The War Between the States
In early 1863, a number of local black citizens enlisted in the 54th Massachusetts Infantry, a regiment composed of black soldiers serving under white officers. The unit achieved fame in an assault on Fort Wagner in South Carolina. Other local citizens fought in various regiments of the United States Colored Troops. Some of these veterans are buried in a cemetery located near Fifth Street.
On June 28, 1863, during the Gettysburg Campaign, the replacement covered bridge was burned by Columbia residents and the Pennsylvania state militia to prevent Confederate soldiers of the Army of Northern Virginia from entering Lancaster County. Lee had hoped to invade Harrisburg from the rear and move eastward to Lancaster and Philadelphia, and in the process destroy railroad yards and other facilities. Under General Jubal A. Early’s command and following Lee’s orders, General John B. Gordon was to place Lancaster and the surrounding farming area “under contribution” for the Confederate Army’s war supplies and to attack Harrisburg from the east side of the river while another portion of Lee’s army advanced from the west side. General Early was given orders to burn the bridge but hoped instead to capture it, while Union forces under the command of Colonel Jacob G. Frick and Major Granville O. Haller, hoping to save the bridge, were forced to burn it.
With the Union Army of the Potomac hastening northward into Maryland and Pennsylvania, Robert E. Lee ordered his widely scattered forces to withdraw to Heidlersburg and Cashtown (not far from Gettysburg) to rendezvous with other contingents of the Confederate Army. The burning of the Columbia-Wrightsville Bridge thwarted one of Lee’s goals for the invasion of Pennsylvania, and General Gordon later claimed the skirmish at Wrightsville reinforced the Confederate belief that the only defensive forces on hand were inefficient local militia, an attitude that carried over to the first day of the Battle of Gettysburg.
Owners of the bridge petitioned congress repeatedly for reimbursement well into the 1960s, but were denied payment.
The Burning of the Bridge
Late in the afternoon of June 28, 1863, Confederate 
General John B. Gordon peered through his field glasses at the Yankee defenses of the bridge at Wrightsville, the only bridge across the Susquehanna River between Harrisburg, Pennsylvania and Conowingo, Maryland. The note placed in his hands by a girl as he rode through York had proven to be extremely accurate. Still, Gordon had to plan carefully, since the Yankees had probably rigged the bridge for destruction.
This magnificent wooden structure was reputed to be the longest covered wooden bridge in the world. Built in 1834, it measured 5,620 feet from end to end. The Wrightsville Bridge was a combined railroad and highway span, and on its downstream side included a unique two-level towpath for the Pennsylvania Canal, which crossed the Susquehanna here and continued downriver to Baltimore. The bridge owner, the Columbia Bank, operated the bridge as a very profitable toll business.
Union Colonel Jacob G. Frick was in command of the bridge’s defenses. Frick had formerly led a nine-month Pennsylvania infantry regiment that had been mustered out of service in May. Now Frick commanded the 27th Pennsylvania Militia, which had only arrived in Wrightsville on June 24.
Major Granville Haller, U. S. Army, had also arrived on the scene on the 27th and quickly disposed of the traffic jam approaching the bridge by persuading the bridge company president to allow the horde of refugees on the western bank of the river to pass over the river free of charge.
By the time Gordon’s men approached, Frick had constructed a crescent-shaped earthwork defense to cover his 1,400 soldiers. In addition to his own regiment, Frick had part of another Pennsylvania militia regiment, three additional companies of white troops, a company of free blacks from Lancaster County, and two companies of militia cavalry.
Frick realized that his untested recruits would not be able to hold against any determined assault by Southern veterans, but they could slow them down long enough to withdraw across the bridge. Once the Yankees withdrew, he could render the bridge impassable 
by using gunpowder to blow up a span in mid-river. That way, the three Union cannon on the eastern bank of the river could control the bridge and prevent the enemy from repairing the damage.
Militia and townspeople barricaded side streets in Wrightsville to prevent a sudden enemy foray against the defenders. Rail cars were lined up on tracks parallel to the river to prevent enemy horsemen from dashing across the bridge before it could be disabled. Preparations were still underway when at about 5:30pm on the afternoon of June 28 they spotted a long line of Confederate skirmishers cautiously moving through fields of wheat and corn.
Convinced that the best way to approach the Yankees was a flanking movement to the south, General Gordon had sent his men out along Kreutz Creek. Unfamiliar with the terrain, they moved slowly, scouting for hidden bluecoats. Scattered fire broke out as the Rebels began to probe the Yankee defenses.
Then Captain W. A. Tanner unlimbered his four cannon along the York Pike and began to fire at the Yankee defenses and also hit houses in Wrightsville. (Gordon would later justify the bombardment by writing that because the Yankee defenses incorporated the whole town anything within the defensive perimeter was fair game.)
The start of the artillery bombardment was enough for Colonel Frick. With no artillery of his own on the western shore with which to reply, Frick ordered a withdrawal across the bridge before the enemy could close with his soldiers. The brief “battle” of Wrightsville resulted in one Yankee death (the victim was a member of the African-American company) and a lieutenant colonel and nineteen men taken prisoner. Gordon reported one of his men wounded.
Once across the bridge, Frick ordered the powder charges under the fourth span ignited. The resulting explosion damaged the span, but failed to collapse it into the Susquehanna. Worried that the Rebels might now capture the bridge, Frick–who had already had some of the timbers saturated with oil and kerosene in case of just this emergency– ordered the entire structure torched. The timbers lit easily, but soon winds spread the flames across the entire bridge.
Pursuing Confederates ran onto the bridge and tried to prevent the flames from spreading, but they had no buckets or other fire-fighting equipment. Gordon ordered citizens in Wrightsville to produce such items, but they claimed that the Yankees had taken everything. But then, when winds blew the fire into the edge of town, civilians quickly brought forth buckets and pails and formed a fire-fighting brigade to assist the soldiers in combating the flames.
When the fire was over, three houses, two lumberyards, and a foundry had gone up in smoke. Later, after reading Northern newspapers that told of how the Rebels burned Wrightsville, Gordon complained of the “base ingratitude of our enemies” in spreading such malicious gossip.
To express their gratitude to the Confederates for their help in saving Wrightsville from certain destruction, James F. Magee invited General Gordon to use his residence as his headquarters for the night. The next morning, Magee’s daughter served breakfast for the general and his staff. Gordon asked her if she was a Southern sympathizer and had written the note handed to him in York, but she replied that her husband was an army doctor and, no, she was a steadfast Unionist. To this day, it has never been ascertained who wrote the note passed to Gordon.
The day of the fire, General Jubal Early had decided to ride toward Wrightsville to see how Gordon’s expedition had fared. In his report, Early wrote that he “had not proceeded far before I saw an immense smoke rising in the direction of the Susquehanna.” Early then heard from Gordon the story of the skirmish and burning of the bridge, which collapsed into the river in a final burst of fire and smoke later that night. Early was disappointed, for he had wished to use the bridge to move his men across the Susquehanna, seize Lancaster, and then march on Harrisburg even as other units attacked the Pennsylvania capital from the west.
On June 29, as nervous Yankees patrolled the eastern shore and watched for evidence of a Confederate boat crossing, Gordon’s men vacated the area and marched back to York, where Early concentrated his division.
Post-War
After the bridge burning, a tugboat, “Columbia,” was used to tow the canal boat across the river. In 1868, yet another replacement covered bridge was built, but was destroyed by a hurricane in 1896.
The next bridge, the Pennsylvania Railroad Bridge, was an open-air bridge constructed of steel, and carried the tracks of the Pennsylvania Railroad and a two-lane roadway for cars. It was dismantled for scrap by November 1964. Its stone piers, which supported the Civil War era bridge, can still be seen today, running parallel to the Veterans’ Memorial Bridge on Route 462. The piers have become the site of present-day “Flames Across the Susquehanna” bridge-burning reenactments sponsored by Rivertownes PA USA.
By the mid-1800s Columbia had become a busy transportation hub with its ferry, bridge, canal, railroad and wharves. It was a major transshipment point for lumber, coal, grain, pig iron, and people. Important industries of the time included warehousing, tobacco processing, iron production, clock making and boat building. some of the local industries were the Ashley & Baily Silk Mill, The Columbia Lace Mill, and H.F. Bruner & Sons.
Trolley service for the borough and the surrounding area was established in 1893, allowing Columbians to take advantage of economic opportunities in Lancaster and other surrounding towns. Between 1830 and 1900, the Borough’s population increased from 2,046 to 12,316.
From about 1854 to 1900 an industrial complex existed in and around Columbia, Marietta and Wrightsville that included 11 anthracite iron furnaces and related structures, as well as canal and railroad facilities servicing them. By 1887, that number had grown to 13 blast furnaces operating within a three-mile (5 km) radius of Columbia. The furnaces, which produced pig iron, exemplified the technology of the day through their use of anthracite coal and hot blast for smelting iron ores, a process that dominated the iron industry briefly before the widespread use of coke as a fuel. Since northeastern Pennsylvania could supply a rich source of anthracite coal to areas which had none, anthracite-fired furnaces, using locally available iron ores, were built throughout eastern Pennsylvania, helping make the state a leader in iron production in the latter half of the 19th century. Lancaster County also became a leader in pig iron production during this time, with the complex of furnaces in the river towns contributing significantly to its output.
In 1875, a new three-story grand town hall was opened, featuring a second-floor auditorium that seated over 900 and was used as an opera house. The second floor’s ceiling was higher than those of the first and third floors, and each level contained 60 windows. The building also included office shops, council chambers, storerooms and market stalls. A 140-foot (43 m)-high bell tower, holding the town clock, crowned the building. The clock was visible from all over the borough, and its bell was audible throughout the surrounding countryside. The building was destroyed by fire in December 1947, but was rebuilt as a one-story municipal building that exists today.
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