Gordon brigade causes havoc before Gettysburg

• Article
• Comments ()
• Click-2-Listen
• Videos

By

THE GORDON EXPEDITION, JUNE 1863

By Scott L. Mingus Sr.

Ironclad Publishing

$23.95, 624 pages, illus.

REVIEWED BY THOMAS J. RYAN

We normally think of Gettysburg in terms of the combat that took place in that remote south-central Pennsylvania town on July 1, 2 and 3, 1863. In actuality, that battle was the apex of a campaign that lasted nearly two months. During that time, a series of clashes occurred that influenced the outcome of Gen. Robert E. Lee's bold invasion of the North.

Scott L. Mingus Sr.'s "Flames Beyond Gettysburg: The Gordon Expedition, June 1863" focuses on one obscure but critical event during that period, in the small riverfront town of Wrightsville, Pa., on June 28 -- three days before the Battle of Gettysburg.

The community's claim to fame was a mile-long covered bridge, mostly wooden, across which railroad trains, wheeled vehicles and pedestrians crossed to the town of Columbia on the opposite side of the Susquehanna River. Canal barges powered by mules moved along an adjacent towpath.

While this book describes Lee's 1863 invasion, it more specifically highlights a single brigade in his army -- six Georgia regiments under the command of the capable and aggressive Brig. Gen. John B. Gordon. Gordon led his brigade through Waynesboro and Gettysburg, then on to York. Ultimately, he arrived in Wrightsville, a few miles east of York, with orders to capture and hold the bridge for the passage of Maj. Gen. Jubal A. Early's division to the eastern side of the river.

Mr. Mingus' extensive volume, which is clearly written, scrupulously edited and well-organized, covers a lot of ground before it concentrates on the Wrightsville story. It follows Lee's army and Gordon's Georgians in early June from their starting point south of Fredericksburg, Va., and the Rappahannock River west to the Shenandoah Valley and north to the Potomac River before crossing into Maryland.