Fields of Honor: Pivotal Battles of the Civil War (review)

In Fields of Honor, Edwin C. Bearss—the acclaimed "Homer of the Civil War" and perhaps the most renowned battlefield tour guide in the history of the National Park Service—chooses fourteen pivotal battles of the Civil War and transposes his famous battlefield oral presentations to the written word. It is an impressive feat for both Bearss and his transcribers, volunteers through the Blue and Gray Education Society, who transcribed more than three hundred hours of taped tours.

Bearss is extraordinarily well read in the campaign literature of the Civil War, and indeed has helped create much of it. His tours are legendary, both for the clear, forthright description of the battles and the nuances and vivid details that he sprinkles throughout to stimulate his audience. He tells the story of the battles of Fort Sumter, First Manassas, Shiloh, Antietam, Chancellorsville, Gettysburg, Vicksburg, Chattanooga, the various battles in the 1864 Overland Campaign, and Sherman's March through the Carolinas (as well as John Brown's Harpers Ferry raid and the sinking of the ironclad Cairo) with a verve, energy, and an inimitable, folksy, plainspoken manner that gives vitality and vigor to these great conflicts and conveys genuine empathy for the men who suffered through them. One gets the sense that Bearss knows these characters personally, given all the intimate details he can produce about any one of them. He has a way of bringing characters to life in short, succinct sentences. For example, when painting a quick portrait of fiery Union general William "Bull" Nelson at Shiloh, Bearss declares, "Bull Nelson—300 pounds, six feet four—is mean as hell. He can bend a poker around his forearm" (86). Two sentences, and already one gets the sense they know the kind of man who, when seeing panic-stricken Union soldiers blocking his troops' march to the battlefield, will order, "Draw your sabers! Run over the bastards!" (87). This is the Bearss flair that has entertained thousands.

As a monograph, however, the book has certain limitations, some unavoidable and some preventable. One disappointment is that Bearss's unique delivery, intonations, and inflections are simply not done justice by the written word. Much of Bearss's panache came not just from what he said, but how he said it, as well as his give-and-take with the audience. In written form, that panache loses much of its liveliness. If there is an audio version of this book, read by Bearss himself, this reader would be more interested in it because it would come closer to the authentic tour, which is where Bearss' real power lies. Another inescapable limitation is the book's lack of depth. Bearss ultimately is only able to scratch the surface of each battle because each chapter is based on a relatively brief battlefield tour. It is a great introduction to each battle, giving the basic outline with some insightful details, but it leaves the reader wanting more.

Other problems are avoidable. The work has no footnotes, and concomitantly is of little value to scholars. Much like the flaws of Shelby Foote's well-written and entertaining Civil War trilogy, the lack of footnotes leads one to question the historical authenticity of some of the more colorful anecdotes. It is powerful storytelling but not credible scholarship. New research has also questioned the veracity of some of the anecdotes that Bearss uses. For instance, Thomas Desjardin, in These Honored Dead (2003), engages in close primary-source analysis to dispel some potent and romantic Gettysburg myths. He has proven that Lieutenant Charles Hazlett probably did not die leaning over to hear General Stephen Weed's last words on Little Round Top (Hazlett's replacement probably created that story), and that Joshua Chamberlain did not actually order a "swinging door" bayonet charge down the slope of Little Round Top (thank Michael Shaara and Ken Burns for creating that). Yet Bearss uses both anecdotes. Finally, if the author is chronicling the...