Author Scott Mingus will be at the Museum to discuss Pennsylvania's response Confederate Brigadier General John B. Gordon's invasion.

One of the most strategically important parts of the 1863 Gettysburg Campaign today is virtually unknown to the modern battlefield tramper. In late June, Confederate Brig. Gen. John B. Gordon led a vital expedition through south-central Pennsylvania with a goal of seizing the mile-long Columbia-Wrightsville Bridge over the Susquehanna River. Along the way, Gordon had to deal with hastily recruited and barely trained state emergency militia whose mission was to delay the Rebels for as long as possible and then deny them the use of the river crossings at Harrisburg and Wrightsville. This PowerPoint talk covers the first fighting at Gettysburg (a series of skirmishes on June 26), the subsequent cavalry raid on Hanover Junction, Gordon’s triumphal Sunday parade through York, and the skirmish at Wrightsville that doomed the Gordon expedition to failure.

Book signing to follow.

Scott L. Mingus, Sr. has written seven Civil War books, including Human Interest Stories of the Gettysburg Campaign (Volumes 1 and 2) and Flames Beyond Gettysburg: The Gordon Expedition. His latest book, The Louisiana Tigers in the Gettysburg Campaign, was published in October by LSU Press. His new manuscript, Gettysburg Glimpses 2: More True Stories from the Battlefield, will be published in May 2010.Mingus has written several articles for The Gettysburg Magazine. He maintains a popular blog on the Civil War history of York County, Pa., for the York Daily Record (www.yorkblog.com/cannonball), and he is a sanctioned Civil War tour guide for the York County Heritage Trust. He also has written five scenario books on wargaming. Scott and his wife Debi publish CHARGE!, the leading international magazine for Civil War miniature wargaming.         

This lecture is free to the public; however, an admission ticket is required to tour the galleries.