For several years, the Antietam Institute has been committed to supporting the Town of Sharpsburg in its efforts to develop an interpretive plaza in the green space at the corner of Main and Church Streets. Each year, we have made a $2,000 annual contribution for this project.
This year, construction on the park began in earnest, and by Memorial Day, 75% had been completed. The final piece of the park was the installation of interpretive waysides to tell the story of Sharpsburg and the people who have lived there.
Before the installation could begin, the waysides had to be developed. Because of our staunch support of the project since the beginning, the Sharpsburg Mayor and Town Council asked the Institute to help with this undertaking. After an initial concept meeting to develop some themes, we formed a committee of several members to begin formulating these themes and ideas into six distinctive waysides.
The committee included: John Schildt, Steve Cowie, Timothy Snyder, Robert Nill, Jim Buchanan, and Chris Vincent. The committee did an excellent job gathering stories, first-hand accounts, and photos for each panel. By July, the town approved the six draft panels, and they were off to Chris Brown, the Executive Director of Civil War Trails (CWT) for review and development. Civil War Trails, Inc. also collaborates with small parks, museums, and communities to share their history, topics, and sites by providing unique research and development expertise, along with high-quality materials.
To help draw interest to the historical park through the marketing of CWT, one of the six waysides was selected to be a Civil War Trails sign and the Antietam Institute took on the sponsorship and annual membership of that sign. This is the second CWT sign the Institute has sponsored in the Town of Sharpsburg.
Despite the frigid, wet weather, Chris Brown and his CWT crew installed the six waysides at the park the first week of December, just in time for the 35th Memorial Illumination.
The six waysides at the park are:
1- The Piper House: A Historic Connection to the Antietam Battlefield. Refers to the Piper house across the street, the Piper family, and the connection to the battlefield that so many Sharpsburg families had.
2- Canals and Turnpikes Fuel the Economic Growth. Discusses the C&O Canal and the turnpikes that intersect at Sharpsburg, which spurred economic growth of the town.
3- Sharpsburg Architecture and Prominent Citizens. Talks about some of the unique buildings in town and residents like Dr. A. A. Biggs, O.T. Reilly, and Dr. Hal Shealy.
4- Returning Veterans and Remembrance. Shows the connection between veterans returning to Sharpsburg after the war and the tradition of the Sharpsburg Memorial Day parade.
5- Sharpsburg and the Battle. Focuses on the civilians in town, specifically the Adam Michael family, whose house is across the street from the park, and the hardships caused. (Civil War Trails wayside)
6- Sharpsburg and the Civil War. Shares stories of several residents who were caught up in the war, like Barney Houser, Thomas Grove, Judge David Smith, and Jacob Rohrbach.
One final vertical interpretive panel will be added in the spring that will include the founding of the town in 1763 by Joseph Chapline, a timeline of key events, and a map of Sharpsburg. The Sharpsburg Historical Park is a much-needed resource to tell the amazing story of Sharpsburg and its residents and will help interpret this chapter of the Maryland Campaign and the Civil War.
We want to thank the committee members for sharing their time, effort, and knowledge on this project. Thanks to Chris Brown and Civil War Trails for their hard work and commitment in sharing the stories of civilians, soldiers, and communities. More importantly, we would like to thank the Town of Sharpsburg, Mayor Russ Weaver, and Vice Mayor Jacob Martz for the opportunity to support this project and promote the town’s history. We look forward to our continuing partnership with Civil War Trails and the Town of Sharpsburg.
