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FAMOUS SONGS
ing, seeing the flag still floating from the ram-parts, the words of the " Star-Spangled Banner" took form almost involuntarily in his mind. He speedily committed the lines to paper, and read them on his return to a party of his comrades who received them with unbounded enthusiasm. The circumstances, says Mr. Charles F. Adams, attending their first reading and of their being set to music, are narrated by Mr. Hendon, who was one of the party, as follows:
" It was a rude copy and written in a scrawl that Horace Greeley might have mistaken for his own. He (Francis Key) read it aloud once, twice, three times, until the entire division seemed electrified by its pathetic eloquence. An idea seized Ferdinand Durang. Hunting up a volume of old flute music, which was in my tent, impatiently whistled snatches of tune after tune as they caught his eye. One, called 'Anacreon in Heaven' struck his fancy and riveted his attention. Note after note fell from his puckered lips, until with a leap and a shout he exclaimed,' Boys, I've hit it!' and fitting the tune to the words, there rang out for the first time the song of the ' Star-Spangled Banner.' How the men shouted and clapped! for never was there poetry set to music made under such inspiring influences ? It was caught up in the
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