Ed Bearss has what might best be called a battlefield voice, a kind of booming growl, like an ancient wax-cylinder record amplified to full volume—about the way you'd imagine William Tecumseh Sherman sounding the day he burned Atlanta, with a touch of Teddy Roosevelt charging up San Juan Hill.
We're on a battlefield today, in fact. But now, unlike on a certain summer day 142 years ago, this corner of southern Pennsylvania is quiet, with fields of soybeans and corn drowsing under the midmorning haze. Quiet, that is, except for that voice: "George Armstro-o-ong Custerrr has been a brigadier general for all of five days. He's already got himself the larrrgest starrrs on his shoulders of any general in the Army. He's adopted a red neckerchief with a gold arro-o-ow stickpin in it. And he's just come within a hairrr of losing his life, 13 years before the Sioux Indians send him to the happy hunting grounds."
Several dozen listeners stand silent, transfixed. In Civil War circles, Bearss is nothing short of a rock star. One of the men in the tour group wears a baseball cap covered with commemorative buttons celebrating each of Bearss' birthdays for the past decade (the latest is for his 82nd), while others have been known to wear T-shirts depicting his face on Mount Rushmore or transposed onto Elvis' white jumpsuit with the simple legend: "THE KING."
What inspires such adulation? As historian and battlefield guide, Bearss' store of knowledge is prodigious. Today, he's spending several hours covering a brief, relatively minor sideshow to the Battle of Gettysburg. He's speaking without notes and admits it's been years since he's read a word about the skirmish on East Cavalry Field. Yet the details pour over us in a heady flow: Rebel cavalrymen on horses exhausted after a 200-mile trek from Virginia. Michigan troopers charging into battle to Custer's cry of "Come on, you Wolverines!" A Northern captain felled when a Confederate color-bearer drives the spear point of his guidon into the Yankee's open mouth.
As he talks, Bearss marches back and forth, brandishing a silver-headed swagger stick, tucking it from time to time under his withered left arm—a casualty of a bullet at a battlefield on the other side of the world in 1944. He keeps his eyes tightly closed while he lectures, and he later tells me that way he can see the events of 1863 unfolding before him.
Some might say that Bearss has spent most of his life in the 19th century. He grew up with kerosene lamps and horse-drawn plows in Montana. He remembers Civil War stories told firsthand by the hometown veteran, "Grandpa" Henderson, who "used to sit around the hotel lobby with his reunion ribbons on."
After serving in the Marines and earning degrees at Georgetown and Indiana universities, Bearss joined the National Park Service (where he is now chief historian emeritus) and devoted himself to the study of the American past, particularly the struggle between the blue and the gray. When he compares contemporary America to the 1860s, his allegiance is clear: "We're in an age of Teflon people now. People then were more original, more individual."
Yet when he has to, Bearss can stand squarely in the present, as he has proved rather often of late, enmeshed in one 21st-century battle after another—over the suburban development that has threatened to engulf Civil War battlefields. Here at Gettysburg, for instance, the idyllic vista before us is broken by a water tower that went up a few years ago, part of a new industrial park. Just to the right of it, investors want to build a casino with 3,000 slot machines.

spend a moment speaking with Ed on any historical subject and you will avail yourself of a national treasure.from Bent's old fort to fort Fisher there isn't anyone who makes history come more alive.if you have the chance to hear him by all means do it.ask him about his first visit to Centreville Va. and his fraternity's contribution to the devolpement of indoor football.great story..... thanks Ed from so many that you've touched. russ harbaugh harpers ferry west-by-God-virginia p.s.illegally formed from an illegally seceshed state a.lincoln b&o tell 'em Ed
Posted by russ harbaugh on August 24,2008 | 01:23PM
Sirs, A friend has found a civil war diary 1862-65. I seek Mr. Bearss,s advice on how best to make it available for public consumption.
Posted by Clark Gottschalk on September 10,2008 | 12:07PM
Excellent story on Ed Bearss and the East Cavalry field at Gettysburg. What was THE first cavalry vs cavalry battle at Gettysburg??? Hunterstown,Pa.(the north cavalry field) 5 miles N.E. of Gettysburg on July 2nd. see; http://www.worlds-wide-web.com/custermain.html for details
Posted by Joe Topinka ( George Custer historian/Reenactor ) on September 18,2008 | 08:42AM
I do not understand the Rock Star mentality surrounding this gentleman...While he may posses an unlimited respository of facts, his public speaking abilities are absolutely horrendous! He dramaticizes that which does not need to be dramaticized and takes 2 hours to say what could be easily said and understood in 30 minutes. His lecture style is that of a dramatic monologue of dry facts, punctuated by inapropriate and unnecessary verbal inflections.
Posted by Mike Rogers on November 20,2008 | 07:30PM