Autograph letter signed : Baltimore, to Phillip Wallis (in Easton, Talbot County, Md.), 1814 Sept. 23.

Giving an eyewitness description of the British bombardment of Fort McHenry ten days before. At the end of the letter, Teackle writes: "We have a song composed by Mr. Key of G. Town which was presented to every individual in the Fort in a separate sheet--you may have seen it as it has been published--if not at some future day I will show it you ... " This is an extremely early reference to Francis Scott Key's poem "Defence of Fort M'Henry," Which we know today as "The Star-spangled Banner." Key began writing the words during the night of 13/14 September 1814 as he witnessed the British bombardment of Fort McHenry, and finished them by 17 September. A broadside of the poem was published between 17 and 19 September, under the title "Defence of Fort M'Henry," and the poem was printed in two Baltimore newspapers on 20 and 21 September; Teackle's letter apparently refers to the broadside. Probably not later than about 19 October, and certainly before 18 November 1814, Key's poem, set to John Stafford Smith's tune "To Anacreon in Heaven," was published by Thomas Carr of Baltimore.