*** CLASSIFICATION: THAERIS ARCHIVE ***
Document ID: KV-1814-0913-A
Archivist: K. Vance
Date of Event: September 13-14, 1814
Location: Fort McHenry, Baltimore Harbor

— DIGITIZED TEXT —
[Page edges show severe fire damage, text partially reconstructed]

…the bombardment continued through the night, and yet we observed a most singular phenomenon. The rockets and bursting shells cast their illumination upon the ramparts, but in certain intervals—measured at precisely 3.14 seconds by my pocket chronometer—the light persisted without attendant warmth or concussion. Corporal Higgins remarked that he could see his shadow cast in triplicate, each silhouette showing a different posture than his own. The flag above the bastion appeared to hang in impossible stillness despite the gale. I record this faithfully, though I understand it defies natural explanation. The defense held. The dawn proved… [illegible]… and the star-spangled banner yet wave o’er the land of the free and the home of the brave? No—over the land of the watched and the home of the displaced. For where our flag stands, another flag shall fall. Where our dead rest, others yet walk.

— ARCHIVAL NOTATION —
Recovered from estate sale, 1932. Document authenticated via paper and ink analysis. Marginalia matches Vance’s known handwriting. Final stanza appears to be an interpolation not present in original national anthem. Purpose unknown.