Sharpsburg

History

The first American of European descent to own land in what would become Sharpsburg was trader Edmund Cartledge. By the time Cartledge surveyed his "Hickory Tavern" land tract in 1737, the Great Philadelphia Wagon Road was established over the path that would become Sharpsburg's main street. The patent says Hickory Tavern sits between the wagon road and Garrison Spring, today's Big Spring. Thousands of immigrants used this route to travel south from Pennsylvania as far as the Carolinas. On May 1, 1755, the road was used by Major General Edward Braddock; Horatio Sharpe, the Proprietary Governor of the Province of Maryland; and several of Braddock's staff officers to reach Winchester, Virginia, while his 48th Regiment took a longer route via today's Williamsport, Maryland. At the end of the French and Indian War in 1763, Joseph Chapline founded a town and named it for his friend Sharpe. Its original settlers were mostly of German or Swiss origin who arrived from Pennsylvania via the wagon road. They planted wheat in the region, whose farms had largely depended on tobacco. Located east of the Potomac River, Sharpsburg was incorporated in 1832, It attracted industry in the early 19th century, especially after the Chesapeake and Ohio Canal was extended to the town in 1836. 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 (called by the Confederates the Battle of Sharpsburg). It would be the bloodiest single day in all American military annals, with a total of nearly 23,000…

Geography

According to the United States Census Bureau, the town has a total area of , all land.

Race & ethnicity

Largest nearby schools

• Springfield Middle
  Middle · Williamsport · 748 students · 15.3:1 ratio
• Boonsboro High
  High · Boonsboro · 747 students · 14.4:1 ratio
• Rockland Woods Elementary
  Elementary · Hagerstown · 625 students · 16:1 ratio
• Boonsboro Middle
  Middle · Boonsboro · 610 students · 13.9:1 ratio
• Boonsboro Elementary
  Elementary · Boonsboro · 509 students · 17:1 ratio
• Sharpsburg Elementary
  Elementary · Sharpsburg · 349 students · 20.5:1 ratio
• Fountain Rock Elementary
  Elementary · Hagerstown · 299 students · 15.7:1 ratio
• Greenbrier Elementary
  Elementary · Boonsboro · 256 students · 17.1:1 ratio