Ed Bearss On Understanding Battlefields

Illinois regiments played a very prominent role at the Siege of Vicksburg.  Every regiment there has a marker.

Ed did his masters degree thesis on Confederate General Patrick Cleburne.

One thing Mr. Bearss really believes in is that the only way to understand a battlefield is to walk it and note the vegetation cover and landscape.

As he continued to drift toward what became his lifelong occupation he said that he knew battlefields and their Smokey Bear rangers, but not historians.  The eastern U.S. battlefields were more prestigious, but there were no openings there, but there was one at Vicksburg and this is where he went to work in 1966.

One of the first things he did was walk the military park to study the vegetation and landscape.  He said of himself that he was a Big Fish in a Little Pond at Vicksburg.  He later became a Big Fish in a Big Pond.

--Old Secesh

Ed Bearss-- Part 3: "You Can't Describe A Battlefield Unless You Walk It"

Ed Bearss then worked for three years with the U.S. Navy Hydrographic Office in Maryland where he used his spare times to tour Civil War battlefields in the East.  (Careful, Mr. Bearss, that's a good way to get hooked.)

In 1955, he received his MA in History from Indiana University.  He wrote his these on Confederate General Patrick Cleburne and visited the battlefields Cleburne fought on, telling friends, "You can't describe a battlefield unless you walk it."  He lives still by these words, even at age 95

Afterwards, he became the historian at the Vicksburg National Military Park.  The hook was set.  While there, he and two friends did research that led to their finding the long-lost Union gunboat USS Cairo.  He also discovered the location of two "lost" forts at Grand Gulf, Mississippi.

In 1958, he was promoted to Southeast regional historian and spent most of his time visiting battlefields around the country.  In 1981, he was promoted to Chief Historian of the National Park service.

--Old Secesh

Mort Kunstler's Civil War Calendar for October 2015

EYE OF THE STORM.  Picture of Patrick Cleburne leading his men into the fighting at the Battle of Chickamauga.

"Patrick Cleburne at Chickamauga, September 20, 1863.  Two years after starting his military career as a private, Patrick Cleburne commanded a division in Confederate General Braxton Bragg's Army of Tennessee.

"Distinguished in command and ability, Cleburne was at the zenith of his career at the time of Chickamauga, where he led his soldiers into a night attack against a strong Union battle line.  Deep in the Georgia woods, Cleburne stood with his men as the muzzle blasts of the rifle fire lit up the faces of the combatants.

"No man could do more to throw the enemy off balance than Cleburne, whom admirers soon called the 'Stonewall Jackson of the West.'"

--Old Secesh

General Cleburne Statue

December 28, 2008, Atlanta Journal Constitution.

A 700 pound bronze statue of Major General Patrick Cleburne is still in a warehouse under plastic wrap. It is hoped that its erection in Ringgold, Georgia, will help bring tourism and money.

The paper reports that most people in the area had never heard of him.

It almost wasn't completed because the organizations who wanted it couldn't come up with enough money to pay the sculptor.

general Cleburne was at Ringgold on November 27, 1863 when Confederates retreating in disorder from Chattanooga came through. Cleburne and about 4,100 of his troops fought off 12,000 Union troops and allowed the main Confederate body to pass through.

He was killed at the Battle of Franklin in November 1864 at the age of 36. Until recently, he was not well known, but a book about him is spreading the word.


$50,000 SHORT

The Ringgold people were $50,000 short and sculptor Ron Tanison, who makes Civil War statues across the country, warned that the project would be scrapped if he was not paid in full.

The Ringgold telephone Company stepped in with the needed funds.

The organizers realize that putting up a statue in today's anti-Confederate sentiment might cause some controversy because of the slavery issue. Earlier this year, Ringgold's small black community objected to the Confederate flag flying over the depot and it was taken down.

I see that the dedication ceremony did occur October 29, 2009, so next time through, I will stop and view this statue that almost wasn't.

The Stonewall of the West. --B-Runner