Trivia

He joined the Mississippi National Guard as a protest to Hitler's war. His writings were interrupted when the guard was mobilized by draft in the year 1940. By 1942, Foote was commissioned and promoted to Captain. However, while at a base in Northern Ireland, Shelby was accused of insubordination because he was in Belfast without leave, visiting the Irish girl whom he later married. In 1944, Shelby Foote was court martialed and dismissed from the service.

Foote remained relatively obscure before his role in Ken Burns' "The Civil War", a PBS documentary series first broadcast in 1990 which made him well known. After that event, Foote came to be widely viewed as an authority on the Civil War.

Historian and author. His 3-volume set "The Civil War: A Narrative" is one of the standard reference works on the subject.

After being discharged from the Army during World War II, he joined the Marines. He never saw combat.

He was awarded three Guggenheim fellowships.

Attended the University of North Carolina from 1935 to 1937.

Children: daughter Margaret (second marriage) and son Huger (third marriage).

Biography/bibliography in: "Contemporary Authors". New Revision Series, Vol. 131, pages 159-162. Farmington Hills, MI: Thomson Gale, 2005.

Biography in: "The Scribner Encyclopedia of American Lives". Volume 7, 2003-2005, pages 188-190. Farmington Hills, MI: Thomson Gale, 2007.