Audio only
Our Flag Was Still There
The Star Spangled Banner that Survived the British and 200 Years―And the Armistead Family Who Saved ItBy Tom McMillanNarrated by Robert FassLength8h 47m
About this audiobook
Our Flag Was Still There details the improbable two-hundred-year journey of the original Star-Spangled Banner—from Fort McHenry in 1814, when Francis Scott Key first saw it, to the Smithsonian—and the enduring family who defended, kept, hid, and ultimately donated the most famous flag in American history.
Francis Scott Key saw the original Star-Spangled Banner flying over Baltimore’s Fort McHenry on September 14, 1814, following a twenty-five-hour bombardment by the British Navy, inspiring him to write the words to our national anthem. Torn and tattered over the years, reduced in size to appease souvenir-hunters, stuffed away in a New York City vault for the last two decades of the nineteenth century, the flag’s mere existence after two hundred years is an improbable story of dedication, perseverance, patriotism, angst, inner-family squabbles, and, yes, more than a little luck.
For this unlikely feat, we have the Armistead family to thank—led by Lieutenant Colonel George Armistead, commander of Fort McHenry, who took it home after the battle in clear defiance of US Army regulations. It is only because of that quiet indiscretion that the flag survives to this day.
Armistead’s descendants kept and protected their family heirloom for ninety years. The flag’s first photo was not taken until 1873, almost sixty years after Key saw it waving, and most Americans did not even know of its existence until Armistead’s grandson loaned it to the Smithsonian in 1907.
Tom McMillan tells a story as no one has before. Digging deep into the archives of Fort McHenry and the Smithsonian, accessing never-before-published letters and documents, and presenting rare photos from the private collections of Armistead descendants and other sources, McMillan follows the flag on an often-perilous journey through two centuries.
Our Flag Was Still There provides new insight into an intriguing period of US history, offering a “story behind the story” account of one of the country’s most treasured relics.
Audiobook details
GenreHistory, Biography and Memoir
Length8 hrs 47 mins
Narrated byRobert Fass
FormatAudiobook
Publish dateJun 6, 2023
LanguageEnglish
More from Tom McMillan
I've Been to the MountaintopMartin Luther King48m5 (1)$11 · $0.00
RevolutionariesSanjeev Sanyal11h 23m$29 · $0.00
We Crossed a Bridge and It TrembledWendy Pearlman6h$24 · $0.00
Unbroken Bonds of BattleJohnny Joey Jones8h 31m$8 · $0.00
The Red RecordIda B. Wells-Barnett2h 9m$2 · $0.00
The Daughter of AuschwitzTova Friedman, Malcolm Brabant7h 54m$26 · $0.00
Lily's PromiseLily Ebert, Dov Forman8h 54m$29 · $0.00
Saving My EnemyBob Welch9h 11m$20
On Democracies and Death CultsDouglas Murray10h 38m$29 · $0.00
Across the RiverKent Babb11h 40m$29 · $0.00
Balcony Over Jerusalem: A Middle East Memoir - Israel, Palestine and BeyondJohn Lyons12h 37m$33 · $0.00
The Fire Next TimeJames Baldwin2h 25m$15
EnduranceAlfred Lansing6h 1m$20
LES MISERABLES (Illustrated Edition)Victor Hugo66h 17m$1 · $0.00
BeyondStephen Walker15h 39m$33 · $0.00
Kings and PawnsHoward Bryant10h 9m$29 · $0.00
No EscapeNury Turkel9h 30m$28 · $0.00
The History of the Decline and Fall of the Roman Empire (Complete 6 Volume Edition)Edward Gibbon179h 45m$2 · $0.00
Jubal Stone: U.S. Marshal: Blood Trail To Hell: A Western Adventure NovelCasey Nash3h 42m$18 · $0.00
Fall and RiseMitchell Zuckoff17h 23m$40 · $0.00
Left for DeadEbony Canion5h 34m$17
Invisible StormJason Kander6h 48m$24 · $0.00
Forever BoyKate Swenson9h 27m$29 · $0.00
You Are Worth ItKyle Carpenter, Don Yaeger8h 53m$29 · $0.00
The Happiest Man on EarthEddie Jaku3h 48m$7 · $0.00
MotherlandJulia Ioffe17h 52m$40 · $0.00
Evidence Not SeenDarlene Deibler Rose11h 11m$29 · $0.00
A Bridge Not Too FarDeepak Ohri4h 55m$15
Where Cowards Go to DieBenjamin Sledge8h 42m$20 · $0.00
Will You Love Me?Cathy Glass9h 5m$29 · $0.00
Designing Terry Pratchett’s DiscworldPaul Kidby3h 52m$20 · $0.00
HostageEli Sharabi5h 25m$24 · $0.00
A Narrative of Some of the Lord's Dealings With George Müller (The Complete Four-Volume Edition)George Müller43h 39m$2 · $0.00
Finding MeViola Davis9h 15m5 (1)$29 · $0.00
Scandal Between the Sheets & Stranded with the Tempting StrangerBrenda Jackson9h 22m$24 · $0.00
The Boys and MeMark Miller8h 32m$23
The Dangerous Truth about Today’s MarijuanaLaura Stack CSP, MBA9h 57m$20 · $0.00
Birdie & HarlowTaylor Wolfe7h 50m$26 · $0.00
The Lives of BrianBrian Johnson9h 45m$29 · $0.00
I Am The StormJanice Dean9h$8 · $0.00
You may also like
Army Life in a Black RegimentThomas Wentworth Higginson9h 38m$2.30
UndauntedTanya Biank11h 32m$20
The Bone and Sinew of the LandAnna-Lisa Cox8h 13m$20
James MadisonJeff Broadwater9h 22m$20 · $0.00
Notorious RBG Young Readers' EditionIrin Carmon, Shana Knizhnik2h 59m$18 · $0.00
Reminiscences of My Life in CampSusie King Taylor2h$1 · $0.00
Tablet commemorative of Joan van der Capellen tot den PolThe Holland Society of New York1h$1 · $0.00
A Dying ColonialismFrantz Fanon7h 11m$17 · $0.00
15 Must-Read Civil War BooksJames Ford Rhodes, Jefferson Davis, Frank H. Alfriend, John Torrey Morse, John Alexander Logan, Thomas Elbert Vineyard, Ephraim Douglass Adams, John Esten Cooke, William Tecumseh Sherman, Ulysses S. Grant, John D. Billings, Charles W. Reed, Louisa May Alcott, James Madison Page, Heros von Borcke, Mary Boykin Chesnut348h 54m$2
The Black PhalanxJoseph T. Wilson21h 19m$2.30
The SikhsJohn James Hood Gordon4h 19m$1 · $0.00
When You Attack Us You Will See Our FacesVolodymyr Zelenskyy83h 13m$2 · $0.00
God Save the QueensKathy Iandoli10h 6m$29 · $0.00
General Lee’s ArmyJoseph T. Glatthaar25h 17m$35
The Greatest Indian Heroes and ChieftainsCharles A. Eastman OhiyeS'a4h 51m$1 · $0.00
The AlamoJohn Myers Myers7h 13m$17
Abraham LincolnGeorge Haven Putnam5h 2m$2 · $0.00
The Life & Work of Charles BradlaughHypatia Bradlaugh Bonner, J. M. Robertson37h 54m$3 · $0.00
The NegroW. E. B. Du Bois6h 20m$2.30
Cold Harbor to the CraterGary W. Gallagher, Caroline E. Janney12h 33m$23