Brian Pohanka’s Wife Will Carry On His Works
By Deborah Fitts
August 2005
ALEXANDRIA, Va. — Cricket Bauer first met her future husband in 1991 during a reenactment at the New Market battlefield in Virginia. Pohanka was already a major figure in the Civil War world. Bauer was in graduate school gaining expertise in the field of historic costumes and textiles, on her way to becoming an authority with a career her own right.
“Brian and I had a common love of military costumes,” Bauer recalled. Soon the slender, attractive brunette was a quiet, costumed presence in the camp of the 5th New York, Duryee Zouaves, which Pohanka commanded. Several years later Pohanka lost an eye to cancer, and not long afterward, in 1999, the couple were married.
“Brian saw the light,” said Pohanka’s father, John Pohanka, at his son’s funeral. “He married Cricket.”
In the wake of Pohanka’s death on June 15, Bauer is contemplating several projects based on her husband’s work. “I’m the keeper of his legacy, and I want to keep it going,” she explained.
Foremost is Pohanka’s history of the 5th New York, an undertaking he embarked on a quarter-century ago and that he finished writing before his death. Bauer is editing, organizing photographs and coordinating publication of the work, which will be produced by Schroeder Publications no sooner than a year from now. The two-volume work will include, in one volume, the history, and in the other a comprehensive roster and photographs.
Pohanka was born in Washington, D.C., March 20, 1955. He was a graduate of Sidwell Friends School in Washington, and Dickinson College in Carlisle, Pa., where he majored in history. He cut a wide swath in the field of 19th- and early 20th-century military history, including research and writing, reenacting, and serving as a consultant for numerous films and television productions.
Pohanka’s most prominent endeavors included spearheading the popular, 27-volume Time-Life series on the Civil War, serving as consultant for the long-running A&E/History Channel series on the war, and advising and consulting for the movies “Glory,” “Gettysburg,” “Gods and Generals” and “Cold Mountain.” He authored, co-authored and edited numerous books, including “Distant Thunder: A Photographic Essay on the Civil War” and “Mapping the Civil War.”
He was a leading authority on the battle of the Little Bighorn. He was also steeped in the Zulu wars in Africa, and tramped with Bauer over the Western Front in Europe to study World War I.
Under Pohanka’s command, the modern-day 5th N.Y. Zouaves gained a reputation as one of the top Federal units in reenacting. Every November, at Gettysburg, their march on Remembrance Day to Little Round Top became a staple of the unit’s calendar. In the shadow of the statue to Gen. Gouverneur K. Warren, an earlier commander of the 5th, Pohanka would deliver a ringing, extemporaneous speech of tribute and commemoration.
Bauer said, however, that nothing was more important to her husband than the preservation of battlefields.
She said that “He saw the connection,” on an emotional level, that could be made between a modern-day visitor and a place where young men had sacrificed everything for a cause larger than themselves. He was an unstinting leader in numerous preservation battles, reliably inspiring those within the sound of his voice to redouble their efforts to save threatened ground.
Although Pohanka is best known for his passionate advocacy for Civil War battlefields, the Little Bighorn battlefield was his favorite of all, Bauer said.
“He appreciated the remoteness of the location,” and the natural beauty of the vast, open, rolling ground, she explained. “It was a place where he could combine his love of nature and military history. It was also the mystery involved in the battle.”
In the months before Pohanka’s death, many friends came calling at Tower House in Alexandria, the couple’s home. They saw how Pohanka relied on Bauer, and what a tower of strength she was for him.
On June 23 she presided over her husband’s funeral, interment and memorial service. Dignified, calm and focused, she set a worthy tone for a day of tributes and remembrance.
Bauer said she will continue Pohanka’s pursuits of collecting militaria and undertaking research, both in her own field of historical costumes, and in Pohanka’s. “I plan on being as active as I can be,” she said.
“Brian in the last two years knew he was dying. We discussed what I should be doing when he was gone. This is not unexpected or unplanned. It’s happening just as we planned.”
Memorial donations may be sent to the Civil War Preservation Trust at 1331 H Street N.W. Suite 1001, Washington, D.C. 20005
