Background post: 2008 speaker schedule - York CWRT
The next meeting of the York Civil War Round Table will be Wednesday, June 18, at 7:00 p.m. at the York County Heritage Trust's auditorium (250 E. Market Street in York). The guest speaker will be Mr. Tom Schaefer, a long-time York County historian and local educator. Tom will speak on the topic "The Skirmish at Wrightsville: A Tactical Analysis."
Tom has provided a synopsis of his talk, which dovetails nicely with my upcoming book on the bridge burning from Ironclad Publishing.
"We all know the outcome: the bridge was torched. This program examines, in detail, the tactics employed by both the Confederate attackers and the Union Militia who defended the Columbia/ Wrightsville Bridge on Sunday, 28 June, 1863. How was it that a scratch unit, mostly consisting of untrained militia, kept a veteran Confederate brigade from achieving its objective? Or, did Brig. General John B. Gordon just have a bad day? Or, was it a combination of both factors, plus other factors not usually considered? What of 1863 Wrightsville itself?
Historian Tom Schaefer provides some new insights for this still understudied portion of the Gettysburg Campaign. A student of the campaign since 1979, Schaefer authored “To Defend or Destroy?” a publication for the Rivertownes’ 140th anniversary celebration of the Wrightsville Skirmish. He also wrote and directed a video production by the same title. When at Penn State York, Schaefer conceived and taught more than two dozen courses pertaining to aspects of the campaign and battle of Gettysburg."
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