SHAF Wins State Grant for Tolson’s Chapel

May 1, 2006

The Maryland Historical Trust anounced a grant to the Save Historic Antietam Foundation (SHAF) of $50,000 in FY2007 for “carpentry and masonry repairs to foundation, sills, floors & supports, roof repairs and installation of cupola” on Tolson’s Chapel in Sharpsburg.

Tolson's ChapelTolson’s was used as a free school immediately after the Civil War, educating the town’s African-American children. It is one of very few free schools still standing in the state of Maryland. Following construction of a slightly larger school in town, the building was used as an AME church until the mid-20th century. When SHAF acquired it in 2003, Tolson’s Chapel had not been touched since its closing.

SHAF teams have stabilized the structure and are now planning further preservation activities.

SHAF logo in white

SHAF has been preserving and protecting historic sites related to the Battle of Antietam, the Maryland Campaign, and other Civil War activity in the region since 1986. We need your help to keep it going.

Col. Strong's horse

Antietam Witness

The number of dead horses was high. They lay, like the men, in all attitudes. One beautiful milk-white animal had died in so graceful a position that I wished for its photograph. Its legs were doubled under and its arched neck gracefully turned to one side, as if looking back to the ball-hole in its side. Until you got to it, it was hard to believe the horse was dead.


- Alpheus Williams

September 22, 1862