Take 9 minutes and 18 seconds to learn something important that you can share with others....
This is a great lesson in history for all Americans..

[media]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Iwa-lSVqA1M&feature=player_embedded[/media]

 

beautiful isn't it?

 

Nice tale, let's check the facts. Hundreds of ships? actually nineteen.
You won, we lost, but whose keeping score.

 

Amazing.

Thanks Gary.

 

Really amazing!

 

I would love to clobber you here Dave, but you are in fact correct. This is a nice tale but a little short on facts.

For those who wish to discover how many bodies were holding up the flag;

Fort McHenry - War of 1812 Battle of Fort McHenry

Still, this oration and the defiance of our little nation is an amazing story.

Out gunned and out manned five to one, the colonists, now united, proud Americans, held their ground.

 

Not sure I'd call it a tale. Facts may be a little "enhanced" but the impact of the acts those patriots had on our developing nation and the basis in fact of the anthem are what truely matters.

God Bless America.


Thanks for posting the video.

 

Your point is well taken. But the facts of history are often muddled by the un intentional "enhancement" of those facts. We need to be careful of that.
Even Onehundred eighty's comment is foggy on the facts. But then he was only trying to make the point that the lovely and moving account was pure hyperbole.

In point of fact, no one actually won the war of 1812. By 1814 the struggle had become more or less a stalemate. Conditions which led to the conflict had changed leaving both sides in wonderment of what they were to gain by further loss of lives and treasure. So a treaty was accomplished at Ghent.

This armistice happened just prior to one of the most famous an oft told stories of pride by the Americans, The battle of New Orleans, which many Americans believe turned the war. Actually, at the time of Jackson's great rout of the British, the war was over.

Canada did not lose as Dave suggested. In fact, the struggle we had with Britain had much to do with the organization of a nationalist movement leading to Canada's independence. But that is as much an opinion as fact.

The war of 1812 did create a change in the mood of Americans who stopped flaggelating themselves and became more nationalistic, more congealed as a people, more prideful of their nation of sovereign States.

While the battle of Fort Mc Henry yielded 4 dead, some 20-30 wounded Americans, and new stirring words to an old drinking song, it also helped make us like minded friends.

 

And I know Franc can vouch for this, because he was there....I quess he should have said, hundreds of guns, not ships....but, again...we all know the british are poor shots....shoot awhile, drink tea, shoot awhile, drink tea....and they can't shoot very well, when you have to pee every half hour from drinking all that tea....

 

Imagine this situation without the invention of the Zipper. A widely accepted device now that wasn't invented until 1851 and didn't find it's way into garments until the 1930's.
But I digress.....

 

well, now you know where the old sayin' "caught them with their pants down" came from.....lol