Hess holds the Stewart W. McClelland Chair in History at LMU, where he has taught since 1989. Hess has been a student of Civil War history since he was a teenager, growing up in rural Missouri. He completed his B.A. and M.A. degrees in history at Southeast Missouri State University. His Ph.D. in American Studies, with a concentration in history, was awarded by Purdue University in 1986. He has taught at a number of institutions, including the University of Georgia, Texas Tech University, and the University of Arkansas. He is the author of more than a dozen books on Civil War military history, the latest of which is Into the Crater ¿ The Mine Attack at Petersburg. He was nominated for a Pulitzer Prize in 2002.