Park honors historian, author Bearss

Published 12:00 am Sunday, October 4, 2009

Cultural icon. Civil War buff.  History legend.

Edwin C. Bearss fits all of those.

On Saturday, the former Vicksburg National Military Park historian was reunited with the USS Cairo in an event that celebrated and honored the historian’s salvage and restoration of the Union ironclad gunboat, which rests at the park.

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“Vicksburg was my ‘open sesame’ to a career,” Bearss said during a ceremony which included the unveiling of a bust of himself and remarks by park historian Terry Winschel. “Raising the Cairo had its highs and lows, but fortunately the highs finally nullified the lows.”

While there were setbacks in the boat’s restoration, the Cairo recovery has gone on to become the defining moment of Bearss’ career.

The discovery took place during his tenure as historian at the Vicksburg National Military Park from 1955 to 1966. Bearss pinpointed the site where the Cairo rested at the bottom of the Yazoo River in 1956, and led the effort to salvage the ship in 1964 and 1965.

Winschel said Bearss is largely responsible for the 300,000 people who visit the Cairo each year.

Just as Bearss was key in recovering the ship, Chris Bradley was key in organizing Saturday’s ceremony. Bradley, a Bethesda, Md., resident who teaches adult-education history classes at American University, has taken a number of tours with Bearss and often invites him into his classroom to speak to his students.

“Ed has a particular way of speaking, and when he speaks the names it’s as if they have been resurrected,” Bradley told a crowd of about 50. “In my opinion, Ed’s voice is the greatest voice of American history.”

The crowd included Bearss’ daughter, Jenny Bearss; grandson, Andy Olmsed; and brother Pat, who flew in from San Diego for a surprise visit.

The event was the final stop in a weeklong bus tour Bearss was leading along sites important in the Vicksburg Campaign. Those who have taken part in the tour call themselves the “Barge Brigade.”

To them, Bearss is beyond a historian — he is a cult figure.

Arthur Downey, a Washington, D.C. artist, avid fan and friend of Bearss, sculpted the bust. It was a second effort as the first sculpture burst into 200 pieces as it was being fired.

The Cairo was one of seven “city class” Union ironclad gunboats, named for cities along the Mississippi and Ohio rivers, built for river battles during the Civil War. It was commissioned in January 1862, and like all the city-class ironclads, was equipped with 13 cannons. The gunboat and its sisters were the first ironclads ever to be deployed in the Western Hemisphere, Winschel said.

On Dec. 12, aiming to clear the Yazoo River channel and attack Confederate batteries on shore, Lt. Commander Thomas O. Selfridge Jr. manned the Cairo as far as seven miles north of Vicksburg when two explosions from an underwater mine, then called a torpedo, ripped into the boat’s hull. It sank in 36 feet of water in 12 minutes. No one died.

“It all started here in Vicksburg and it is all so fitting that the bust by this talented sculptor is here,” Bearss told the crowd.

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Contact Everett Bexley at ebexley@vicksburgpost.com