Amp gauge showing around 20 amps whole time I was driving.

There's a few necessary skills and tools to diagnose and repair the electrical system.
A test light, a volt/resistance meter and a way to measure current. A test light can do it all, but you need to be pretty well versed in it's use. A small digital multimeter is often easier for a newbie.

Next, you need to sit and understand how the charging system works. The votmage regulator feeds current to the rotor (the spinny part) which induces a current in the windings (the not spinny part) which goes through diodes and then on to the battery. If the regulator, alternator, battery, or any number of places within the wiring become damaged then the voltage or current or both can spike and the magic smoke comes out.

You'll want to get the alternator bench tested because if it's junk, it can do a ton of damage and is easy to detect on the bench without burning down the car. Don't just blindly replace it, I'd guess you have a 60% chance of getting a worse one off the shelf.. Test yours first.

If the alternator is good, you then need to use a test light or voltage/resistance meter to trace the wiring and rule out shorts or broken wires.
It also wouldn't be a bad idea to pull your cluster and check the ammeter wiring and gauge for damage.

It's not uncommon for naive owners to replace "fusible links" (Google it) with normal wire and then when an issue happens it results in what you've experienced (or worse). Often they are spliced poorly too and cause their own failure at some point,sl so look for evidence of hacked wiring and start there and trace it to figure out what's what. The fixes aren't hard, it's mostly time and a few bucks in wires or replacement harnesses and modules.

The fact that your ignition module got smoked suggests an over-volt or over charge situation. Or if you've ever left the car with the key "on" but the engine off for an extended period, you can kill the coil and then other components in that circuit too. Other members are more experienced in that particular department though and are likely to chime in if I'm off base with that.