A most civil man

Upon rewatching Ken Burns' series on the Civil War of late, Rico was yet again struck by how incredibly cogent and smart Shelby Foote was. He died, lamentably, in June of 2005. He had the kind of military service you'd expect: "Foote was commissioned as a captain in the United States Army during World War II and lost his commission after visiting a female friend in an army vehicle without permission. He returned to the United States and joined the Marines, in whose service he spent the remainder of the war."

Rico says you can always tell a Marine, but you can't tell 'em much... You can, however, enjoy Mr. Foote's incredible three-volume history of the Civil War, The Civil War: A Narrative by buying it from Amazon (click the title to go there).