Editing Carroll County, Maryland (section)

===19th century===
[[Maryland Route 26]] (Liberty Road) was built over top what was originally a Native American trail, which passed through the Freedom area of southern Carroll County and was used by Native Americans to travel from the [[Blue Ridge Mountains]] to [[Chesapeake Bay]]. The trail was transformed into a road and renamed "Liberty" by an act of the Maryland General Assembly in the early 1800s.<ref>{{cite web|url=https://mht.maryland.gov/secure/medusa/PDF/Carroll/CARR-167.pdf |title=Wesley Chapel Methodist Episcopal Church |publisher=[[Maryland Historical Trust]] |access-date=August 24, 2019}}</ref> The land of what is now Sykesville was used by the Susquehannock and the [[Lenape]] as hunting grounds.<ref>{{cite web |url=https://www.sykesvillemainstreet.com/wp-content/uploads/2016/06/SykesvilleWalkingTour001.pdf |title=Small Town with a Big History |publisher=Downtown Sykesville Connection |access-date=August 24, 2019 |archive-date=September 20, 2020 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20200920074640/https://www.sykesvillemainstreet.com/wp-content/uploads/2016/06/SykesvilleWalkingTour001.pdf |url-status=dead }}</ref> [[Taneytown, Maryland|Taneytown]] was inhabited by the [[Tuscarora people]] during the early to mid-1700s. The Tuscarora hunted deer, wolves, wildcats, and otters in the woodlands of what is now Taneytown. Due to the [[Six Nations land cessions]], the Tuscarora were expelled westward across the [[South Mountain (Maryland and Pennsylvania)|South Mountain]] of the [[Cumberland Valley]].<ref>{{cite web|url=http://www.taneytown.org/residents/taneytowns_history/index.php |title=Taneytown's History |access-date=August 24, 2019}}</ref>
 
Carroll County was created in 1837<ref>{{cite web |url=http://ccgovernment.carr.org/ccg/default.asp |title=Carroll County Government |publisher=Carroll County Government |access-date=September 25, 2012 |url-status=dead |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20120928034217/http://ccgovernment.carr.org/ccg/default.asp |archive-date=September 28, 2012 }}</ref> from parts of [[Baltimore County, Maryland|Baltimore]] and [[Frederick County, Maryland|Frederick Counties]]. The county was named for [[Charles Carroll of Carrollton]], who was one of 56 delegates to the [[Second Continental Congress]] in [[Philadelphia]] who unanimously signed the [[United States Declaration of Independence]].<ref>{{cite book | url=https://archive.org/details/bub_gb_9V1IAAAAMAAJ | title=The Origin of Certain Place Names in the United States | publisher=Govt. Print. Off. | author=Gannett, Henry | year=1905 | pages=[https://archive.org/details/bub_gb_9V1IAAAAMAAJ/page/n69 70]}}</ref>

The earliest European settlers in Carroll County were predominantly [[Pennsylvania Dutch]] from [[Pennsylvania Dutch Country|southeast Pennsylvania]] and [[English Americans|English]] from the [[Tidewater (region)|Tidewater region]] of Maryland.<ref>{{cite web|url=http://www.mycarroll.com/history.htm |title=History |publisher=My Carroll |access-date=March 19, 2019}}</ref> [[German language|German]] was the predominant language of Carroll County until the Civil War. German was most heavily spoken in the northern and western parts of the county. The towns of Hampstead, Manchester, and Taneytown had German majorities. [[Anglo-Americans|English-speakers]] were a minority and were concentrated in southern Carroll.<ref>{{cite news |url=https://www.baltimoresun.com/ph-ce-eagle-archive-1021-20121020-story.html |title=Eagle Archive: Strictly speaking, Carroll's predominant language was once German |newspaper=Baltimore Sun |access-date=March 19, 2019 |archive-date=April 15, 2021 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20210415142315/https://www.baltimoresun.com/ph-ce-eagle-archive-1021-20121020-story.html |url-status=dead }}</ref>

During the [[American Civil War]], the population of Carroll County was sharply divided between supporters of the Union and the Confederacy.<ref>{{cite book|last=Fields|first=Barbara|author-link=Barbara J. Fields |title=Slavery and Freedom on Middle Ground|year=1985|publisher=Yale Historical Publications|location=Binghamton, New York|isbn=0300023405|pages=11–13}}</ref>  In 1863, there were significant troop movements through the county as part of the [[Gettysburg campaign]]. On June 29, 1863, the cavalry skirmish known as [[Corbit's Charge]] was fought in the streets of Westminster, when two companies of Delaware cavalry attacked a much larger [[Confederate States Army|Confederate]] force under General [[J. E. B. Stuart]].