Customer Reviews

Fields of Honor: Pivotal Battles of the Civil War

5 star:		(17)
4 star:		(4)
3 star:		(2)
2 star:		(2)
1 star:		(0)

 

 

A special book for those with a military bent of mind and an interest in our Civil War. Written as if spoken to you directly on each battlefield by a guide of immense knowledge of both the movement of troops and the local terrain. Every young officer in the current U.S. military should read and learn from Edwin C. Bearss, an extraordinary career employee of the U.S. National Park Service.

As for battles, I learned the most from the chapter on The Wilderness. The author brought me a much better understanding of this important battle than I had prior to taking up his "Fields of Honor."

Finally, the selection of the limited number of photographs presented in this volume was done by someone with a gift for this sort of thing.

I highly recommend this book to anyone who enjoys a good terrain walk on a civil war battlefield. Transcribed from tapes of former National Park Service Chief Historian Edwin Bearss' battlefield tours, "Fields of Honor" provides a chronological, operational overview of the American Civil War by discussing two or three battles from each year of the war.

As I read I could take a break, close my eyes and easily imagine myself at Gettysburg or Shiloh, a cool breeze drying the sweat on my face as I hiked up to a point of interest with a small group, ready to hear Mr Bearss' insights on the fight.

This book is a great primer for anyone new to reading about the war as it covers the better known battles and places them in context, and maintains a decent balance between the Eastern and Western theaters. It is also a treat for the more experienced student to accompany Ed Bearss, albiet virtually, as he teaches the reader to look at familiar ground in a new way.

The highlight of this book is the chapter on Mr Bearss' involvement with raising the USS Cairo from the Yazoo River. Its greatest drawback is the (all too common in books about battles) lack of detailed maps. Keep a good Civil War atlas or your Trailhead Graphics maps handy.

I am a member of Blue and Gray Educational Society. I have been waiting for over a year for this book to come out. For those of us that have been in the field with "the grand old man," Ed Bearss, the book will take you there. You can hear the gruff old voice as he walks back and forth on "the lovely ground." I spent 4 years touring every field of the Ed Bearss Essential Civil War tours. This book is a must read! From the wooded hills at Little Round Top where the echoes of the guns of the 20th Maine can still be heard (for those with ears to hear) to the rolling ground of Pickett's Charge at Gettysburg, Mr. Bearss will make it come alive again. There is a sense of romantic involvement here...but there is nitty gritty history as well. Our group had descendents of both the Federal and Confederate fighting men. At Chancelorsville, a fellow physician and I debated the historical effect of "Fighting Joe Hooker's" likely head injury that cost the Army of the Potomac the field (and the victory that was clearly in their grasp). At Vicksburg, we climbed the sweaty way up to the top of what is left of Champion Hill (where we found a tattered Confederate flag hanging from a makeshift pole)and we "saw" with Ed the view across to what was "fortress Vicksburg" some 20 miles away. We had professional and amature historians on our tours, we had descendents of veterans tracing their ancestors histories, we had producers of the films Gettysburg and Gods and Generals, and more than anything else, we had Americans in search of their heritage. This book is a compendium of the verbatim interpretations of the battles made by the historian emeritus of the National Park Service himself.

As for the mud: ask Charlotte from Cape Cod about the mud in Antietam...we were hip deep and loving it.

Get the book. Read it. If you are a historian of the Civil War, for heaven's sake, get into the field with Ed Bearss while you still can. You won't regret a minute of it.

Mr. Bearss is a wonderful treasure trove of information and many people, myself included, enjoy his battlefield tours. This volume offers an encore of those tours, but little else. I suspect it is aimed at the Civil War book buying audience who purchase most anything with the names Bearss and McPherson attached.

For some reason the text shifts font between historical narrative and Bearss' tour guide transcript. One supposes this is to spread the blame.

Considering Mr. Bearss' emphasis on the 'ground' and that the National Geographic Society is the publisher, the maps are amazingly poor and undetailed.

Similarly, the book makes poor use of photographs: why use an 1850s photo of Lee, retouched to add a beard, when so many others exist?
Another photo of 'Winfield S. Hancock' sure looks an awful lot like Ambrose P. Burnside.

A typical Civil War buff will glean little from this publication and a novice will not have the prerequisites for filling in the narrative's many gaps.

In brief, even though I can 'hear' Mr. Bearss wonderful voice speaking the words, the book itself falls well short of expectations.

Ed Bearss is a crown jewel of civil war history: As a historian, author and field guide. Fields of Honor views the Civil War through the lens of battlefield tours that Ed has conducted over the years. His unique perspectives are enjoyable just for reading or for one visiting a battlefield he so aptly describes. I have read the book twice sine purchasing earlier this year and it is a keeper.

As a Civil War enthusiast, I count myself lucky to have had Bruce Catton and Ed Bearss during my lifetime. Catton's work introduced me to the war during the centennial and Bearss' has helped me understand the Vicksburg Campaign and guided me through Brice's Cross Roads. Both men have helped us understand this very complex subject and put their unique stamp on the war.

Bearss excels as a battlefield guide, his insights and story of events is both unique and compelling. This book gives all of us a chance to roam a field with Bearss whenever we wish. We can almost hear his voice, feel the warmth of the sun and smell the grass. While the book isn't a deep history, it is great fun while proving us with an excellent overview of the selected battles. This is a book that can be picked up, put down but will always be enjoyed.

In the Preface to his recent book "Fields of Honor" Ed Bearss describes himself as a "man of the battlefields" and so he is. For over fifty years, Bearss has been introducing Americans to the Civil War on the ground and in the trenches - by offering tours of both the great and the little-known battlefields of the conflict. With his booming voice, charisma, encyclopedic knowledge, love for his subject, and gift for the telling detail, Bearss is an inspiring teacher and historian indeed. Bearss is a former Chief Historian of the National Park Service, and he is familiar to many Americans who have never studied the Civil War or visited a battlefield from his appearances on PBS.

"Fields of Honor" is a collaborative effort between Bearss and the Blue and Gray Education Society, a nonprofit Civil War educational organization which sponsors tours, lectures and other efforts to teach people about the Civil War and its significance. Bearss has frequently led tours for the group. The book was prepared by transcribing tapes of the many tours Bearss has given over the years at key battlefields. The tapes were transcribed, edited, and placed into a coherent narrative, supplemented by many period photographs and maps.

The book begins in 1859, as Bearss guides the reader through John Brown's raid on Harper's Ferry and its aftermath. He then narrates by year the key battles of the Civil War beginning with Fort Sumter and First Bull Run in 1861, proceeding through Shiloh and Antietam in 1862, Chancellorsville, Gettysburg, Vicksburg, and Chattanooga in 1863, Grant's bloody overland campaign in 1864, and Sherman's march through the Carolinas and Appomattox in 1865.

The concluding chapter of the book details the history of the ironclad "Cairo" which was sunk by a Confederate mine in the Yazoo River in 1862. Bearss discovered the Cairo while working as a historian in Vicksburg in 1956, and, after a great deal of effort, the Cairo was raised in 1965 and finally put on display at Vicksburg in the mid-1980s. Bearss takes a great deal of justifiable pride in his efforts in recovering and restoring the Cairo.

The battlefield narratives are fast-paced, informal, and full of action and story. The individuals who collated Bearss' tapes did an excellent job in keeping the oral and immediate character of Bearss' battlefield presentations. Thus, these tapes do not present a full, detailed account of the battles they describe. There is a voluminous literature on each of the individual battles discussed in this book. Further, Bearss' focus is on military activities. He spends little time on the causes of the war or on its political, social or economic impact. (Bearss does discuss Lee's surrender at Appomattox in the context of an effort towards the reconciliation of North and South. And he also frequently points out the role of African American soldiers in the battles.) Again, there is a vast and accessible literature on these matters available to interested readers.

In reading these narratives, I tried to imagine myself on the battlefields with Bearss leading a group as we moved from place to place with Bearss recounting stories of movements, encounters, and persons. There is a cumulative impact in Bearss' narratives. They convey a feel for combat. More important, Bearss conveys to his readers or listeners a sense of the historical importance of the Civil War. It was a harsh, bitter conflict fought valiantly by soldiers both North and South. The meaning of the conflict for our country remains to be determined and expanded upon by each generation of Americans. Bearss' efforts throughout the years and this book are inspiring beginnings to teach Americans to think about this crucial period in our history.

Robin Friedman

As far as American Civil War research and writing is concerned, there is presently none better than Ed Bearss. He combines scholarship with the variables of human nature. This book consists mainly of his lectures which have been delivered over many of the battlefields of the War. They are written much as Mr. Bearss was talking to you personally. He will typicaly be in the midst of describing a military movement or command decision and pause to tell you some obscure fact about one of the participants. In this way, the human nature of the participants is revealed. While no new ground is broken, he is a delight to read. The final chapter on the raising of the gunboat "Cairo" was very enlightening.

FIELDS OF HONOR: PIVOTAL BATTLES OF THE CIVIL WAR is the first book gathered from Edwin Bearss' recordings of his battlefield tours, gathering the Civil War's history and offering details on fourteen pivotal battles throughout the war. Bearss has presents over six decades of battlefield study, and surveys strategies used by both sides: his is a fine survey which pairs over seventy black and white photos and nearly twenty maps with detailed descriptions of leaders, maneuvers, and conflicts. A 'must' for any avid Civil War student.

Diane C. Donovan
California Bookwatch

Edwin C. Bearss is an American Treasure. His Civil War commentary is "History with Flavor". His ability to understand the complexities of this nation's more difficult time and then bring it to the American people in a succinct and entertaining way is a true delight.
Fields of Honor is Mr. Bearss's insight into 14 of the Civil War's pivotal battles. He brings his unique perspective and understanding of how these battles were fought and why they turned out as they did.
His asides and interesting writing style makes for a fun read.
My only fault of this master is that the review of the individual battles was so short. I would enjoy a more in depth analysis by Mr. Bearss as he is one of the foremost Civil War authorities today.
Side note: This summer, August, I will participate in a 5 day private tour of the Gettysburg battlefield of which 2 of the days will be spent with Mr. Bearss. I eagerly look forward to his commentary and unique insights on this great field of battle. He is indeed an American Treasure.
Recommended as an overview of the Civil War battles covered. Not an in depth analysis but a splendid little review with some interesting insights into these pivotal battles. Civil War history with a dash of Bearss flavor. Very good if one is going to visit the battlefields in question.