The "Understanding One's History: Part I" Story

It was an ordinary day.  The fireworks had come and gone, the holiday sales had all ended and the TV and newspaper stories of our National heroes had all gone to press.  The 4th of July was a big event in Lancaster this year, since the Battle of Gettysburg was celebrating it's 150th anniversary and Gettysburg is only 40 miles west on the Lincoln Highway from my house.  But for me, a much bigger event was the burning of the mile-long Columbia-Wrightsville Bridge on June 28th, 1863 a few days before the final battle in Gettysburg.  Story goes like this ......... by late June of 1863 the Confederate Army had arrived in Pennsylvania and advanced as far as York, PA.  

Letter addressed to President Lincoln

A letter Sent by Simon Cameron from Harrisburg, the capital of Pennsylvania, on June 28, 1983 to Abraham Lincoln told of General Lee having almost 100,000 men between Chambersburg and Gettysburg.  Told that they had over 250 pieces of artillery and within the next 48 hours would cross the Susquehanna River.  The Southern forces wanted to capture Pennsylvania's capital city of Harrisburg as well as head to Philadelphia to be closer to Washington.  It has been said that if the Confederate soldiers could capture Harrisburg or Philadelphia, England and France were going to recognize the Confederate States of America as a country.  To get to either of these cities they had to cross the Susquehanna River into Columbia which is in Lancaster County.  The long wooden covered double-track railroad bridge connected the York County city of Wrightsville with Columbia.  The Confederate Army advanced to Wrightsville and Lt. General Ewell ordered Major General Early to destroy the bridge.  Early decided to keep the bridge intact to use as the route to attack Harrisburg.  The Pennsylvania militiamen from Columbia as well as the Union troops who were retreating from York and a company of African American militiamen vowed to block their way at the Wrightsville end of the bridge.  On June 28th Confederate Brigadier General Gordon arrived with his 1,800 troops in Wrightsville and opened up with artillery fire on the 1,200 Union troops.  As they retreated towards Columbia they lit fuses they had planted to blow up the bridge.  When that failed to destroy the bridge, Union Col. Jacob Frick ordered the bridge torched.

Wrightsville-Columbia Bridge from the
Columbia side showing the PRR tracks.

 The Union troops had previously poured oil from a local Columbia refinery on the wooden structure to help with the destruction.  As the Confederates entered the bridge, it erupted in flames and burned for six hours with Gorden's men attempting to extinguish the fire.  The following day Gordon's troops were recalled to York.  The Pennsylvania militia had saved Columbia as well as Lancaster and Harrisburg and led to the eventual defeat of the South at Gettysburg.  The bridge that was destroyed was the second that spanned the Susquehanna at that location.  I have driven over the newer version many times in the last 50 some years.  Today it is State Rt. 462, but at one time was part of the famous Lincoln Highway which ran from the east to the west coast.  With all of the history surrounding this bridge and its importance, I will post another story tomorrow about the history of this beautiful bridge.  PS - check out the photos and paintings I found of the burning of the bridge.

Photo I recently took of the current bridge.

A recent reenactment had the bridge burning by lighting baskets placed on piers of the original wooden bridge.

A former teacher, Gardiner C. Criswell, at Lancaster McCaskey High School and Millersville State College painted this depiction of the burning of the Wrightsville-Columbia Bridge.  He attended public schools in
Columbia and did many paintings of Columbia and Lancaster County.  He died in 1968.