A bill introduced to rename the Route 286 bridge between Indiana County and Westmoreland County in Saltsburg passed unanimously in the state House yesterday and is on its way to the Senate.
The bridge spanning the Kiskiminetas River between Saltsburg and Loyalhanna Township would be named the First Sergeant Alexander Kelly Memorial Bridge, in honor of an African-American soldier who fought for the Union’s Sixth United States Colored Troops” in the Civil War.
Sergeant Kelly was awarded the Congressional Medal of Honor for bravery in action on September 29th, 1864 during the Battle of Chaffin’s Farm, during the Union rush southward toward Richmond, Virginia. With his unit struggling in the chaos of battle, Kelly picked up the fallen flag and rallied his troops.
Kelly was a Saltsburg native born in 1840. After the war, he was a watchman for the Pittsburgh Police Department. He is interred in St. Peter’s Cemetery in Pittsburgh.
The bill’s sponsor, Representative Joseph Petrarca, said in a news release yesterday that “First Sergeant Kelly is an American hero.…”
