Really neat Foote work

                It took a while, but your loyal blogger today finished the first book in historian Shelby Foote’s exhaustive three-book series about the Civil War. The first book, The Civil War, Volume One, Fort Sumter to Perryville, leaves the reader wondering how one researcher could possibly know so much about anything.

          It also forced this blogger to go buy the second book in the series.

          For the last five years, this blogger has researched and chased after information related to the battle of Chickamauga, specifically the last three hours of that terrible fight. That’s five years of searching for microfilm, attempting to read said microfilm, combing through old files in far-flung archives buildings, searching the internet for old muster rolls and then authenticating anything found on the internet.

          That’s five years of getting lost on old battlefield pathways and lugging photographic equipment down the wrong trail for hours at a time. Never should have told the story to my kids; they’ll never let me hear the end of it.

          Fairly said, it is also five years of meeting some very helpful folks in places all over the country. Librarians, state and national archives department heads and the great folks at the National Parks Service have all been very nice and extraordinarily helpful.

          Those five years of research include moving from California to Ohio. Someday, all the notebooks which were packed will be found. Maybe the research will be complete one day.

          Maybe.

          Five years of researching the last three hours of the second day of a two-day battle. That’s half a decade looking into 180 minutes out of the four-year war, which was a part of the 40-plus year war era. In other words, five years researching a blip in time.

          You compare those five years of research with Foote’s work. He probably knew more about the Civil War than some people know about their own lives.

If you’ve seen Ken Burns’ series on the Civil War, then you are familiar with Foote’s ability to tell a story. And then you know why this blogger bought a new highlighter along with volume two of Foote’s series: A good story is too important to lose.

         Thanks for reading.