n the eventing of September 13, 1814, a young American lawyer found himself in a most unusual and and precarious situation. He and his two companions stood on the deck of an American sloop in the midst of a British fleet in Baltimore harbor. Francis Scott Key and Colonel John S. Skinner had sailed to the fleet and had successfully negotiated the release of an American doctor being held as a prisoner of war. And now the three men were forbidden to return to shore. Pelted by wind and rain and the man-made lightning and thunder of warfare, the three Americans watched as sixteen Royal Navy frigates continued their day-long bombardment of Fort McHenry. It was an ntense time for these men personally, as well as for the young United States of America.
         In its first three decades as a nation, the fledgling American republic was given some needed breathing room in foreign affairs to grow and solidify as a democracy. Following the loss of their American colonies, the British had been diverted with other more pressing concerns closer to home--grappling with the effects of what was becoming a bloody revolution in France, their closet neighbor and historic adversary. The violence and anarchy of the French revolution grew and eventually erupted into armed conflict between France and most of its neighboring countries, including Great Britain.
         Napoleon Bonaparte gained prominence as a talented general in these conflicts, and emerged in 1799 as the de facto leader of