York Daily Record, September 15, 2012 (photo from 1930s)
Wrightsville. December 2020
(The first photo) shows Wrightsville only 65 years after the Civil War. The farmland in the foreground - divided by the Lincoln Highway, now Route 462 - is a battlefield, acreage covered in the Battle of Wrightsville. It was the land Confederates crossed, against Union entrenchments, in their rush to secure the wooden covered bridge then spanning the river. Much of that land is now developed or is being built over. It shows the rebels had a long run to the bridgehead, after tramping 20 miles on a hot day in late June 1863. It was a fruitless run, as we know, because the bridge was aflame, torched by Union troops to impede enemy passage across the river.
York Daily Record, Jim McClure, September 15, 2012.
During the lockdown year in Wrightsville, I explored all kinds of nooks and crannies in the boro. One of the most interesting discoveries was the plaque that described a "battle" of sorts there during the Civil War. As the article outlines above, the Union troops had dug in defensively, but perhaps upon seeing an overwhelming Confederate force, after three days Union troops abandoned their posts and ran to the bridge to set fire to it (Plan B?). I am not sure then if the Battle of Wrightsville was actually a battle or more of a strategic withdrawal which led to the far more famous bridge burning.
As an interesting historical footnote, the burning bridge cause fires all over Wrightsville and it was the CONFEDERATE troops that came to the town's aid and helped put out those fires. The locals being thankful later offered them hospitality before their long retreat back to Gettysburg. I learned said events from a Wrightsville Historical Society member, by the way. History sure is filled with little hiccups.
And as I have mentioned numerous times, I learned NONE of this history in my high school about one mile up the hill from this site. It... astonishes....me.