We were greatly saddened to hear of your passing as well Shelby. The greatest face and voice of American Civil War history to ever bless our nation. RIP
He is the historian of the civil war experience that I have come to know. His speech cadence is unmistakable. I truly miss this man for all of his understanding of the this war.
@@edmc1000His comment was not an insult on Mr Foote. Mr Foote never considered himself a historian. He always considered himself a novelist. He said that he wrote hoping that he would instruct true historians on how to properly write history meaning more like a novelist would. History is story telling. The people in history need and deserve to have their stories told. Instead of memorizing dates and events, Mr Foote wrote about figures much like you learn about other people, bit by bit. He wrote them so they could “stand up and cast a shadow.”
You may think this problematic of me. Southern is a proper pronoun therefore clearly requiring a capital S. ‘True’ on the other hand should not be capitalized. I’m not attacking your grammar as much as I am attempting to hold a proud pronoun in highest esteem. This applies to all uses of Southern in proper print. Thanks.😊
Foote was a good writer and certainly a fine Southerner who understood the South's point of view but the best Civil War historians are Stephen Sears, Jeffery Hummel, and a couple of others. They don't write or speak as well, however.
He was an excellent narrator/storyteller. I remember him fondly from Ken Burns' PBS Civil War series back in '90. I watched it throughout the week with my late folks. Great times😊💕 R.I.P. Mom & Dad & Shelby Foote😇 You're all missed😔
Gen. Cleburne was certainly a very capable senior officer and unsung hero!! Another neglected CSA commander was Lt. Isaac Newton Brown, skipper of the ironclad, CSA Arkansas. His actions at or near Vicksburg in 1862 were unbelievable!
@@racketyjack7621 no historians do… his books were relatively well written for their time, but propagate a lot of falsehoods regarding battle tactics (most notably at Shiloh) and he held sympathies towards the lost cause movement.
@@Huckle15 The New York Times, PBS, npr, and Encyclopedia Brittanica among others call him a historian. Writing one of the best researched and well received histories on the Civil War, "The Civil War: A Narrative" demonstrated his chops. A rhetorical question...Did he require a degree to be a historian? Many would take that to be an arrogant and elitest statement. And you show me one historian who hasnt made an error in re-counting history. That is not uncommon as we were not there. The Battle of Midway is a great example of past errors. I always take my histories with a grain of salt. What evidence do you have of his sympathies for the lost cause. He had an abiding desire to show the war in human terms. It did not matter whose side someone was on. Its easy for people who have a narrative or a narrow view to miss the subtle and paint someone in the broad brush of southern sympathizer. Its amazing how many today are so ready to criticize those from the past. And speaking as a Southerner, I realize the South was wrong to embrace slavery. Many of us realized that decades ago without the help of "modern" historians and political correctness. Slavery was NOT just an American phenomenon. It had to go one way or the other. Funny how it's the woke that are actually bringing back segregation.
Battle of Franklin was brutal, perhaps even worse than Pickett’s Charge. Not only did the Confederates suffer badly at the attack over open ground as Pickett’s men did, but they made it into the Federal line with vicious hand-to-hand fighting as a result. Cleburne was born in Ireland, had served in the British Army, and rose through the ranks in the Confederate Army. Despite disagreeing with John Bell Hood over the plan of attack, he said he’d take Franklin or die trying…
When I went to DC and visited Lee's mansion I was really taken back to read the letters he wrote to Lincoln. The complete heart felt letters written in a way we do not see many write like to today. Right wrong or indifferent they wrote why they felt a certain way that would help pictures appear in your mind. Amazing feeling to read
Loved Patrick Cleburne. Cleburne is the one that said , "if we don't win this fight, the North will write the history painting us as traitors." (Something like that) Cleburne was spot on. What about Sidney Johnston and Raphael Siemes? Love you Shelby Foote RIP.
Shelby Foote is an amazing Civil War Historian. I love listening to him in Ken Burns Documentary on PBS in the late 80's. He was a National Treasure. RIP.
I dislike Ken Burns’ liberal politics but I’ll always be grateful to him and his documentary crew for introducing me to the wonderful Civil War recollections of Shelby Foote.🙏🇺🇸
The most engaging, enrapturing oratorian you'll ever hear. I could listen to Mr. Foote recite the alphabet. No one was more passionate about all things Civil War than Shelby Foote.
Cleburne truly was one of the finest commanders on either side of the war. I've often wondered what would have happened if he had been placed in command of the Army of Tennessee instead of John B. Hood when Jeff Davis decided to sack Joe Johnston - which may have been the biggest mistake Davis made as president of the CSA.
Yeah he was a strong proponent for enlisting slaves into the army and he was never promoted again after he made his feelings known. Big lost opportunity for the South.
Those people who have so much knowlege about the civil war are national treasures. Most people talk about hte guys who are popular but there are so many forgotten good women and man.
Several of my distant great uncles on my father’s side served in the Army of Tennessee as part of an artillery company. After the war, they all moved to Texas, where my family has been based ever since.
Like so many Southerners I knew in my family and others who weren't any kin to me, Shelby Foote was a wonderful storyteller. That is the most essential trait any historian must have, whether they are formally schooled in history or not.
A tragedy for the south that John Bell Hood, admittedly among the best Brigade and Division commanders, rose well above his level of competency and ordered the worthless attacks that resulted in the death of Clebourne and many others.
I was introduced to Shelby Foote by the Benedictine monks of Clear Creek on Oklahoma, most of all who Love the south and who are from the area. December 2022, his book “Fredericksburg to meridian” was read during meals, and it was truly a beautiful sound to my ears. As someone who’s ancestors fought for the south, I am deeply moved by Mr. Shelby Foote. He reminds me of my Pawpaw who passed away in 2015, who left me with so much historical knowledge of Texas and the south.
Shelby Foote’s voice is just like warm honey. I would have married him on just his voice alone, but the brain that came with it would have definitely sealed the deal. 💯
I grew up in Helena West Helena and it was well known about the generals cemetery. I didn't know any of them were, but like Mr. Foote I saw a a series about the Irish in America and Patrick Cleburne came up. He was an Irish immigrant escaping the famine and he joined up because of his location. But what Mr Foote said was exactly what they said in the documentary that he was the finest division commander on either side in the war and because of politics they wouldn't promote him up. Instead, they let that idiot Hood be in charge of the Army of Tennessee and he lost at Franklin really badly. RIP General Cleburne. Wish you had survived the war, because we needed good men like you to recover faster. I miss Helena West Helena with all my heart!
R.I.P. I don't think anyone else on this Planet has in the past, or will in the Future, understand the Civil War better than Shelby Foote. I've heard through out many years people arguing what the Civil War was about. I believe Shelby had the best and only correct answer. .
Found this very moving. I drove across the country a few years ago and made a point to stop at Cleburne's grave in Helena. A lonely, almost desolate spot where it easy to lose one's self and think about the great tragedies of life. If anyone ever epitomized the phrase "an officer and a gentleman" it was Pat Cleburne.
For some, Stephen Ambrose is their favorite writer or historian or whatever you want to call them. And rightfully so, he certainly was an excellent writer about American history. But for me, I always liked Shelby Foote. His voice and cadence of his speech even, it always made me wish I could go back in time to the America he wrote about. I can’t explain it really, it’s more of a feeling I guess.
Mr. Shelby Foote, I have so enjoyed your voice. It is now too late, you being gone from us, but it was one of my wishes that we record your voice reading the Bible.
@@ThisDate Since first it was my delight to hear his voice , I have imagined that, though a Virginian, perhaps my hero General Lee would speak with a similar gait, causing listeners to reckon respectfulness to all that was uttered. Were he to request use of the outhouse, even such a thought would gain ready agreement, and his pronouncement of those words would be treasured for proud repetition. I always remember a Major, my superior in the Marines, in his southern voice asking, "How 'you, Corporal Boxmeyer, how 'you?". Here was a man, his skull mostly stainless steel, due to battle bravery. Our memory of some voices stays with us, doesn't it?
I got to read a book while staying with a friend. It's called "General William Dorsey Pender...A Military Biography:, by Edward G. Longacre. This guy was a West Point Graduate and he fought out west with Robert E. Lee and J.E.B. Stuart. Resigned after R.E. Lee turned down the General of the Union Army. He enlisted in the Confederacy as a private. He was promoted to Lt. Colonel and at the first battle on Manassas...Jefferson Davis promoted him on the spot to a General. He was wounded in most every battle. He was in the front of his men in every action. Robert E. Lee wrote a letter to Jefferson Davis about Pender after Gettysburg. I don't know why I've never heard of him before. He was THE Christian General. There are never any true winners in war.
I could listen to him read a phone book. His tone and cadence is absolutely perfect. I read his three volume series, “The Civil War”many years ago. As I read it, I could imagine Mr. Foote’s voice. “Future years will never know the seething Hell and the black infernal background of this war. It is best they should not. The real war will never get in the books”, Walt Whitman.
"Stonewall of the West" Pat Cleburne was an Irish immigrant and pharmacist who settled in Arkansas. Prior to the civil war, he was shot in the back by anti-Irish bigots (members of the "Know-nothing Party") after a debate (always fear those who are proud to be stupid). He joined the Confederate Army not because he cared about slavery but because that's where all of his friends were located and he wanted to protect them.
My great grandfather was Drafted into the Union Army December 1864. He would be called a deserter if he did not report to Ridgeway PA. War - a terrible thing!
Mr Foote was history alive. Largely because he lived his history. He felt the heat and the cold of it as he passed through the moments of discovery. And if you paid attention, he would let you feel it, too.
