Vicksburg history
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Hiram I. Bearss
United States Marine Corps general
Hiram Iddings Bearss | |
|---|---|
Medal of Honor recipient Hiram I. Bearss | |
| Nickname(s) | "Hiking Hiram" |
| Born | (1875-04-13)April 13, 1875 Peru, Indiana, U.S. |
| Died | August 27, 1938(1938-08-27) (aged 63) Columbia City, Indiana, U.S. |
| Buried | Mount Hope Cemetery, Peru, Indiana, U.S. |
| Allegiance | United States of America |
| Service / branch | United States Marine Corps |
| Years of service | 1899–1919 |
| Rank | Colonel (advanced to brigadier general in 1936) |
| Commands | 3rd Provisional Regiment 5th Marines 3rd Battalion, 9th Infantry Regiment 102nd Infantry Regiment 51st Infantry Brigade |
| Battles / wars | |
| Awards | Medal of Honor (1901) Distinguished Service Cross (1918) Navy Distinguished Service Medal Croix de Guerre |
| Spouse(s) | Louise Middleton (m. 1904) |
Hiram Iddings Bearss (April 13, 1875 – August 27, 1938) was an officer of the United States Marine Corps who received the Medal of Honor for heroism during the Philippine–American War and the Distinguished Ser
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One of the greatest surviving veterans of the US Marine Corps in World War II—a man who was severely wounded in combat—also was one of our finest Civil War historians. And up until very recently, he was leading walking tours of battlefields in the United States and Europe.
Edwin “Ed” Cole Bearss was born on June 26, 1923, in Billings, Montana, into a family with a proud Marine Corps tradition. His cousin “Hiking Hiram” Bearss (1875-1938) had been awarded the Medal of Honor for heroism in combat in the Philippines in 1901, and subsequently received the Distinguished Service Cross for his conduct in World War I. Ed’s father Omar also served in the US Marines, in Haiti and in Europe during World War I.
Ed Bearss’s family was listening to a radio broadcast of a football game between the Chicago Bears and the St. Louis Cardinals on December 7, 1941, when an announcer interrupted with news of the Japanese attack on Pearl Harbor. The family didn’t believe it at first; but when they did, Ed determined to “join the Marines and get back at the Japs.” He enlisted in April 1942
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EDWIN “ED” COLE BEARSS (1923 – 2020)
Edwin Cole Bearss, a widely admired and beloved military historian and battlefield tour guide, served as Chief Historian of the National Park Service from 1981 to 1994. A United States Marine Corps veteran of World War II, Ed was an authoritative presence in the popular Ken Burns Public Television series The Civil War. Born in 1923 in Billings, Montana, Bearss grew up on the rugged family cattle ranch, the “E-Bar-S,” through the depths of the Great Depression. His father, a World War I Marine veteran, read accounts of military history to young Ed and his brother. After graduating from Hardin High School in 1941, Bearss hitchhiked around the United States – visiting his first Civil War battlefield in the East. He enlisted in the Marines after America’s entry into World War II, serving as a member of the 3rd Marine Raider Battalion in the invasion of Guadalcanal and the Russell Islands and later, in the 1st Marine Division, in the Battle of New Britain. He was severely wounded at “Suicide
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