History
On Sunday, September 14, 1862, General George B. McClellan ordered his federal troops to march west from Frederick, cross Catoctin Mountain, and capture the three gaps through which roads passed over South Mountain leading west into neighboring Washington County.
Having discovered a lost copy of Confederate General Robert E. Lee’s orders to his commanding officers the day prior, General McClellan knew that his enemy was divided as they advanced to lay siege to the United States armory and arsenal at Harpers Ferry. General McClellan urged his commanders to move hastily and capture the three passes of South Mountain before continuing on to strike the divided Confederate army before it could reunify its forces.
Engraving from Three Years in the Sixth Corps by George T. Stevens (1866), Courtesy of the Library of Congress.
The Sixth Corps of the Army of the Potomac, under command of Major General William B. Franklin was sent on the southern flank of the United States forces towards Crampton’s Gap. In his path lay the village of Burkittsville and its approximately 200 residents, many of German ancestry.
Settled in the early nineteenth century, Burkittsville was a bustling crossroads with cottage industries and mercantile establishments catering to travelers and nearby farmers. Two large churches belonging to the German Reformed and Lutheran congregations dominated the center of the village.
Arriving in the area by midday, General Franklin established a headquarters on a farm owned by Burkittsville physician Dr. John D. Garrott on the eastern edge of the village. The farm was inhabited at the time by a tenant farmer named Martin Shafer and his family.
General Franklin’s Headquarters, South Mountain is visible in the background. This historic farmhouse is now under the care of the Burkittsville Preservation Association.
By 3pm, the United States soldiers descended on the village as they approached Crampton’s Gap. Many residents fled the area as the army approached, but others remained, taking shelter in their houses and cellars.
David Arnold’s farm on the western end of the village was the scene of intense gunfire in the early hours of the battle. David’s wife Mary Ann Arnold and her young children hid in the cellar of their farmhouse while the federal soldiers marched across their fields under fire from Confederate troops on the mountain above.
Though possessing the tactical advantage of being positioned on the hill above the approaching federal forces, the heavily outnumbered Confederate troops surrendered the gap by evening and retreated into Pleasant Valley, leaving their wounded on the battlefield to be tended by Union soldiers.
The David Arnold Farmhouse on the west end of Burkittsville. The inset image is a portrait of Mary Ann Weiner Arnold, preserved in the collection of South Mountain Heritage Society.
As evening fell over Burkittsville, soldiers were being transported by the hundreds down the mountainside into the town’s churches, schoolhouse, and many barns, carriage houses, stables, and other outbuildings.
A few higher ranking men were taken into private homes, including the mortally wounded Lieutenant Colonel Jefferson M. Lamar of Georgia, who was brought into the home of Rev. Emanuel Slifer in the center of Burkittsville.
He died there on the following morning and his staff left a token of their appreciation with the Slifer family, a copy of The Atlantic Monthly which belonged to Col. Lamar and was inscribed with a message to Rev. Slifer’s son, Charles.
The home of Rev. Emanuel Slifer at the crossroads in Burkittsville. The inset image shows a book given to Rev. Slifer’s son Charles in return for his assistance to the mortally wounded Confederate Lieutenant Colonel Jefferson Lamar who was quartered in their house after the Battle of South Mountain.
Two brothers from New York, John and Allen Lovejoy, were assigned to assist the army surgeons and spent the next three months after the battle in Burkittsville. In letters written to their family at home, John and Allen conveyed vital information about the field hospital operations that took over the public buildings and many private structures throughout the village. In a letter dated November 8, 1862, John Lovejoy wrote “when we first came here [there] [were] 14 dif[f]erent hospitals in this place, ev[e]ry old hut was used for one.”
In another letter, John wrote that the Confederate soldiers whom he was caring for “have the best of care, they all think a great deal of the citizens of Bur[kit]tsville, they furnish them with clothing and beds and delica[ci]es such as peaches, pears, plums, jellies, buttermilk, pies, cakes…” Burkittsville resident Clara Pfiefer recalled “I know that [the Lutheran] church was full of wounded soldiers, both in the Sunday School room in the basement, and the audience room above, after the Battle of South Mountain. I carried meals three times a day to two of the wounded soldiers.”
Burkittsville remained a hospital center until mid-January 1863 when the last soldiers were removed to the larger general hospitals established in Frederick.
The historic Resurrection Reformed Church, which served as “Hospital D” in the wake of the Battle of South Mountain, is preserved today much as it appeared during the Civil War and now serves as the museum of South Mountain Heritage Society.
- Jody Brumage, Archivist at Heritage Frederick and Board President of the South Mountain Heritage Society
Today
Located in southwestern Frederick County, Burkittsville boasts the county’s only cobblestone main street.
This village of 300 souls is smaller now than during the Civil War and it retains much of its historic character. Many of its 19th-century buildings still stand, including structures once used as hospitals. The town's Union Cemetery offers expansive views of Crampton’s Gap and the battlefields of September 14, 1862 at its base.
These remnants speak to Burkittsville’s role in the 1862 Maryland campaign.
Residents continue to value preservation of the town’s heritage, reflected in carefully maintained churches, homes, and streets. Burkittsville scale has changed little over time and its links to the past remain firmly anchored on its quiet cobblestone streets. When they are open, head inside the South Mountain Heritage Society to learn more of the town's story!
What's Nearby
Head west out of Burkittsville and visit Gathland State Park to learn more about the Battle of Crampton's Gap on September 14, 1862. You'll also discover the story of George Alfred Townsend, a Civil War era journalist who settled at "Gapland" in the decades after the conflict and built a large estate.
"Gath," Townsend's penname during the Civil War, wrote about the conflict at the front lines for numerous newspapers and subsequently covered the assassination of President Abraham Lincoln and the hunt for John Wilkes Booth. At Gathland, you'll also see the War Correspondents Memorial Arch that Townsend constructed to honor the war correspondents and journalists he worked with during the Civil War.
You'll also be centrally located to explore the history and heritage of Main Street Middletown and Brunswick Main Street, with plenty of restaurants to experience and shops to explore.
Interested in the story of Civil War hospitals? Be sure to make a visit to the National Museum of Civil War Medicine in historic Downtown Frederick.
More Resources
Want to read more about the Ransoming of Frederick? Explore the resources below:
Books (access through Bookshop.org and make sure to support Frederick bookseller Curious Iguana)
To Antietam Creek: The Maryland Campaign of September 1862 by D. Scott Hartwig
Articles