Just a few weeks shy of his 90th birthday, the seemingly indestructible Edwin “Ed” Bearss is still wowing his audiences with his encyclopedic knowledge of the Civil War and unique delivery.

Ed Bearrs leads a tour. (Linda Wheeler - Washington Post)

The Chief Historian Emeritus of the National Park Service spoke recently to the Front Royal, Va. Civil War Round Table about the battle in that town on May 23, 1862, part of Maj. Gen. Thomas “Stonewall” Jackson’s Valley Campaign.

The remains of two Indiana brothers who served in the Union army will be laid to rest in a joint full honors committal ceremony at Arlington National Cemetery at 9 a.m. Thursday.

The men each died more than a century ago, but their cremated remains had remained at an Indianapolis funeral home because no one had claimed them.

 Zuinglius K. McCormack and Sgt. Lycurgus McCormack, the younger brother, served in Indiana units. According to government records, Zuinglius, who was born in 1843, served during 1864 with the 132^nd Infantry Regiment and saw action with Maj. Gen. William Sherman’s army at Jonesboro and Kennesaw Mountain in Georgia. He died in 1912.

Lycurgus McCormack was born in 1845 and served in 1863 with the 103^rd Infantry regiment. He died in 1908.

On May 4, from 1 to 5 p.m., the Lincoln Group of D.C. is sponsoring a symposium, “Lincoln, Lieber and the Law of War: 1863-9/11” at the E. Barrett Prettyman Federal Courthouse in Washington. It will take place in the ceremonial court room.

The symposium commemorates the sesquicentennial of the publication of the first code identifying the laws of war for the U.S. armed forces, according to a news release. It was prepared by legal scholar Francis Lieber and later served as the modal for the Geneva conventions, the sponsors said.

The speakers include Yale University law professor and author John Fabian Witt, Georgetown University adjunct professor of law Gary Solis, George Washington University adjunct professor of law and author Burrus Carnahan and Michelle Poore, U.S. Army judge advocate chief, Law of War Branch, International Law Division.

Registration is required and the cost to attend is $35, which can be paid online at www.lincolngroup.org/lieber.html. For more information, contact John T. Elliff at 703-360-1265.

The Ulysses S. Grant Association has scheduled a three-day conference and annual meeting in Georgetown, Ohio, the small town where Grant grew up.

President Grant taking the oath of office March 4, 1873. (Library of Congress Prints and Photographs Division)

It begins Friday with a dinner and speaker, followed by a day-long bus and walking tour of Grant sites in the area, in particular the recent $1.4 million restored house where Grant grew up. Saturday’s program concludes with another dinner and speaker. On Sunday, the event ends with a morning discussion of Grant’s status in popular culture and education.

Just in time for the anniversary of the battle of Chancellorsville, there is a new theory as to why Lt. Gen. Thomas “Stonewall” Jackson’s own men fired on him, mortally wounding him on the evening of May 2, 1863.

This is an undated portrait drawing of Thomas Jonathan "Stonewall" Jackson, the Confederate general during the American Civil War, 1861-65. Stonewall Jackson died from wounds received at Chancellorsville in May, 1863. (AP Photo - ASSOCIATED PRESS)

The incident has fascinated historians and Civil War students for the 150 years since it happened following one of Jackson’s most daring but successful military maneuvers, his flank attack.