St. Marks Episcopal Church

St Mark’s Episcopal Church is located just six miles north of Sharpsburg, site of Battle of Antietam on September 17, 1862, the bloodiest one-day battle in American History. To visit the church site, it is located on the south side of Lappans Road (Md Rt 68) approximately 1 mile west from where the CWRT crosses Lappans Road or about 1/4 mile east of the intersection of Md Rt 68 and Sharpsburg Pike (Md Rt 65.)

The church was founded and built in 1849 by slave owners, using wealth that came in part from slave labor. Most of the early church members were slaveholders. It still has part of the original balcony where the slaves were separated from whites when they seated for worship.
 

Dr. Thomas Maddox donated the land for the church and worshiped here until his death in 1887. He treated wounded men here after the Battle of Antietam.

In the aftermath of Antietam, in September 1862, with approximately 23,000 Americans on both sides killed, wounded or missing, numbers of barns, houses, and churches like St Mark’s were pressed into service as impromptu hospitals. The St Mark’s church remained closed for worship services for six weeks because of the wounded treated here, and the church yard is believed to contain the unmarked graves of soldiers who died here.
 

After the Battle of Gettysburg on July 1-3, 1863, General Robert E. Lee’s defeated army of Northern Virginia passed near here as it marched south to the Potomac River, and there was heavy skirmishing in this area. The church again served as a hospital. The 8th Illinois Calvary’s regimental surgeon worked here while fighting took place in nearby Williamsport, five miles northwest. In August 1863, the St Mark’s congregation contributed $28.08 “for sick and wounded soldiers in this county.”
 

After the Civil War, some African Americans continued to worship here, and several former slaves are buried in the churchyard. Their graves are located to the left of the church, next to the cemetery wall. This was a special area designated in the church graveyard for the burial of slaves
 

This church is listed on the National Register of Historic Sites