Rare maps spotlight armies maneuvers

[scone]

The lord has truly blessed us. With out Ed Bearss what would we really know about these hollowed grounds that we read so much about? Through his efforts these sites come to life as the once were.. He is a inspiration to us all ..

Steven

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Rare maps spotlight armies maneuvers
Joe Kirby is Editorial Page editor of the Marietta Daily Journal.
Sunday, March 19, 2006 3:10 AM EST



Ed Bearss didn't exactly "write the book" about the Civil War Battle of Kennesaw Mountain, but it's fair to say he drew the map, or to be more accurate, drew the maps.

The 25 or so maps in question detail the movements of Union Gen. William Tecumseh Sherman's army and Confederate Gen. Joe Johnston's army as they maneuvered and clashed from Dallas-New Hope across west Cobb to Kennesaw Mountain and then down to the Chattahoochee River. The tabletop-sized maps were drawn on a scale of 2½ inches to the mile, large enough to show regimental-sized units of each army each day during June 1864 as they swept across the landscape.

The maps were prepared in conjunction with the centennial of the war in the early 1960s. Bearss, now the retired historian emeritus of the National Park Service, was a regional historian for the NPS at the time stationed in Vicksburg, Miss., and prepared similar maps for the Vicksburg, Stone's River, Fort Donelson, Richmond, Fredericksburg, Spotsylvania, Wilderness, Pea Ridge and Wilson's Creek battlefield parks between 1959 and 1964. Most took about four months to research and draw. Kennesaw's can be seen by appointment at the park.

"Kennesaw Mountain was one of the more complicated ones," Bearss said earlier this month in an interview at the park's visitor's center, where he was showing the maps to a tour group he was leading on behalf of the Georgia Battlefields Association. Bearss is in great demand for such tours. With last year's passing of historian and author Shelby Foote, Bearss now is arguably the "dean" of Civil War experts and, like Foote, was a featured commentator in Ken Burns' epic PBS series "The Civil War."

"The Kennesaw map (set) was one of the more complicated ones I did," he said. "It covers both the area in the park and on out as far as Dallas."

Bearss also prepared maps for the portion of Sherman's Atlanta Campaign before and after the Kennesaw battle and for his March to the Sea.

"I came over here and copied what they had in their files, then I walked the park, then drove to various sites outside the park with B.C. Yates, who was superintendent at the time," Bearss recalled.

"It was a lot easier to trace the trench lines 40 years ago. There was very little development in Cobb or Paulding back then. I was mainly using Yates to contact farmers to let me on their property. There weren't any subdivisions out there. I was more worried about getting chased by bulls in the pastures. Fortunately, I grew up in the country so I was used to stepping in cowpies."

Bearss grew up in Montana, as he puts it, "about 40 miles - a bicycle ride - from the site of the Battle of the Little Bighorn," where "Custer's Last Stand" took place - another battle on which Bearss is today an expert.

His father had been a Marine in World War I and his great-uncle Hiram had won the Medal of Honor as a Marine in the Philippines during the Spanish-American War, so when World War II broke out, young Bearss joined the Marines as well. He was severely wounded in the battle of New Britain in the South Pacific, which left him with only partial use of his left arm and hand.

"As wounds can be good as long as you're not killed, I got to do a lot of reading while I recuperated," he said. "I was in the hospital for 26 months and out of that 26 months, about 16 were in the San Diego Naval Hospital, and when I was not bedridden, I could stroll down to the library and read all day, or read for three or four hours, and read a lot of Civil War books. It was the only time I ever got to read as much as I wanted to. Even to this day, if I'm at home, I try to read a couple hours a day."

Bearss, 82, is now retired, but works at a pace that would stagger many folks half his age, leading battlefield tours and talking to preservation groups around the country.

"I travel more now than I did when I was working," said Bearss. "I actually have something going - speaking, leading tours, etc. - 275 days a year, which is more than if you actually worked five days a week."

Indeed, his energy and enthusiasm are contagious, his booming voice filling the room. And asked if he has to bone up on a given battle before leading one of his tours, he shook his head.

"No, I have a good memory," he said.

Yes, and lots of great stories to share about our history.

[nbforrest]

I'm always struck by the fact that Ed Bearss was a couple decades ahead of his time in his writing. If you read what he was writing in the 60's and 70's, there wasn't really anyone else writing that kind of stuff at the time. That being said, (and this might be heresy), his writing style, and in some way his research, has never impressed me. His writing doesn't take advantage of primary sources enough. He relies too heavily on the OR and at times it seems like he is just condensing and paraphrasing the reports. But again, he was doing this before anyone else, so he can probably be excused for sort of having a rougher style, as the field's pioneer. In any event, he has contributed a lot to the field, both in preservation and writing.

Respectfully

[william42]

He's got a very distinctive style of speaking. Very articulate, and speaks almost in the first person, as if he's witnessing the events as he talks. At least that's the way he has talked when I've seen him on the tube.

"No, I have a good memory," he said.

He's got more in his head than I'll ever be able to read.

Terry

[scone]

NBForrst,
I havent read much of his writings But as you said he was doing his thing long before anyone elses was and like the map in article he was walking the battlefields and Making notes of the ground and he location of works etc. Truly a man before his time.

Terry,
You are correct on that, I know a few others like that Thomas Cartwright and David Fraley from the carter house the same way..

regards, steven

[samgrant]

Bearss new book comes out on April 2.

Fields of Honor : Pivotal Battles of the Civil War

[nbforrest]

Doesn't look like my cup of tea exactly, but that's just me.

http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/079...g=UTF8&s=books

Respectfully

[william42]

I'd like to have a go at it. But I'll have to wait until it's in the library.


Terry