third time. What a great documentary. Aside from Burns' ability to make
old photos and stories come alive, I think it was Shelby Foote who
really makes the series shine.
Shelby was a writer from the south who I have great respect for (even
more so when I saw this photo and noticed the framed picture of Robert
Johnson on his desk:) He was just an amazing historian, very
knowledgeable and impartial as well, save for a hint of southern pride
that showed itself in only a few instances. He provided perspective on
many things that would seem strange today due to the huge changes that
have taken place in our culture, much of it because of the Civil War. He
was able to dissect what went on and reassemble it for a modern
audience, and his analysis was insightful, which I guess makes sense
because he has written the definitive history of the Civil War, a series
of books that took him more than 20 years to write. I was glad to hear
that while Shelby had labored in near obscurity for most of his life,
his appearances in The Civil War made him very well known, and his books
very much in demand. In fact he once told Burns "Ken, you have made me a
millionaire".
Shelby lived in Memphis, near the home of the descendants of confederate
general Nathan Bedford Forrest (who if you recall, Forrest Gump was
named after, and not in a good way). Despite the fact that Forrest was
the first Grand Wizard of the KKK (he later quit the organization when
it became too violent even for him), he was a brilliant self-taught war
tactician. Shelby thinks that the Civil War produced two verifiable
geniuses: Forrest (for his brilliant tactics of course, Shelby was very
much against the KKK) and Abraham Lincoln. When he told this to the
granddaughter of Nathan Bedford Forrest she just about had a heart
attack. Shelby said that even today she had a big problem mentioning
Lincoln alongside her grandfather. Some wounds never heal.
Shelby had this to say at the end of the series...despite several
instances during the war where it looked very much like the confederacy
might win:
"I think that the North fought that war with one hand behind its back.
At the same time the war was going on, the Homestead act was being
passed, all these marvelous inventions were going on... If there had
been more Southern victories, and a lot more, the North simply would
have brought that other hand out from behind its back. I don't think the
South ever had a chance to win that War. "
He also stated one chilling fact that really shows the cultural shift
that happened after that war:
"Before the war, it was said 'the United States are.' Grammatically, it
was spoken that way and thought of as a collection of independent
states. And after the war, it was always 'the United States is,' as we
say today without being self-conscious at all. And that's sums up what
the war accomplished. It made us an 'is.'"
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