This is what I posted on Facebook this afternoon. I have a ton of Ed stories from having known him for 30 years and having done a bunch of tours with him, but the one below is probably my favorite.
I was saddened to learn of the death of Ed Bearss today at the age of 97. Ed was a unique character: part showman, part computer memory bank, and part Pied Piper. I had the good fortune of working about a dozen different events with Ed over the years, and when you did so, it was with the understanding that it was his show, and you were just along to provide some color commentary. That was fine--we all knew that Ed was the draw for the crowd and not the rest of us.
A number of years ago, we did a tour of the Trevilian Station battlefield for the Chambersburg Civil War Seminars, and Ed leaned over to me on the bus and said, "You know this battlefield better than I do, so you take the lead." That surprised me, but I said sure, no problem.On the battlefield is a reproduction of the Netherland Tavern, which was Wade Hampton's headquarters during the battle. Behind the building is a genuine, functional, operating outhouse--the building has no indoor plumbing. Ed spotted that outhouse and made a beeline for it. We found him sitting in there--it reminded him of his childhood in Montana, and he was smiling broadly, telling stories of his youth to anyone who wanted to hear him. Scott Anderson took a photo of him in there, which is below. That's how I choose to remember him.
At the end of that tour, he told me, "I now understand this battlefield for the first time. Thank you for that tour." It was the greatest compliment anyone has ever paid me.
Ed just kept on going and going until he hit 95, when Father Time finally caught up to him and he finally had to stop doing what he loved the most, which was leading battlefield tours.
With his passing today and the passing of Ted Alexander a few weeks ago, we've lost two irreplaceable giants in our little community of Civil War historians. Below is the last photo of them together, taken in Ed's house in Arlington, Virginia.
Semper fi, Marine. Rest well--you have earned it.