Obituaries of Shelby Foote, the eloquent Southern storyteller and Civil War Historian, have been abounding. Field Maloney has well stated the nuances and contradictions of this well-beloved protagonist of Ken Burns' 1991 PBS Civil War documentary.
As a great fan of Foote and Civil War history, I'll never forget his description of a phone conversation he had with the granddaughter of Southern General Nathan Bedford Forrest. He had told her that he was convinced the Civil War produced two true geniuses: her grandfather and Abraham Lincoln. There was a short silence and then in a modest Southern drawl she responded, "Well you know, Mr. Foote, my family never did like Mr. Lincoln."