Visit the historic Maryland town that fooled the British more than 200 years ago … or so the story goes

On Aug. 10, 1813, under cover of darkness and fog, 300 British soldiers sailed up the Miles River toward this small Maryland town.

They landed on the southern end of St. Michaels, where they quickly overran the local militia. They then returned to their boats and began bombarding the town with their ships’ cannons.

One of the museum’s best features is that this isn’t all history preserved behind glass. You can watch shipwrights at work restoring and building wooden boats.

That much is history. What supposedly happened next is the stuff of legend.

As the story goes, townsfolk hung lanterns high in trees farther inland, creating the illusion that St. Michaels was farther from the shore and sat on higher ground. The British aimed their cannons toward the lights