Pictures
Not available at this time. We would like to hear from you if you have any photographs of 'your' hill. If they are added to this site you will receive full photo credits.

Area History
Founded in 1824 as "Harley's Post Office", the village of Burkittsville retains much of its 19th Century Appearance with structures ranging from small log homes to more stately turn-of-the-century Victorians. The town's close ties with the surrounding agricultural community and its significance as a key Civil War battlefield site have gained national recognition through placement on the National Register of Historic Places in 1975 and by its designation as an official Maryland Rural Historic Village. The quiet rural Burkittsville of today stands in sharp contrast to that of the September Sunday in 1862 when horses, men, cannons, and rifled muskets burst onto Main Street and into the fields adjacent to the village. The Union and Confederate armies of McClellan and Lee met here in the pivotal battle, of the pivotal campaign, of the most pivotal war on American soil.

Nearly 30,000 Union and Confederate troops passed through town during the 1862 Maryland Campaign and another 100,000 during the campaigns of 1863 and 1864, marching to and from Crampton's Gap in South Mountain. During the Battle for Crampton's Gap its houses were shelled, used for cover, and were finally converted to field hospitals by surgeons of the victorious Union Sixth Army Corps. Most of its wartime homes are still standing and appear much as they did in 1862, offering a virtually untouched wartime townscape and adjoining farm fields.