The first American of European descent to own land in what would eventually become Sharpsburg was the one-time indian trader Edmund Cartledge.

By the time Cartledge surveyed his "Hickory Tavern[4]" land tract in 1737, the Great Philadelphia Wagon Road was already well established over the path that would become Sharpsburg's main street.

Thousands of immigrants used this route of the wagon road traveling from Pennsylvania as far south as the Carolinas.

[6] At the end of the French and Indian War in 1763, Joseph Chapline founded a town, naming it in honor of his friend Horatio Sharpe, the Proprietary Governor of the Province of Maryland.

They were a major force in leading to an increase in wheat production from the original agricultural dependence on tobacco.

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.

It would be the bloodiest single day in all American military annals, with a total of nearly 23,000 casualties to both sides.

The drawn battle is considered a turning point of the war, since it kept the Confederacy from winning a needed victory on Northern soil, which might have gained it European recognition.

Lee's retreat gave Abraham Lincoln the opportunity he needed to issue his Emancipation Proclamation, declaring all slaves residing in rebelling Confederate territory against the federal government, to be "forever free".

Elected by voters to four-year terms: According to the United States Census Bureau, the town has a total area of 0.23 square miles (0.60 km2), all land.

The racial makeup of the town was 97.8% White, 0.4% African American, 0.6% Asian, 0.3% Hispanic or Latino, and 1.2% from two or more races.