Bearss and former University of Georgia football coach Vince Dooley (Georgia Battlefields Assn.) |
The American Battlefield Trust announced that the Bearss family has invited people
to attend the 1 p.m. June 26 celebration – what would have been Bearss’ 99th
birthday -- on land the trust preserved near the Seminary
Ridge Museum and Education Center, a nonprofit venue on the campus of the United Lutheran
Seminary.
Speakers include retired Marine Corps Lt. Gen. Richard
P. Mills; Jerome A. Greene, retired historian for the National Park
Service; and O. James Lighthizer, president emeritus of the American Battlefield
Trust.
Bearss was a legendary figure in the Civil War world. Tour
participants hung on his every word as he walked the grounds and gave precise
details of what happened there, usually without notes. His voice, itself
riveting, was described as thunderous or booming.
As "History's Pied Piper," he more than lived up to the title of Jack Waugh's 2003 biography of the decorated Marine Corps veteran and National Park Service chief historian emeritus.
The American Battlefield Trust detailed his career as a decorated Marine severely wounded during
World War II, National Park Service historian, author, preservationist and
lecturer. Commenters on the trust’s Facebook page this week remembered his tours and knowledge of battles to exacting detail.
Bearss gained fame for the discovery and raising of the USS
Cairo in the 1960s, when he was historian at Vicksburg National Military Park.
The majority of the public came to know him from his appearance in Ken Burns' 1990 “The Civil War” series on PBS.
The widower, after living 50 years in Arlington, Va., moved in
2018 to Mississippi, where he had family (Above, in Athens, Ga., in 2019. Photo courtesy of Georgia Battlefields Association.)
The American Battlefield Trust said the one-hour June 26 event will be tented, with seating available and water and light refreshments provided. Portable toilets and indoor restrooms will be nearby.
Click this link for an email address in which you can express your intention to attend. For those unable to attend in person, a video of the celebration will be posted later.
No comments:
Post a Comment