Editing Columbia, Pennsylvania (section)

====Civil War====
In early 1863, as the [[American Civil War]] raged, a number of local [[African Americans|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]]. [[Stephen Atkins Swails|Stephen Swails]], one of its members, may have been the first African-American officer commissioned during the Civil War. 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 States Army|Confederate]] soldiers of the [[Army of Northern Virginia]] from entering Lancaster County. General [[Robert E. 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 [[Columbia–Wrightsville Bridge|bridge]] but hoped instead to capture it, while [[Union Army|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. Owners of the bridge petitioned Congress repeatedly for reimbursement well into the 1960s, but were denied payment.

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, Pennsylvania|Heidlersburg]] and [[Cashtown, Pennsylvania|Cashtown]] (not far from [[Gettysburg, Pennsylvania|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 erroneous 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]].