Lancaster Civil War Round Table

03/08/2026

The Susquehanna National Heritage Area (SNHA) is proud to announce a transformative sponsorship from the Louise Steinman von Hess Foundation supporting the illumination of all 26 bridge piers of the Columbia–Wrightsville Bridge on June 28, 2026, as the grand finale of Riverfest 2026. This dramatic lighting will commemorate the Civil War burning of the world’s longest covered bridge and mark our region’s place in America’s national narrative.

Thanks to the Foundation’s generous support, this will be the first time all 26 bridge piers have been lit simultaneously since the 150th anniversary of the Civil War in 2013. In prior years, SNHA and its heritage partners were only able to illuminate three piers at a time for Riverfest. Lighting the full span heightens the scale and emotional power of the historic event and creates a breathtaking river-wide spectacle visible across both river communities.

Learn more about Riverfest at https://riverfestpa.com/

03/08/2026

The Civil War crashed into Wilmer McLean’s life before he ever chose a side. In July 1861, the first major land battle, the First Battle of Bull Run, erupted directly on his Virginia farm. Confederate General Beauregard used McLean’s house as a headquarters, and Union artillery fire tore through his property, even sending a cannonball into his kitchen. McLean later said the war “began in my front yard,” and he meant it literally.

Hoping to protect his family from the chaos, McLean moved more than a hundred miles south to the quiet village of Appomattox Court House. For four years, he lived in relative peace, believing he had finally outrun the conflict that had once consumed his home. But fate had other plans. As the Confederacy collapsed in 1865, Union and Confederate leaders needed a neutral, respectable place to negotiate surrender and they chose McLean’s new house.

On April 9, 1865, Generals Ulysses S. Grant and Robert E. Lee met in McLean’s parlor to sign the terms that effectively ended the Civil War. Officers eager for souvenirs bought or took his furniture, leaving the room nearly bare. McLean later summed up his strange place in history with a single line: the war began in his front yard and ended in his front parlor.

02/28/2026

02/27/2026

Visit Lafayette Square - the site of the scandalous 1859 murder of Philip Barton Key by none other than Congressman Dan Sickles - with Battle of Gettysburg P...

02/24/2026

02/23/2026

I'm dropping this amazing photograph to say that it may be the single coolest snapshot in time I have seen from the Gettysburg battlefield.

The majestic Pennsylvania Monument nears completion on Hancock Avenue in 1910. Just, Wow!

02/19/2026

02/16/2026

Academy Award-winning actor Robert Duvall died Monday, his wife Luciana confirmed on social media. The "Apocalypse Now" actor was 95.

02/14/2026

View Gabor S. Boritt's obituary, contribute to their memorial, see their funeral service details, and more.

02/07/2026

02/03/2026

Attached earlobes, curly hair, eyes open, mustache, slight chin whiskers, cartridge box, and wearing a dark shirt, he met his end near Spotsylvania next to a pile of brush and fence rails.

I have been for decades drawn to the sad scene from which this detail comes. Photographer Timothy O’Sullivan appeared to have been likewise drawn to this man, perhaps because of his youth, as he appears in three of his six photos here depicting human carnage.  I rotated the photo detail and played with contrast and shadow a little. William Frassanito lays out the specifics of this series in his excellent Grant and Lee book. He speculates that the soldier may have been a member of Ramseur’s Brigade. To thise who cared about him, he was likely brother, son, husband, or friend. Links to the full plate and to the other two photos that show him (one after being arranged for burial by the first Massachusetts heavy artillery).