In his recently published book on the Louisiana Tigers, Scott Mingus tells the wonderful story of Confederate Gen. Jubal Early meeting the widow Zinn.

"Are you goin' to destroy us, are you going to take all that we've got?" the resident of western York County's Big Mount asked Early.

Early replied: "No madam, and to give you the best protection possible, I will stay with you, with my staff, and no one shall trouble you."

Early then visited one of his brigade commanders, John B. Gordon, at nearby Farmers.

When he returned at about 9 p.m., Mrs. Zinn had saved a supper of 15 varieties of food -- meats, vegetables, coffee and milk.

"While he was eating, Widow Zinn, no longer fearful, was instead very talkative, wanting to discuss the merits of Stonewall Jackson, among other topics," Mingus wrote. "She gave Early a good clean bed, and the well-fed general enjoyed an excellent night's sleep."

The next day, Early's gray division marched into York for a two-day occupation.

Mingus and other writers in the present renaissance of interest in York County Civil War history accomplish more than telling interesting stories.

In covering this moment in which rebel troops overran York County in late June 1863, they tell about common York County life of that period. They tell about the lives of everyday people -- women and people of color who have been so long overlooked.

This renaissance has created more than a dozen books on York County in the Civil War since

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2000. That thawed what amounted to a century-plus deep freeze in local Civil War book publishing.

In concluding a recent presentation at a Leadership York educators' diversity seminar, I used a story Mingus uncovered in his "Flames Beyond Gettysburg" as an example of how Civil War scholarship also is helping York County look at race.

As Gordon's rebels charged the Susquehanna River bridge linking Wrightsville and Columbia, Union troops feverishly worked to blast a bridge span that would have stopped any Confederate advance.

"One old negro to whom was entrusted the duty of igniting the fuse sat very coolly on the edge of the pier, smoking a cigar," Mingus wrote.

That image of a solitary black man positioned to stop an entire Confederate brigade's march to the backside of a northern capital city -- Harrisburg -- is a delicious moment, packed with meaning.

So, when writers today probe the Civil War, they're also probing the long overlooked lives of people of color, children and women of the mid-1800s.

People like the old man behind the cigar and the widow Zinn.

For years, York County's Wildcat Falls, north of Wrightsville, was a getaway for people on both sides of the Susquehanna River.

A ferry would transport people from Marietta across the river to the falls.

They would traverse the stream near the falls on a narrow wooden bridge and use stairs and handrails going up the hillside parallel to the falls.

And they would dine on a nearby deck and enjoy the cool breezes.

This rich information, with absorbing photographs of the Columbia, Marietta and Wrightsville region, comes from Frederic H. Abendschein's book whose title bears the name of those river towns.

Abendschein and Arcadia Publishing do a good job of bringing back memories in this picture book. And the work also informs those who have never spent much time near the river.

In short, Arcadia and other such publishers help create and re-create a sense a community -- a sense of place -- via their series of books.

In York County, for example, Arcadia titles explore Shrewsbury, New Freedom, Glen Rock, Hanover, York College, and a bunch of other York County sites.

These books aren't in-depth treatments of their subject but effectively feed a sense of discovery -- a desire to know more about our history-rich area.

And they bring a sense of serendipity, often revealing landmarks that are new or yet unexplored by the reader.

Wildcat Falls fell into the unexplored category for me, a challenge I plan to address.


James McClure is editor of the York Daily Record/Sunday News. He writes daily about local history on his blog, www.yorktownsquare.com. To contact him, e-mail jem@ydr.com.

The books

Scott Mingus' "The Louisiana Tigers in the Gettysburg Campaign, June-July 1863" is available in York at the York County Heritage Trust, 250 E. Market St., York Emporium, 343 West Market St. or at scottmingus@yahoo.com.

Frederic H. Abendschein's "Columbia, Marietta, and Wrightsville" is available at Borders Books, 3000 Whiteford Road, Springettsbury Township, or at www.arcadiapublishing.com.