Sherrick Farm

By Connor McKenzie

HIS 201, Fall 2021

In Western Maryland located in the Blue Ridge Mountains sits the hallowed ground of the United States’ bloodiest single-day battle, Antietam Battlefield. What started as a battle to drive the Confederates out of the state of Maryland back to Virginia turned normal valley farmlands into a blood-soaked battlefield. Of the eleven farms on the battlefield like the Miller, Poffenberger, Mumma and, Otto Farms, one is always overlooked due to location and relevance to the battle—the Sherrick Farm.

Before the farmhouse was built the land east of Sharpsburg was owned by Christian Orndorff who owned a milling operation at the crossroad near Antietam Creek. After his death, his son Henry Orndorff Inherited the property and begin to sell the land. During this time two young men named Joseph Sherrick and Jacob Mumma were leaving Lancaster County Pennsylvania with their families to start a new life in the Antietam Valley. The trip took twenty days to complete. One arrived they brought their property from Henry Orndorff. Sherrick bought 194 acres of land south of the Boonsboro Pike which included a small log cabin and a large barn constructed in 1790.

In September of 1862, the Confederate army made their way north after the victory of Second Manassas. After crossing the Potomac River and Passing by Frederick Maryland Confederate Split into three to Attack the Garrison at Harpers Ferry. After The Battle of Harpers Ferry and A fight 5 miles west of Middletown known as the Battle of South Mountain, the Confederate Army took camp around the town of Sharpsburg, Including on the Sherrick Property.  On the South end of the Property sat a stone bridge that Georgian troops were in defense of to keep the union crossing the bridge.  On September 17, 1862, at 12:30 Pm after countless attempts the 51st New York and 51st Pennsylvania Crossed the bridge to advance the union army up towards the Sherrick farm.  After the Confederate Retreat, the Union made their way towards the Sherrick Farm. Above the hill to the Northwest sat Confederate Artillery Aimed towards the House. In Command of the Fighting on the Sherrick Farm was Commander Benjamin Caspar Christ whose 79 New York, 28th Massachusetts, and 50th Pennsylvania Crossed Sherrick Farmland to attack towards Cemetery Heights. During the fighting, the house, and outhouses face rifle damage and one artillery damage from Confederate guns.

After a long and bloody day of fighting the Union, troops set camps on the Sherrick property. Over the next month, as troops stayed on the battlefield, they raided Sherrick’s house for food and took the crops of Emmert. After the Battle, the House and Building survived but the farm was at a devastating loss of crops, fences, and dead bodies buried in the fields.  By the following year, Joseph Sherrick Jr and His wife Sara moved with the son-in-law into a house in Funkstown while the Mumma whose house was burned during the Battle of Antietam took shelter in the house while they rebuilt in 1863. Sherrick Attempted to be compensated for his loss of food and crops but mention he was living on the property at the time of the battle and was declined. Sherrick would later die ten years later on August 10th, 1871, while the newcomer family would take over the farm.

After the years of being passed down generation of the Newcomer-Sherrick family, it was sold out of the family in 1925 to James Dorsey.  During this time the house went under modification including electricity in 1958. In 1964 the National Park Service who acquired Antietam battlefield from the war department in 1933 bought the Sherrick Farm and the entire 186-acre Property. In 1964 four out of six buildings had survived and with the acquisition of the property, a bypass road was created to reduce the traffic of the burnside bridge. The creation of this bypass destroyed the front yard of the Sherrick house and reduced visitation to the Sherrick farm. In the early 1980s during a summer night lighting struck the old bank barn catching it ablaze with only the foundation surviving. Since then, the Sherrick farm has been overshadowed by being in a part of the battlefield people drive by. The only accessible way to view the Sherrick farm is hiking from the burnside bridge across the Otto farm towards a small lane crossing the bypass road.