Editing Sharpsburg, Maryland (section)

==History==
[[File:Bloodylane.JPG|thumb|left|A visitor's sign at the [[Antietam National Battlefield]] 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<ref>{{Cite book |title=P.G.Co. land record Book #5 |pages=377}}</ref>" land tract in 1737, the [[Great Wagon Road|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.<ref name=":0">{{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}}</ref>

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]].<ref name=":0" /> Among the officers accompanying Braddock that day was a young Virginia militia officer named George Washington.<ref>{{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}}</ref>

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 American|German]] or [[Swiss American|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 States of America|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 (Maryland and Pennsylvania)|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 (Hagerstown–Frederick, Maryland)|U.S. Route 40 Alternate]]) which is now a part of [[South Mountain State Park|South Mountain State Battlefield Park]].

The drawn battle is considered a turning point of the war, since it kept the [[Confederate States of America|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 and School|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 "[[Affrilachia|Affrilachian]]" community in Sharpsburg that declined during the twentieth-century.<ref>{{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}}</ref><ref>{{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}}</ref>

Sharpsburg claims its [[Memorial Day]] commemoration as one of the first in the U.S., having their 147th consecutive celebration in 2014.<ref name="mem">{{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 }}</ref>

The town core was added to the [[National Register of Historic Places]] in 2008 as the [[Sharpsburg Historic District]].<ref name="nps">{{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 }}</ref>  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 (Sharpsburg, Maryland)|Mount Airy]], [[Piper House]], [[Tolson's Chapel]], [[Wilson-Miller Farm]], and [[Woburn Manor]].<ref name="nris">{{NRISref|version=2010a}}</ref>

The [[Antietam National Battlefield]] is an important source of local tourism and activities.