Why are there rockets and bombs in the 'star spangled banner'. were they used in the revolution?

Question

From what i remember in history class and historical movies; weapons in the american revolution were limited to rifle bayonets, swords and cannons. which makes me curious why there were rockets (red glare) and bombs (bursting in air) used in the star spangled banner.

Answer 1

Wrong war!  The SSB was written during the war of 1812.  They used large rockets, like bottle rockets, to scare the devil out of people. Not very effective.  "Bombs" were shells fired from cannon- hollow iron spheres filled with black powder, with a fuse lit by the firing of the cannon.  they were fired only by howitsers or mortors.  Both fire plunging fire, not directly at a target, but dropping into it.

Answer 2

Francis Scott Key wrote the lyrics while imprisoned aboard a British warship, and watched the bombardment first-hand amid the ship-to-shore battle.  Rockets are millenia old, invented by the Chinese before muskets existed. They were not new by the Revolution or War of 1812 standards, the latter being the war in which Key was observing the battle of which he wrote.

Answer 3

IT was Francis Scott Key, during the Battle at Baltimore in the War of 1812.  The words actually came from a dialogue between Key and John Skinner and Doctor Wiliiam Beanes, while aboard the Minden. After seeing the huge flag (of Mary Pickersgill, 30 feet wide and 42 feet wide) waving at fort McHenry after a night of bombardment by the British.  They were relieved that the flag had not fallen and the Americans still held Baltimore.  

"The contrails of the Congreve rockets from the Erebus glared red across the sky. The mortars with their fuses timed to explode abovet the fort and rain shrapnel and destruction upon it, appeared first as giant fireworks-bombs bursting in the night sky"(Borneman, 2004,p.245).  

Beans kept asking Key and Skinner, as they looked to shore, "Can you see the Flag?, Is it still there?"

"Finally, as the early light of dawn tinged the eastern sky, Key was able to answer in the affirmative.  What so proudly they had hailed at the twilight's las gleaming was indeed still there.  Beanes and Skinner were jubilant.  key took out an envelope and scribbled a few lines..."(Borneman, 2004, p.246).

Answer 4

Keep in mind the Star-Spangled Banner was written during the War of 1812 as a poem originally entitled Defence of Fort McHenry. Francis Scott Key watched the British bombardment of Fort McHenry during the War of 1812 and upon seeing the US flag flying over the fort in the morning was inspired to write the poem.

The bombs referred to exploding shells. That is hollow cannonballs filled with powder and armed with a fuse. They were explosive shells, which were first used in Europe during the 16th century. That's the 1500s, meaning they would have been in exsistence during the Revolution and used during the war.

The rockets in the poem and later the song refer to the Congreve rocket, an artillery piece created by William Congreve of Britian in 1804.

Answer 5

Wrong war. The "bombs bursting in air" were howitzer shells, and both they and the rockets were used both in the Napoleonic wars and in the War of 1812.

Congreve rockets, by the way, were like a large metal bottle-rocket,  and probably more a danger to the battery than to the enemy. And Shrapnel's howitzer shell was an obscure curiosity for twenty years but by the time of the war of 1812 was in pretty common use in the British army.

Answer 6

~First of all, you've got the wrong war.  The poem wasn't written during the War for Colonial Independence (it was NOT a revolution).  It was written during the war of 1812.

Second, you may want to look up the early 19th century definition of "rockets" and "bombs".  They existed long before 1812, but bear little resemblance to contemporary toys of the same names.

On the other hand, maybe Franny Key was making up new words out of boredom just for the rhythm and rhyme of his poem.