On Sunday, June 28, 1863, thick smoke blackened the sky as the world's longest covered bridge burned to prevent Confederates from crossing the Susquehanna River into Lancaster County during the Gettysburg Campaign. In six hours, flames consumed the span, leaving only 20 piers in the river. Gen. John B. Gordon had arrived at Wrightsville after occupying York with 1,800 Georgia infantrymen, accompanied by cavalry and a four-gun battery of Virginia artillery. Opposing him was a motley force of 1,500 emergency militia and home guard, including more than 50 free Black men who worked in a Columbia rolling mill. They delayed his advance, then retreated across the bridge. After attempts to destroy part of the span with charges of gunpowder failed, civilians set the bridge on fire. The next morning, Gordon reluctantly withdrew to York. The sturdy toll bridge, more than a mile-and-a-quarter long, was the second at this site and had been built in the 1830s. Settlers headed west on this crossing, while Black freedom seekers went east on the span along the Underground Railroad into Lancaster County. The bridge was not rebuilt until after the war, and a severe windstorm destroyed the replacement crossing in 1896.