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A Retrospective of the Confederate Invasion of 1863

Bridge Burning from Upper Part of a Civil War era B&W Illustration (Colorization and Text added by S. H. Smith, 2013)
Bridge Burning from Upper Part of a Civil War era B&W Illustration (Colorization and Text added by S. H. Smith, 2013)

Why is the 151st anniversary commemorated far less than the 150th?  Sometime in the distant past, a 150th anniversary was considered a milestone; the 151st, not so much.

After the age of 21, most birthday milestones are 30, 40, 50, 60, etc., i.e. every 10 years.  Commemoration milestones of more than 100 years typically jump 25 years.  Last year was the Sesquicentennial (150th) and get ready in 2038 for the Dodransbicentennial (175th).

This retrospective of the Confederate Invasion of 1863, is for the “Sesquicentennial Plus One” commemoration.  The following are a few of my top posts related to the Confederate Invasion of 1863:

Yt14A Personal Connection to the Burning of The Columbia-Wrightsville Bridge 150-Years-Ago

My Great Grandfather, John Gilbert, assisted in boring holes so that charges could be set in a span of the Bridge between Wrightsville & Columbia; to prevent rebels from crossing the Susquehanna River during the Civil War.  Three photos of John Gilbert and nice comments.

Yt21Find Lincoln on the Gettysburg Speakers Platform

Answering questions to my post Witness to Gettysburg Address, where I received more e-mail than with any other post.

Yt22Letters in the Attic, by Cassandra Small; the Discovery

Cassandra (Small) Franklin discovered letters in an attic that her aunt Cassandra M. Small wrote during the Confederate Invasion of York, PA, in 1863.  Cassandra (Small) Franklin had these letters published as “Letters of ’63.”

Yt23Letters in the Attic, by Cassandra Small; Letter of June 30th, 1863

This second part of Letters in the Attic provides answers inserted between paragraphs of the letter Cassandra Small wrote to Lissie Latimer on June 30th, 1863.

Yt13RAILCAR GOLD Chapter 8 . . Rebels . . Part 1

An installment of my historical novel is posted every Thursday.  Starting in June, I introduced a link to Chapter 8 that has proven popular not only to Rebels but also to successive chapters: Lincoln, Work and Princeton.

Yt24RAILCAR GOLD Chapter 9 . . Lincoln . . Part 1

A short-cut directly to the Lincoln chapter in my historical novel.

Yt19Witness to Gettysburg Address

Most historians presently believe that Lincoln stood on a platform in the neighboring Evergreen Cemetery to deliver his famous Gettysburg Address.  I decided to plot viewpoints, of a photograph by Alexander Gardner and a sketch by Joseph Becker, on a map to draw my own conclusions.

Yt25Letters to LINCOLN during the Invasion; “Burning bridges on the Northern Central”

The President was keenly interested in the state of the Northern Central Railway because it was a principal supply link for not only the Union Army but also for supplying Washington D.C. during the war.

Yt201925 Article sheds light on President Lincoln photograph at Hanover Junction

The Mathew Brady photograph purportedly showing President Abraham Lincoln standing on a railway platform was misidentified for many years.  In the early 1950s the railway station was correctly identified as Hanover Junction, which set off a debate; is that really Lincoln on the day before he delivered the Gettysburg Address?  A 1925 article sheds light on the debate; of significance is the fact this 1925 article was printed long before the photograph was correctly identified as Hanover Junction in the early 1950s.

Yt17Locomotives that pulled Abraham Lincoln through York County; Lincoln Funeral Train

The Lincoln Funeral Train used as many as 42 different locomotives to make the, over 1600 mile round-about route, funeral train journey from Washington, D.C. to President Lincoln’s burial site in Springfield, Illinois.

The following are links to a few other posts related to the Confederate Invasion of 1863:

Reading the HEADLINES; A Quick Index to ALL YorksPast Posts