE OF FORT McHENRY. TUNE--"_Anacreon in Heaven._" O! say can you see by the dawn's early light, What so proudly we hailed at the twilight's last gleaming, Whose broad stripes and bright stars through the perilous fight, O'er the ramparts we watch'd, were so gallantly streaming? And the Rockets' red glare, the Bombs bursting in air, Gave proof through the night that our Flag was still there; O! say does that star-spangled banner yet wave O'er the land of the free, and the home of the brave? On the shore dimly seen through the mists of the deep, Where the foe's haughty host in dread silence reposes; What is that which the breeze, o'er the towering steep, As it fitfully glows, half conceals, half discloses? Now it catches the gleam of the morning's first beam, In full glory reflected now shines in the stream. 'Tis the star-spangled banner, O! long may it wave O'er the land of the free, and the home of the brave! And where is that band who so vauntingly swore That the havoc of war and the battle's confusion, A home and a country should leave us no more? Their blood has washed out their foul steps pollution. No refuge could save the hireling and slave From the terror of flight or the gloom of the grave, And the star-spangled banner in triumph doth wave O'er the land of the free, and the home of the brave!