I’m pretty sure you could tell him the name of your great-great-great-great-grandfather and the unit he fought with and he could probably give you a full biography of the man.
Sometimes it IS possible to know way too much about a subject…
link?
You only hope he isn’t of the same lineage as the frauds they had on there in the past.
I remember reading about them.
I hope that you realize that he’s probably not reeling that history off from memory. I mean, he probably knows the details of the regiment’s movements, but I suspect that he researched the ancestor’s history before appearing on camera.
Oh, I know they do internet research before they turn on the cameras, but it would still be kind of creepy to have this guy tell you things about your ancestor that even your family doesn’t know today.
I think that’s one of the points of the show, if the information is available and the original owner is known. Not creepy at all. The guy knows his Civil War stuff, and knows how to look up an individual service record (which I would not). I think it’s great.
Does anyone know how to do that, by the way? I’ve got a couple relatives I’ve been meaning to look up.
civil war people in general are scary in my experience…
People who are single-mindedly devoted to any particular interest can be scary. The Civil War is a handy thing to be single-mindedly devoted to, because there is a lot of material available for research, but the technology was low-level enough that ordinary people can wrap their minds around it. Plus, a fair number of Southern hobbyists are pretty heavily invested in the Glorious Lost Cause mindset, which admittedly can be kind of scary. But in general, I don’t find Civil War people any scarier than, say, extreme railroad enthusiasts or rabid coin collectors, and a lot less scary than, say, hard core weapon enthusiasts.
I like the BBC version of Antiques Roadshow because their stuff is usually older, and the show is filmed in interesting locations. But the US version has better information. I suppose because they know ahead of time what objects will be filmed, which gives them time to do the research.
Yeah, and the US version has better reactions.
UK: “This thing that you dug up out of your garden is a clay vessel from the Beaker Culture, probably from around 2000 B.C., and it’s worth about 150,000 pounds.” “Well, thank you.”
US: “This thing you dug up out of your garden is an original Coca-Cola bottle, dating to 1894, and is worth about $3000.”
“Oh, my god! You’re kidding me! Are you serious?! Oh, my god!”
Ed Bearss, the historian emeritus of the National Park Service, has a scarily good memory for Civil War history; I’ve been on several battlefield walks with him. I’ve heard it said that you could blindfold him, fly or drive him to any Civil War battlefield in the country, spin him around three times, whisk off the blindfold, and after a few seconds to get his bearings he’d be able to tell you where you were, what regiment fought there on the day of the battle, what the commanding officer’s name was, what his wife’s favorite pie was, etc. A wounded WW2 vet, an author, and just an amazing guy. The Civil War Preservation Trust is taking his oral history and it’s already voluminous.
Pardon the hijack but there’s a strange question I’ve always wondered about Bearss and it’s not worth starting a thread over and doesn’t even have anything to do with the Civil War: Is he a stroke victim? The reason I ask is that in all of the documentaries (and he’s in a lot of them) he’s always gesturing almost manically with his right arm/hand, but rarely moves the other, and I was curious if he’s paralyzed on the left side. (It’s particularly true in the Ken Burns Civil War documentary.)
Agreed though that he knows his stuff. He’s eaten/slept/breathed/excreted/photosynthesized and osmosified the Civil War for generations now, and pushing 90 he seems to still be going strong.
Not quite. It’s “Oh, jolly good.” Note the lack of exclamation point.
In the article linked above, it says that one of his arms is withered as a result of getting wounded when he was a Marine in WWII.
Ah, thanks.
I’ve always wanted to take one of his battlefield tours.
I had never heard of him ten minutes ago but so do I.
The Japanese have Living National Treasures for masters of paper-making, sword-forging, Noh drama, etc. Ed Bearss should be one of ours for Civil War history.