Shelby Foote

Many years ago in college freshman remedial English class our instructor asked us which of the books we had read during class we most enjoyed. I think, with many of my classmates, I voted for Voltaire’s Candide. It was short and made strong points with its satire.

Our professor said that his favorite was The Odyssey. I think his point was that as we grew older we might be more inclined to enjoy a long book that we could read on a cold winter night curled up by the fire.

I have not reread The Odyssey so far, but about 10 years ago I did read the late Civil War writer Shelby Foote’s immense three volume The Civil War: A Narrative. I think I read a volume, then took a break for a couple months before starting the next section. I remember enjoying the book and Mr. Foote’s vast knowledge of the Civil War.

You can get an idea of Mr. Foote’s mastery and the detailed account of the war he provides by looking at the titles of the three volumes. Each volume is arranged by the battles they cover. For example, the first book is subtitled Fort Sumter to Perryville. I had heard of Fort Sumter, Fredericksburg, and Appomattox; I sure never had heard of Perryville, Meridian, or Red River.

I like all the maps in the books. In the Bibliographical Note at the end of Volume 1 Mr Foote explains that he is not an historian – he is a writer. He says he is a novelist, but that he always stuck to the facts in his book about the war. That is important to me. I can appreciate both fiction and history, but I think a history should be as factual as possible.

Recently Daniel Sauerwein at Civil War History shared a YouTube video featuring various comments by Shelby Foote. Here’s the YouTube video:

I think it’s a great video that in less than 10 minutes says a lot about Shelby Foote: his great sense of humor; his total mastery of the subject – he can relate small incidents on the one hand, and on the other hand, make serious points with total conviction. I also got the impression that Mr. Foote was proud to be a Southerner but prouder to be an American. He alludes to this at the end of the Bibliographical Note I mentioned above. He says, “I am a Mississippian.” However, he hopes that any bias readers notice will be no more than “the average American’s normal sympathy for the underdog in a fight.”

I understand his statement about the North fighting the war with one hand behind his back. He mentions that the Harvard-Yale boat race happened in the spring of 1864 and none of the team members had to enlist. I read an article recently that shows that apparently quite a few young college men in the North did volunteer and serve and die during the war.

Hamilton College is a small school in Clinton, New York. The Summer 2009 issue of Hamilton Alumni Review (pages 16-18) published an excerpt from a book by Professor Maurice Isserman about Hamilton’s involvement in the Civil War. He states that about 225 Hamilton Alumni served in the Union army during the war, and 11 alumni served with the Confederacy.

Hamilton is small now, but it was much smaller in the 1860’s. There were about 30 men in each class. Mr. Isserman says that 19 alumni died in battle or prison; an unknown number died because of sickness.

I’m not trying to argue Mr. Foote’s point – I am sure that the North was nowhere near as pressed as the South. I just want to add something to the view of Northern college participation.

There are thousands of books about the Civil War, so I’m not sure how soon I’ll have a chance to curl up by the fire on a winter night and reread Mr Foote’s narrative of the war that was such an important part of America’s Odyssey. Of course, it might take even longer because I don’t have a fireplace, although it does often get cold in the Finger Lakes.

Addenda

1) The Hamilton College library has some primary Civil War related material as part of it’s Digital Collections

2) Daniel Sauerwein mentioned that he was made aware of the Shelby Foote video by Kevin Levin at Civil War Memory

3) In that last paragraph of the Bibliographical note I mentioned above, Mr. Foote mentions that he knew Confederate veterans, although by 1958 they were all dead. He says that the veterans respected the Union soldiers, but that Reconstruction eventually killed all that respect. Sometimes, as someone interested in the Civil War, it’s easy for me to focus on the battles and not pay enough attention to what happened before and after. The Civil War is colorful with all the battles and personalities involved. I can see that Reconstruction was not some abstract concept.

4) One of the things I love about YouTube is all the live music clips, especially from the long ago of my youth. To listen to some music that was screaming through my soul the night before we graduated from high school (and to see a very large Confederate battle flag) just press on the arrow: