:Sharpsburg, Maryland
{{Use mdy dates|date=May 2024}}
{{Infobox settlement
| official_name = Sharpsburg, Maryland
| other_name =
| name =
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| settlement_type = Town
| motto =
| image_skyline = Sharpsburg clock.JPG
| imagesize = 220px
| image_caption = A street clock in downtown Sharpsburg, October 2007
| image_flag =
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| image_seal = Seal of Sharpsburg, Maryland.png
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| image_map = Washington_County_Maryland_Incorporated_and_Unincorporated_areas_Sharpsburg_Highlighted.svg
| mapsize = 250x200px
| map_caption = Location of Sharpsburg, Maryland
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| subdivision_type = Country
| subdivision_name = United States
| subdivision_type1 = State
| subdivision_name1 = Maryland
| subdivision_type2 = County
| subdivision_name2 = Washington
| government_footnotes =
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| leader_title =
| leader_name =
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| established_title = Settled
| established_date = 1740
| established_title1 = Founded
| established_date1 = 1763
| established_title2 = Incorporated
| unit_pref = Imperial
| area_total_km2 = 0.56
| area_land_km2 = 0.56
| area_water_km2 = 0.00
| area_total_sq_mi = 0.22
| area_land_sq_mi = 0.22
| area_water_sq_mi = 0.00
| area_water_percent =
| population_as_of = 2020
| population_footnotes =
| population_note =
| population_total = 560
| population_density_km2 = 1001.67
| population_density_sq_mi = 2592.59
| timezone = Eastern
| utc_offset = -5
| timezone_DST = EDT
| utc_offset_DST = -4
| coordinates = {{coord|39|27|27|N|77|45|05|W|region:US-MD_type:city|display=inline,title}}
| elevation_ft = 427
| postal_code_type = ZIP Code
| postal_code = 21782
| area_code = 301, 240
| blank_name = FIPS code
| blank_info = 24-71600
| blank1_name = GNIS feature ID
| blank1_info = 2391408{{GNIS|2391408}}
| website = {{URL|http://sharpsburgmd.com/}}
}}
Sharpsburg is a town in Washington County, Maryland. The town is approximately {{convert|13|mi|km}} south of Hagerstown. Its population was 560 at the 2020 census.
During the American Civil War, the Battle of Antietam, referred to as the Battle of Sharpsburg by the South, was fought on what is now Antietam National Battlefield, in the vicinity of Antietam Creek.
History
File:Bloodylane.JPG near Sharpsburg, in June 2005]]
The first American of European descent to own land in what would eventually become Sharpsburg was the one-time indian trader Edmund Cartledge. By the time Cartledge surveyed his "Hickory Tavern{{Cite book |title=P.G.Co. land record Book #5 |pages=377}}" land tract in 1737, the Great Philadelphia Wagon Road was already well established over the path that would become Sharpsburg's main street. Hickory Tavern is noted in the patent as between the wagon road and Garrison Spring, today's Big Spring. Thousands of immigrants used this route of the wagon road traveling from Pennsylvania as far south as the Carolinas.{{Cite book |title=Braddock's Neglected Route The Lost Fork of the Conococheague Road |last=Ellis |first=Ted |year=2017 |isbn=9780998833002 |location=Columbia, SC, USA}}
On May 1, 1755, the road was used by Major general Edward Braddock, colonial governor Horatio Sharpe and several of Braddock's staff officers to reach Winchester, Virginia, while his 48th regiment took a longer route via today's Williamsport, Maryland. Among the officers accompanying Braddock that day was a young Virginia militia officer named George Washington.{{Cite book |title=The History of an Expedition Against Ft. Du Quesne |last=Sargent |first=Winthrop |publisher=J.B. Lippincott & Co. |year=1856 |location=Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, USA}}
At the end of the French and Indian War in 1763, Joseph Chapline founded a town, naming it in honor of his friend Horatio Sharpe, the Proprietary Governor of the Province of Maryland. Its original settlers were mostly of German or Swiss origin reaching the area from Pennsylvania via the great wagon road. They were a major force in leading to an increase in wheat production from the original agricultural dependence on tobacco.
Located east of the Potomac River, Sharpsburg attracted industry in the early 19th century, especially after the Chesapeake and Ohio Canal was extended to Sharpsburg in 1836. The town was incorporated in 1832.
Sharpsburg gained national recognition during the American Civil War, when Confederate General Robert E. Lee invaded Maryland with his Army of Northern Virginia in the summer of 1862 and was intercepted near the town by Union General George B. McClellan with the Army of the Potomac. The rival armies met on September 17, in the Battle of Antietam (also called the Battle of Sharpsburg). It would be the bloodiest single day in all American military annals, with a total of nearly 23,000 casualties to both sides. A few days earlier, the multi-sited Battle of South Mountain occurred at the three low-lying passes in South Mountain—Crampton's Gap, Turner's Gap, and Fox's Gap—where Lee's forces attempted to hold back the advancing Union regiments moving westward especially along the important National Road (now U.S. Route 40 Alternate) which is now a part of South Mountain State Battlefield Park.
The drawn battle is considered a turning point of the war, since it kept the Confederacy from winning a needed victory on Northern soil, which might have gained it European recognition. Lee's retreat gave Abraham Lincoln the opportunity he needed to issue his Emancipation Proclamation, declaring all slaves residing in rebelling Confederate territory against the federal government, to be "forever free". This act made it even more unlikely that Europe would grant diplomatic recognition to the South.
In 1866, Tolson's Chapel was constructed by African Americans as a Methodist meeting place and served as a Freedmen's Bureau school. Historians since the 2000s have recovered evidence of a once vibrant "Affrilachian" community in Sharpsburg that declined during the twentieth-century.{{Cite book |last=Amt |first=Emilie |title=Black Antietam: African Americans and the Civil War in Sharpsburg |publisher=History Press |year=2022 |location=Charleston, SC}}{{Cite journal |last=Richards |first=Samuel J. |date=January 2025 |title=Review of Emilie Amt's Black Antietam - African Americans and the Civil War in Sharpsburg |url=https://openjournals.bsu.edu/teachinghistory/article/view/5613/3194 |journal=Teaching History: A Journal of Methods |volume=49 |issue=1 |pages=167-168}}
Sharpsburg claims its Memorial Day commemoration as one of the first in the U.S., having their 147th consecutive celebration in 2014.{{cite web |url=http://www.nps.gov/anti/parknews/memorial-day-commemoration-in-sharpsburg.htm |title=Memorial Day Commemoration in Sharpsburg |date=May 1, 2009 |work=U.S. Department of the Interior |publisher=National Park Service |access-date=May 25, 2009 |archive-date=November 4, 2012 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20121104123218/http://www.nps.gov/anti/parknews/memorial-day-commemoration-in-sharpsburg.htm |url-status=live }}
The town core was added to the National Register of Historic Places in 2008 as the Sharpsburg Historic District.{{cite web |url=http://www.nps.gov/history/nr/listings/20090102.HTM |title=WEEKLY LIST OF ACTIONS TAKEN ON PROPERTIES: 12/22/08 THROUGH 12/24/08 |date=March 2, 2009 |work=National Register of Historic Places |publisher=National Park Service |access-date=March 3, 2009 |archive-date=January 11, 2009 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20090111094118/http://www.nps.gov/history/nr/listings/20090102.HTM |url-status=live }} Also listed are the Antietam National Battlefield, William Chapline House, Good-Reilly House, William Hagerman Farmstead, Joseph C. Hays House, Jacob Highbarger House, Mount Airy, Piper House, Tolson's Chapel, Wilson-Miller Farm, and Woburn Manor.{{NRISref|version=2010a}}
The Antietam National Battlefield is an important source of local tourism and activities.
Government
=Town Council=
Elected by voters to four-year terms:
- Russ Weaver, Mayor (2020)
- Jacob Martz, Vice Mayor (2020)
- Ed Beeler
- Robbie Waters
- John Hammond
- Mia Parsons
- Joseph Kudla
Geography
According to the United States Census Bureau, the town has a total area of {{convert|0.23|sqmi|sqkm|2}}, all land.{{cite web |title=US Gazetteer files 2010 |url=https://www.census.gov/geo/www/gazetteer/files/Gaz_places_national.txt |publisher=United States Census Bureau |access-date=January 25, 2013 |url-status=dead |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20120125061959/http://www.census.gov/geo/www/gazetteer/files/Gaz_places_national.txt |archive-date=January 25, 2012}}
{{Weather box
|location = Sharpsburg, Maryland (1991–2020 normals, extremes 1998-present)
|single line = Y
|Jan record high F = 73
|Feb record high F = 80
|Mar record high F = 85
|Apr record high F = 94
|May record high F = 95
|Jun record high F = 99
|Jul record high F = 101
|Aug record high F = 99
|Sep record high F = 98
|Oct record high F = 93
|Nov record high F = 84
|Dec record high F = 80
|Jan avg record high F = 65
|Feb avg record high F = 65
|Mar avg record high F = 76
|Apr avg record high F = 86
|May avg record high F = 89
|Jun avg record high F = 93
|Jul avg record high F = 95
|Aug avg record high F = 94
|Sep avg record high F = 91
|Oct avg record high F = 84
|Nov avg record high F = 75
|Dec avg record high F = 65
|year avg record high F= 96
|Jan high F = 41.2
|Feb high F = 44.2
|Mar high F = 52.5
|Apr high F = 64.7
|May high F = 73.5
|Jun high F = 82.0
|Jul high F = 86.1
|Aug high F = 84.8
|Sep high F = 78.1
|Oct high F = 66.8
|Nov high F = 55.7
|Dec high F = 44.8
|year high F=
|Jan mean F = 31.2
|Feb mean F = 33.6
|Mar mean F = 40.7
|Apr mean F = 51.7
|May mean F = 61.2
|Jun mean F = 70.1
|Jul mean F = 74.2
|Aug mean F = 72.9
|Sep mean F = 65.9
|Oct mean F = 54.4
|Nov mean F = 43.9
|Dec mean F = 35.1
|year mean F=
|Jan low F = 21.1
|Feb low F = 23.0
|Mar low F = 29.0
|Apr low F = 38.6
|May low F = 48.8
|Jun low F = 58.2
|Jul low F = 62.4
|Aug low F = 60.9
|Sep low F = 53.7
|Oct low F = 42.0
|Nov low F = 32.1
|Dec low F = 25.3
|year low F=
|Jan avg record low F = 4
|Feb avg record low F = 7
|Mar avg record low F = 15
|Apr avg record low F = 25
|May avg record low F = 34
|Jun avg record low F = 45
|Jul avg record low F = 52
|Aug avg record low F = 51
|Sep avg record low F = 41
|Oct avg record low F = 29
|Nov avg record low F = 19
|Dec avg record low F = 11
|year avg record low F= 4
|Jan record low F = -3
|Feb record low F = -6
|Mar record low F = -4
|Apr record low F = 19
|May record low F = 29
|Jun record low F = 36
|Jul record low F = 46
|Aug record low F = 46
|Sep record low F = 33
|Oct record low F = 24
|Nov record low F = 12
|Dec record low F = 0
|precipitation colour = green
|Jan precipitation inch = 3.13
|Feb precipitation inch = 2.41
|Mar precipitation inch = 3.72
|Apr precipitation inch = 3.60
|May precipitation inch = 4.57
|Jun precipitation inch = 4.16
|Jul precipitation inch = 4.28
|Aug precipitation inch = 3.27
|Sep precipitation inch = 4.40
|Oct precipitation inch = 3.41
|Nov precipitation inch = 3.08
|Dec precipitation inch = 3.46
|year precipitation inch= 43.49
|Jan snow inch = 7.3
|Feb snow inch = 9.5
|Mar snow inch = 2.5
|Apr snow inch = 0.1
|May snow inch = 0
|Jun snow inch = 0
|Jul snow inch = 0
|Aug snow inch = 0
|Sep snow inch = 0
|Oct snow inch = 0
|Nov snow inch = 0.4
|Dec snow inch = 4.2
|year snow inch=
|unit precipitation days = 0.01 in
|unit snow days = 0.1 in
|Jan precipitation days = 10
|Feb precipitation days = 9
|Mar precipitation days = 11
|Apr precipitation days = 12
|May precipitation days = 15
|Jun precipitation days = 11
|Jul precipitation days = 10
|Aug precipitation days = 11
|Sep precipitation days = 10
|Oct precipitation days = 11
|Nov precipitation days = 8
|Dec precipitation days = 9
|year precipitation days=
|Jan snow days = 3
|Feb snow days = 3
|Mar snow days = 1
|Apr snow days = 0
|May snow days = 0
|Jun snow days = 0
|Jul snow days = 0
|Aug snow days = 0
|Sep snow days = 0
|Oct snow days = 0
|Nov snow days = 0
|Dec snow days = 2
|year snow days= 8
|Jan snow depth inch = 4
|Feb snow depth inch = 5
|Mar snow depth inch = 3
|Apr snow depth inch = 0
|May snow depth inch = 0
|Jun snow depth inch = 0
|Jul snow depth inch = 0
|Aug snow depth inch = 0
|Sep snow depth inch = 0
|Oct snow depth inch = 0
|Nov snow depth inch = 0
|Dec snow depth inch = 3
|year snow depth inch= 7
|source 1 = NOAA{{cite web |url=https://w2.weather.gov/climate/xmacis.php?wfo=box |title=NowData – NOAA Online Weather Data |publisher=National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration |access-date=May 28, 2022 |archive-date=November 13, 2020 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20201113170419/https://w2.weather.gov/climate/xmacis.php?wfo=box |url-status=live }}
}}
Transportation
The primary means of travel to and from Sharpsburg is by road. The two main highways serving the town are Maryland Route 34, which follows Main Street, and Maryland Route 65, which ends at the intersection of Main Street and Church Street. MD 34 extends eastward to Boonsboro and continues westward to the Potomac River, where it crosses into Shepherdstown, West Virginia, as West Virginia Route 480. MD 65 proceeds northward to a junction with Interstate 70 and then continues to its terminus in Hagerstown.
Demographics
{{US Census population
|1870= 1001
|1880= 1260
|1890= 1163
|1900= 1080
|1910= 960
|1920= 832
|1930= 818
|1940= 834
|1950= 866
|1960= 861
|1970= 833
|1980= 721
|1990= 659
|2000= 691
|2010= 705
|2020= 560
}}
=2010 census=
As of the census{{cite web |title=U.S. Census website |url=https://www.census.gov/ |publisher=United States Census Bureau |access-date=January 25, 2013 |archive-date=July 9, 2021 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20210709054630/https://www.census.gov/ |url-status=live }} of 2010, there were 705 people, 285 households, and 192 families living in the town. The population density was {{convert|3065.2|PD/sqmi|PD/km2|1}}. There were 325 housing units at an average density of {{convert|1413.0|/sqmi|/km2|1}}. The racial makeup of the town was 95.7% White, 0.4% African American, 0.1% Native American, and 3.7% from two or more races. Hispanic or Latino of any race were 2.1% of the population.
There were 285 households, of which 28.1% had children under the age of 18 living with them, 47.7% were married couples living together, 13.0% had a female householder with no husband present, 6.7% had a male householder with no wife present, and 32.6% were non-families. 25.3% of all households were made up of individuals, and 7% had someone living alone who was 65 years of age or older. The average household size was 2.47 and the average family size was 2.92.
The median age in the town was 42.8 years. 20.3% of residents were under the age of 18; 7.3% were between the ages of 18 and 24; 26.4% were from 25 to 44; 33.2% were from 45 to 64; and 12.8% were 65 years of age or older. The gender makeup of the town was 50.9% male and 49.1% female.
=2000 census=
As of the census{{cite web |url=https://www.census.gov/ |publisher=United States Census Bureau |access-date=January 31, 2008 |title=U.S. Census website |archive-date=July 9, 2021 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20210709054630/https://www.census.gov/ |url-status=live }} of 2000, there were 691 people, 286 households, and 193 families living in the town. The population density was {{convert|3,119.1|PD/sqmi|PD/km2|sp=us|adj=off}}. There were 304 housing units at an average density of {{convert|1,372.2|/sqmi|/km2|sp=us|adj=off}}. The racial makeup of the town was 97.8% White, 0.4% African American, 0.6% Asian, 0.3% Hispanic or Latino, and 1.2% from two or more races.
There were 286 households, out of which 26.6% had children under the age of 18 living with them, 54.2% were married couples living together, 9.4% had a female householder with no husband present, and 32.5% were non-families. 26.2% of all households were made up of individuals, and 8.0% had someone living alone who was 65 years of age or older. The average household size was 2.42 and the average family size was 2.90.
In the town, the population was spread out, with 21.7% under the age of 18, 8.7% from 18 to 24, 29.1% from 25 to 44, 27.6% from 45 to 64, and 12.9% who were 65 years of age or older. The median age was 38 years. For every 100 females, there were 103.2 males. For every 100 females age 18 and over, there were 101.9 males.
The median income for a household in the town was $41,786, and the median income for a family was $52,875. Males had a median income of $37,500 versus $22,000 for females. The per capita income for the town was $20,917. About 1.1% of families and 3.1% of the population were below the poverty line, including none of those under age 18 and 5.6% of those age 65 or over.
Notable native
- Howell G. Crim, civil servant (White House Chief Usher, 1938–57)
References
{{Reflist|30em}}
External links
{{Commons category|Sharpsburg, Maryland}}
- {{wikivoyage inline|Sharpsburg}}
- {{Official website|http://sharpsburgmd.com/}}
- [https://web.archive.org/web/20060428022718/http://www.mdmunicipal.org/cities/index.cfm?townname=Sharpsburg&page=home Maryland Municipal League: Sharpsburg]
- [https://web.archive.org/web/20070313005441/http://hatlie.de/history/sitesofmemory/sharpsburg.html War memorial in downtown Sharpsburg at "Sites of Memory"]
{{Washington County, Maryland}}
{{authority control}}
Category:German-American culture in Maryland
Category:Towns in Washington County, Maryland
Category:Populated places established in 1763