“ Before he died, the great Southern historian ,  Shelby Foote, in the mid 1990s,    gave an interview with PBS about the Civil War. The interview was replete with Proustian moments; Foote was Proust with a bourbon mellowed Southern drawl.   He took note that after the Civil War ended in Union victory; the white Southerner was bitter. But eventually, a compromise, a GREAT COMPROMISE,    was worked out with the victorious North; the South would accept that it was best for all that the Union won; however, the North had to acknowledge that the South had fought valiantly; which is why so many military bases were named after defeated Southern generals.   He gave insight into his bewilderment as to why Black Americans were bitter about slavery; he noted that Hebrews acknowledged their slavery and had risen above it. He never addressed that perhaps Hebrews were still bitter about their bondage, in the time frame of less than two hundred years from the ...

    Shiloh was the first great battle of America's Homeric Civil War. The broad outlines of the Battle are simple; the Union Army of the Tennessee under General Ulysses Grant  was bedded down near a Baptist Church, Shiloh Baptist Church. The Federals were attacked by Confederate forces under General Albert Sidney Johnston and Pierre G.T. Beauregard. During the first day, the  Confederates  made great headway but their General Johnston was killed; the next day, Grant aided by General Sherman counter attacked and won the field. Simple.....yet this is the Civil War, so it is all so Homeric. And being Homeric, the heroes and their fates are more important than the battles themselves. It is often said that Grant is the first modern General. This Blogger agrees; that being the case, the closest modern  General in comparison to Grant is the German World War I General,  Erich von Ludendorff; who was really good kicking the hell out of befuddled and backward Ru...