Confederates Set Fire To Lower Bridge - Phenix City, Alabama
Posted by: Lat34North
N 32° 27.806 W 084° 59.961
16S E 688031 N 3593568
Located at the Dillingham Street Bridge, just west of the Chattahoochee River in Phenix City, Alabama.
Waymark Code: WM3825
Location: Alabama, United States
Date Posted: 02/24/2008
Views: 62
Confederates Set Fire To Lower Bridge
Early in the afternoon of April 16, 1865 the first major act in the Battle of Girard-Columbus took place. Union General Emory Upton sent the First Ohio cavalry charging down old Crawford Road to capture the Dillingham Bridge, then known as the lower or wagon bridge. Confederates on the Georgia side had prepared for the Union tactic by removing the bridge's flooring and placing turpentine-soaked cotton along the length of its superstructure. Confederate Colonel C. C. McGehee crawled out on the wooden framework and set it ablaze. When they saw the bridge burst into flame, the First Ohio broke off its all-out charge.
Erected by the
Historic Chattahoochee Commission And the Phenix City-Russell County Chamber of Commerce, 2004