In 1814, as Francis Scott Key gazed upon the large 15-star, 15-stripe flag that flew triumphantly over Fort McHenry after the Battle of Baltimore, he was inspired to write a poem that would go on to become our National Anthem. Most of us these days are only familiar with that famous first verse, but there are actually four full stanzas in the song.
Some say that Key actually hid a secret message within his words. They say that while staring at that tattered flag, he devised a way to pass on the location of a cache of valuable documents hidden to the west, closer to his family's lands in what is now central Maryland. He hoped that even if he didn't make off the enemy ship, his poem would somehow reach friendly shores, and his allies would be able to recover the cache.
Who knows whether any of that is true, and if Key would even have left the cache there after the war ended. Here are images of the actual flag that flew over Fort McHenry, as well as the original manuscript copy of the "Defence of Fort M'Henry". I looked, but couldn't figure anything out. Can you?
Need a hint? Click here.