It is late June 1863 in southern Pennsylvania. The Confederates are invading the North, and one of their toughest and most cantankerous generals has decided to capture the grand covered bridge that spans the Susquehanna from Wrightsville to Columbia. From there, General Jubal Early plans to capture Lancaster, and then seize the state's capital, Harrisburg. General Early had orders to destroy it, but intended to capture it on his way to siege the North. Fire on the River tells the story that is often described as a mere skirmish in most history books. What happened in the tiny village of Wrightsville, Pennsylvania, on June 28, 1863, changes the course of the Civil War. Here is the story that for so long has been overlooked in the history books. It is an amazing story of courage, and perhaps not surprisingly, how the U.S. Congress never compensated the bridge's owner for the loss, yet the burning of the covered bridge probably saved the Union. [from Amazon.com]
Originally published: Lancaster, Pa. : Office of the Journal, 1883.
Includes index.
African American resources at Lancaster County Historical Society.
Summary
This book was written in 1883 by Robert Clemons Smedley, a Chester County Pennsylvania physician who interviewed participants in the underground railroad. He was not a historian and was not unbiased. But he is considered to have been conscientious in his efforts to record the stories he was told. He wrote about events as described to him by person who themselves were involved, both those fleeing slavery and those assisting them.Topics in chapters 1 & 2 include William Wright and Columbia, PA. Chapter 8 is about the "Christiana Tragedy".
Prepared for Pennsylvania Department of Transportation, Engineering District 8-0.
CD inserted in envelope in back of v.1.
Contents
Project need and description--Description of the area of potential effect--Methodology--Summary of previous documentation--Results of reconnaissance survey--Historical overview--Agricultural context--Community development context--Industrial context--Transportation context--Tourism context--Survey and report methodology.
Written historical and descriptive data and photographs [a state-level recordation, Pennsylvania Historical and Museum Commission, Bureau for Historic Preservation.
Historic structures Survey and Determination of Eligibility Report : East Lampeter, Leacock, Strasburg, Paradise, Salisbury, and Sadsbury Townships, Lancaster County, Pensylvania
"Produced for Rivertownes PA USA in commemoration of the 140th anniversary of the burning of the Columbia-Wrightsville Bridge on 28 June 1863, this program narrates the dramatic story of the bridge's destruction and details the valiant attempt of an outnumbered detachment of raw Union militia to halt the advance of Confederate Brigadier General John Gordon's determined veteran infantry."
Also "introduces the poignant, very risky participation of a company of free blacks from Columbia."
History of Ephrata and Lebanon Street Railway Company, Ephrata and Lebanon Traction Company, Lancaster, Ephrata and Lebanon Street Railway Company : and any other trolley roads in Lebanon and Lancaster Counties, Pennsylvania
Digging up details of ordinary lives : an archaeological investigation of a 19th- and 20th-century residential site in Leaman Place, Lancaster County, PA
Archaeological investigation of a 19th- and 20th-century residential site in Leaman Place, Lancaster County, PA
Responsibility
investigation conducted by Cultural Heritage Research Services, Inc. (CHRS) ; sponsored and funded by the Pennsylvania Department of Transportation in consultation with the Pennsylvania Historical and Museum Commission.
Journal of the Lancaster County Historical Society v.103, no.2.
Contents
From slavery to freedom--middle class African-Americans in Lancaster County (Hannah Bosley, William Whipper, Stephen Smith, Dinah McIntire)--Joseph Simon: Jewish merchant and philanthropist of the eighteenth century--Firefighting in early Lancaster--Family history at the Lancaster County Historical Society (Demuth family history)--Cooking in the County--Blanche Nevin--Lloyd Mifflin: artist and sonneteer--The bridge at Columbia--Ephrata Cloister--A distinguished military family (Henry A. Hambright)--A midwife (Susana Rohrer Mueller)--John Wise, balloonist (1808-1879)--Jasper Yeates, attorney and Pennsylvania Supreme Court Justice--Thaddeus Stevens--Robert Fulton, engineer and artist--"Gold!" (John Augustus Sutter)--George Washington--Oddities and the END.
