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KEEDYSVILLE, Md. (AP) — A researcher at the Maryland State Archives is visiting the Antietam National Battlefield near Sharpsburg to talk about a kind of word game found in letters written to an Annapolis woman during the Civil War.
Emily Huebner (HYOOB'-nur) is giving two presentations Saturday at the Newcomer House on the battlefield.
She says the games were called "enigmas." They involved a series of riddles. The first letters of each answer then spelled out the solution to another riddle.
Huebner says enigmas were a form of entertainment and even dissent. For example, she says one enigma posed the question, "A curse to the world?" The answer was, "The Lincoln administration."
She says the presentation is for people ages 12 and older. Participants will create their own codes and ciphers.
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