Editorial Review

What they should do is provide a swagger stick with each book, because this is typical Ed Bearss. You might as well be standing just outside the tour bus looking across what is now an empty field.

by

Edwin C. Bearss

Book Description

Few historians have ever captured the drama, excitement, and tragedy of the War Between the States quite like Edwin Bearss. The acclaimed "Homer of the Civil War," has won a huge, devoted following with his extraordinary battlefield tours and eloquent soliloquies about the heroes, scoundrels, and little-known moments of a conflict that still fascinates America. Antietam, Shiloh, Chickamauga, Gettysburg: these hallowed battles and more than a dozen more come alive as never before, rich with human interest and colorful detail culled from a lifetime of study.

Illustrated with detailed maps and archival images, this 448-page volume commemorates the 140th anniversary of the war's end with a unique narrative of its most critical battles, translating Bearss' inimitable delivery into print. As he guides readers from the first shots at Fort Sumter to Gettysburg's bloody fields to the dignified surrender at Appomattox, his engagingly plainspoken but expert account demonstrates why he stands beside Shelby Foote, James McPherson, and Ken Burns in the front rank of modern chroniclers of the Civil War, as the Pulitzer Prize-winning McPherson himself points out in his admiring introduction.

About the Author

At 80, Edwin C. Bearss is the America's premier battlefield historian. The former Chief Historian of the National Park Service and its current historian emeritus, Bearss leads tours of America's battlefields more than 300 days per year.

During World War II Bearss was wounded in the South Pacific. After attending Georgetown University he began working for the National Park Service at the Vicksburg battlefield park, where he oversaw the discovery and excavation of the sunken Civil War ironside S.S. Cairo. He was appointed Chief Historian of the National Park Service in 1981. Bearss developed a unique and engaging tour style that appeals to all interest levels and has inspired a legion of fans. In 1990 Bearss was one of the major experts employed by Ken Burns for his award-winning series, The Civil War. Bearss has consulted on numerous documentaries, books, and films including Gods and Generals and is a frequent face on the History Channel's Civil War Journal. Bearss is the author of 13 books, including the three-volume definitive history of the Vicksburg Campaign.

Ed is a tireless advocate for preservation of Civil War battlefield sites and has testified before Congress on numerous occasions. He is on the board of directors of the Civil War Preservation Trust and has been honored by nearly every group in the United States that supports Civil War education and preservation.

According to James McPherson, Pulitzer prize-winning author of Battle Cry of Freedom, "Ed will deny this, but he has a photographic memory containing an enormous range of information. I have learned a great deal from him. He has an enormous amount of knowledge, not just on the Civil War, but in every aspect of history¿" Shelby Foote is another known fan; the reclusive historian is known to show up on Ed's tours unannounced. Ed Bearss lives in Arlington, Virginia with his wife Margie.

James McPherson (Introduction) is the Pulitzer Prize winning author of Battle Cry of Freedom and more than a dozen other books about the Civil War. McPherson is a professor of history at Princeton University.

Brooks D. Simpson (editor) is a history professor at Arizona State University and the author of Ulysses S. Grant: Triumph Over Adversity, of which the New York Times said, "Simpson has done a masterly job. He has given us a detailed and exciting narrative of how one man succeeded, where so many others had failed"...He is is an oft-published authority on the era of the Civil War and Reconstruction and frequently leads tours of Civil War battlefields with Ed Bearss.