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Sharpsburg, MD
West Virginia Town
This Maryland community, linked to Shepherdstown, W.Va. by a highway bridge (Md. Rt. 34) across the Potomac, played a key role in the Civil War and the Battle of Antietam. At the Kennedy Farmhouse, on Chestnut Grove Road, arms were collected for John Brown and his famous raid on Harpers Ferry. The house is open Saturdays and Sundays during the summer or by appointment. The town was founded in 1763 by Joseph Chapline and named in honor of Maryland?s colonial governor Horatio Sharpe. It grew from a small frontier settlement into one of the earliest organized towns in Washington County. Chapline chose the site for its reliable "great spring," a water source long used by Native Americans and early travelers, and the town quickly attracted English and German settlers who built a thriving commercial community through the late 18th and early 19th centuries. Sharpsburg?s most defining moment came during the Civil War, when the surrounding fields became the site of the Battle of Antietam on September 17, 1862--the bloodiest single day in American history--which forever linked the town?s name to the national story. Many of the houses along Maryland Route 34 have connections to the Civil War battle.
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Town of Sharpsburg
P.O. Box 368
Sharpsburg MD 21782
301-432-4428
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