History

We have found no bullet holes and have met no spirits even though Antietam House has survived since 1856. It sits on Lot 74, one of the 187 lots laid out by Joseph Chapline in 1763 known as the town of
Sharpes Burgh.

The house at 111 West Chapline is noted on the Doubleday survey map of September 17, 1862, but we have found no other mention of the house in accounts of the Battle of Antietam and its aftermath. It is believed, however, that General Robert E. Lee and Confederate troops traveled through the field behind the house on the way to the battlegrounds of the Cornfield and the West Woods.

An 1888 survey map shows the house on Potomac (now Chapline) Street, was owned by B. Bender, the Benjamin Bender who married Elizabeth Painter on June 11, 1861. In 1869, her father George Painter deeded Lot 74 to her. The 1870 census has the Benders and their 4-year-old son William living in the house.

An 1880 census report lists eight persons living in the small house: the Benders, five children, and Samuel Bender, Benjamin's father, then a widower.

Raleigh Bender, a C&O canal boatman for 35 years, was one of the nine children born to Benjamin and Elizabeth Bender. Raleigh Bender is the Captain Bender of Bender's Tavern and Antietam Café on East Main Street in Sharpsburg .

The 1922 Sanborn map shows the house and an outbuilding at the back of the property. A stone foundation remains. It is believed that the outbuilding as used to house canal mules. The standing summer kitchen is not noted on any of the three maps, which are displayed in Antietam House.