Founder, coordinator of Chambersburg Civil War tours dies

Historian, author, teacher, preservationist and Elvis Presley fan Ted Alexander has died.

"He is a legend. There's not a lot of people I would say that about, but he was a legend at Sharpsburg," said John Howard, retired superintendent at the Antietam National Battlefield.

Alexander served for more than a quarter-century as chief historian at the Antietam grounds near Sharpsburg and became a nationally renowned historian.

He wrote books, including "The Battle of Antietam: The Bloodiest Day" and "Southern Revenge!: Civil War History of Chambersburg, Pennsylvania." He also wrote, edited and contributed to other books and more than 200 articles and book reviews.

He founded and coordinated the Chambersburg Civil War Seminars and Tours and raised thousands of dollars to preserve battlefields.

Family members acknowledged the death in posts to their Facebook pages, and posts by friends on Alexander's Facebook page indicated he died early Wednesday morning.

A native of Tupelo, Miss., Alexander also was known as an avid fan of another Tupelo product, Elvis Presley.

After coming to Maryland, Alexander graduated from Smithsburg High School in 1967, according to his Facebook page.

The next year he joined the Marines and served two tours in Vietnam. He was awarded the Navy Commendation Medal with Combat V, according to an online biography.

He received a bachelor's degree in history from the University of Maryland College Park and a master's degree in history from the University of Maryland Baltimore County.

He taught history at the Greencastle-Antrim High School and worked for the National Park Service during summers, according to fellow Civil War historian Dennis Frye, retired chief historian at Harpers Ferry National Historical Park.

Alexander eventually joined the park service full time and was a ranger at Fort Circle Parks, the Civil War defenses around Washington, D.C., and at Fort Washington Park.

In the 1980s, Alexander was sent to Antietam National Battlefield and became its chief historian.

"That was heaven on earth for Ted Alexander. ... He made quite a name for himself," Frye said.

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Among his other accomplishments, Alexander was "the first National Park Service historian to really investigate minorities' roles during the Civil War, specifically the role of Hispanics during the war and the role of Native Americans during the war," Frye said.

Alexander also led other endeavors, including the Chambersburg academic seminars, working with the Greater Chambersburg Chamber of Commerce.

"That was a brilliant business stroke by Ted Alexander. That model has been extremely successful," Frye said.

Alexander brought nationally known scholars to those seminars, which attracted people to the area and helped raise money to preserve historic battlefields.

Frye, a co-founder and past president of the American Battlefield Trust and the Save Historic Antietam Foundation, saw the fruits of those labors.

"No other individual has raised as much money to preserve Civil War battlefields as Ted Alexander. Nobody. ... He told me that was his greatest contribution to history," Frye said.

Tom Riford, former president and CEO of the Hagerstown-Washington County Convention and Visitors Bureau, said he worked with Alexander on tours, talks and other initiatives, including the Chambersburg seminars.

In an email, Riford, who is now an assistant secretary in the Maryland Department of Commerce, wrote that Alexander brought "significant attention to the 1862 Confederate invasion of Maryland (the Antietam campaign), and could speak on several significant aspects of the America’s Bloodiest Day."

Riford and Alexander also shared stories as fellow Marines.

"We lost a great person," Riford wrote.

Howard recalled that Alexander was one of the first staff members he met when he became the superintendent at Antietam. At the time, Howard didn't know a lot about the history of the place.

"Ted provided me with a list of books I should read and things I should know," Howard said.

From time to time, Alexander would update that list. And occasionally the superintendent felt as if Alexander was quizzing him to make sure he'd read the books.

"That was Ted to a T," Howard said with a laugh.

Howard praised Alexander's dedication to providing "an honest, truthful account of what happened."

He also said Alexander helped countless others with their research.

"He wouldn't do your work for you, but he would steer you in the direction you needed to go so the work was accurate," Howard said.

Mike Lewis is a Gannett reporter based in Hagerstown, Md.