Editing Burkittsville, Maryland (section)

==History==
[[File:David Arnold House, Burkittsville, MD.jpg|thumb|Harley/Arnold Farm]]
English settlement in this region began in the early 18th century. Land was being surveyed and patented in the south-western portion of the Middletown Valley beginning in the 1720s. The first land tract to be patented within the present boundaries of Burkittsville was "Dawson's Purchase", dated May 14, 1741.<ref>{{cite book|last1=Tracey|first1=Grace|last2=Dern|first2=John|title=Pioneers of Old Monocacy: The Early Settlement of Frederick County, Maryland 1721-1743|date=1987|publisher=Genealogical Publishing Co., Inc.|location=Baltimore, MD|isbn=0-8063-1183-5|page=363}}</ref> The Harley/Arnold Farm, located on the western border of the village at the base of South Mountain, stands on the "Dawson's Purchase" tract.

Burkittsville was first founded by two property owners: Major Joshua Harley and Henry Burkitt. The western half was first founded as "Harley's Post Office" in 1824. After Harley's passing in 1828, Burkitt renamed it Burkittsville. Over the next thirty years it grew as a community with stores, shops, blacksmiths, a schoolhouse, and a tannery.

On September 13, 1862, Confederate cavalry under command of Colonel Thomas Munford (under General [[J.E.B. Stuart]]) occupied Burkittsville. On Sunday, September 14, the forces of the Union and Confederate armies engaged in the [[Battle of Crampton's Gap]], a bloody prelude to the [[Battle of Antietam]]. The Reformed and Lutheran churches and adjacent schoolhouse were used as hospitals for the more than 300 wounded of both sides. These buildings still stand today.

Routinely characterized as the trigger to Antietam, victory at [[Crampton's Gap]] embodied Union Gen. [[George B. McClellan]]'s strategic reaction to his acquiring the legendary “[[Lost Order]]” at Frederick which disclosed Confederate Gen. Robert E. Lee's campaign movements. It was McClellan's intention to “cut the enemy in two and beat him in detail”.
[[File:Burkittsville Cemetery MD1.jpg|left|thumb|Union Cemetery in Burkittsville, established in 1831.]]

After seizing Crampton's Gap Gen. William B. Franklin failed to relieve the besieged Union garrison at Harpers Ferry, and more importantly to prevent Confederate generals James Longstreet and “Stonewall” Jackson from reuniting at Sharpsburg. There Lee hastily stood his ground in the mammoth battle of Antietam, the war's bloodiest day. President [[Abraham Lincoln]] then used the marginal Union victory at Antietam as a springboard to his Emancipation Proclamation which changed war aims. Without the fall of Crampton's Gap there would have been no Antietam.

Nearly all of Burkittsville is a [[Burkittsville Historic District|historic district]], listed on the [[National Register of Historic Places]] on November 20, 1975. The {{convert|300|acre|ha}} district includes about 70 contributing structures.<ref name=nrhpnom1>{{cite web|last=Way|first=Lawrence A.|title=National Register of Historic Places Inventory - Nomination Form: Town of Burkittsville|url=http://www.mdihp.net/dsp_county.cfm?search=county&criteria1=B&criteria2=FR&criteria3=&id=10358&viewer=true|publisher=National Park Service|access-date=March 31, 2011|author2=Cooper, H. Austin|author3=Stowell, Walton D.|author4=Winslow, Barbara|author5=Winslow, Mary K.|date=May 1975|url-status=dead|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20110719143311/http://www.mdihp.net/dsp_county.cfm?search=county&criteria1=B&criteria2=FR&criteria3=&id=10358&viewer=true|archive-date=July 19, 2011}}</ref> The Burkittsville Historic District is itself part of the larger [[Crampton's Gap Historic District]], which comprises the southern portion of the lands involved in the Battle of South Mountain, extending from the western side of Crampton's Gap, over [[South Mountain (Maryland and Pennsylvania)|South Mountain]] and about a mile to the east of Burkittsville.<ref name=nrhpnom2>{{cite web|last=Phifer|first=Paige|title=National Register of Historic Places Registration Form: Crampton's Gap Historic District|url=http://www.dnr.state.md.us/publiclands/pdfs/CramptonGap.pdf|publisher=National Park Service|access-date=March 30, 2011|author2=Wallace, Edie|author3=Reed, Paula|date=March 14, 2008|url-status=dead|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20110419155707/http://www.dnr.state.md.us/publiclands/pdfs/CramptonGap.pdf|archive-date=April 19, 2011}}</ref>

===''Blair Witch''===
Burkittsville gained popularity with the [[1999 in film|1999]] film ''[[The Blair Witch Project]]'' and [[Blair Witch (franchise)|the franchise]].