As two years of commemorations get underway this summer
throughout the Washington region, Prince Georgians are striving
to let the world know that their community was the scene of
several pivotal events in the conflict, which was sparked partly
by the British navy pressing unwilling U.S. sailors into
service. Without Prince George’s, local history buffs like to
say, there would be no “Star-Spangled Banner.” That’s because
among the wartime events in Prince George’s was one that
eventually led William Beanes, an Upper Marlboro doctor, and
Francis Scott Key, a Georgetown lawyer, to end up in Baltimore
detained by the British. There they witnessed the battle that
delivered victory to the Americans and that became a turning
point in the war. They saw the “rocket’s red glare, the bombs
bursting in air” that Key memorialized in the poem “Defence of
Fort McHenry,” which would later become the lyrics of the
fledgling nation’s anthem. keyboard shortcuts: V vote up article
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