Tour Stop # 2: 200 East Main

Photo Courtesy of John Aichele



This is 200 East Main Street. It was owned by Henry Piper, son of Daniel Piper. At first this building, while it is a beautiful stone house on the corner, does not seem to have any connection with the battle on first glance. However, this house, of all of the houses in Sharpsburg, might have the most tangible connection of all to September 17, 1862. There are still bullet holes embedded in one of the balcony doors and windows. How these came to be is still a mystery.

Question for Consideration: Why do you think the owners of this house chose to keep this damage after the battle?

Directions from Tour Stop # 2 to Tour Stop # 3

Simply walk across the street to the gas station; this is Tour Stop #3: The Slave Block

Tour Stop # 3: The Slave Block

Photo Courtesy of John Aichele



What you see here is a modern gas station, not a very historical site. If you look closely at the brick in front of the gas station, however, you will see that it marks the spot of the old Slave Block. Here, according to local legend, over 200 slaves were auctioned between 1800 and 1865. Ironically, next door to it was runaway station on the Underground Railroad. The house was used as a school house until 1957, when it raised for the new gas station.

The state of Maryland might have been the most interesting state in regards to its political affiliation at the eve of the Civil War. It was officially a Northern Slave State. The border between Pennsylvania and Maryland, known as the Mason-Dixon Line, was a name burned into every runaway slave’s brain. In the eastern part of the state, in the Chesapeake Bay Region, the country scene might well have been from Virginia to the south, with large plantations with slaves. However, in the western part of Maryland, the sentiment was very pro Union. When General Robert E. Lee brought his Army of Northern Virginia into western Maryland, he falsely assumed that his army would be replenished by Maryland recruits. However, the towns of western Maryland, like Sharpsburg, gave the Confederate Army a rather cold reception. But if the citizens of Sharpsburg felt that they had Union sympathies, they also had this living breathing operating reminder how close their town and state was on the edge between the two warring sides.

Questions for consideration: If you were a citizen of Sharpsburg during the Civil War, how would you feel if your town produced soldiers on both sides of the conflict? After the end of the war and the end of slavery, if you walked by this spot before the gas station, how you like to remember what happened here?

Photo Courtesy of John Aichele



Look across to the north side of the street; you are looking at Tour Stop #4: 137 East Main Street.

Tour Stop # 4: 137 East Main Street

From Reverse Angle

Photo Courtesy of John Aichele

Directly across from you is 137 East Main Street, also known as the Adam Michael House. This was the home of Adam Michael, a wagon maker and a staunch Confederate sympathizer. The front part of the house is a log construction with brick over top. Built in 1818, the older section of the building may predate 1799. According to some sources, this was one of the four original houses laid by Joseph Chapline. The battle of Antietam was the single bloodiest day of the war, with over 23,000 casualties North and South. Every one of the surrounding farms, churches, and houses were converted to field hospitals. Adam Michael refused the Union troops to use his house as a field hospital, but as his son Samuel said, “On Monday they forced a hospital in our house. Kate and Mother fought them hard…The hospital was continued in our parlor for several weeks. I do not know how many has died in it. They have left now. It looks like a hog pen.” Up to 90 patients at one time or another may have been in the house.

Question for Consideration: If you were a Union or Confederate sympathizer and the opposing side wanted to use your house as a hospital, would you let them?



Directions from Tour Stop # 4 to Tour Stop # 5

Continue to walk south past the gas station until you find on you left Tour Stop # 5: 128 East Main

Tour Stop # 5: 128 East Main Street

From Reverse Angle

Photos Courtesy of John Aichele

This is

128 East Main Street

; commonly know as the John Kretzer homestead. The originally lot was laid out by Joseph Chapline. The house was built circa 1791 and was originally owned by Peter Ham until his death in 1819. The Kretzer family owned this house from 1842 to 1939 and is now owned by one of their descendants. It is a true colonial and one of only four houses in Sharpsburg constructed of cut stone. When the first Confederate Units arrived in Sharpsburg around the 14^th of September and began to take their defensive positions, the citizens were presented with a simply yet difficult choice. Stay or go? Most of the town decided to go; about a third of them headed to Hagerstown or Boonsboro, and another third headed to either the Antietam Iron Furnace or a cave on the C&O canal. However, a few brave souls decided to stay in town throughout the ordeal. Here, in the basement of the Kretzer homestead anywhere between 100 and 200 huddled for cover. Daughter Teresa remembered, “We carried down some seats and we made board benches around, and quite a number of us got up on the potato bunks and the apple scaffolds. We were a comfortable as we could possibility be in a cellar, but it’s a wonder we didn’t take all of our deaths of colds in that damp place.” Only a few citizens came back into town during the 17^th and 18^th to see how the town was doing. After the Confederate Army had left, the citizens began to heal the wounded and pick up the broken pieces of their town.

Question for Consideration: Would you have stayed or gone?