Shelby Foote (born November 17, 1916) is a noted author and historian of the American Civil War.
Foote was born and raised in Greenville, Mississippi. He attended the University of North Carolina before being drafted into the United States Army in 1940. He was court-martialed and dismissed from the Army in 1944 over an incident involving a love interest, after which he joined the United States Marine Corps.
After being discharged from the military, he began writing historical fiction, most set in the period surrounding the American Civil War. Among his works are Follow Me Down (1950), Love in a Dry Season (1951), and Shiloh (1952).
Foote's ability to create a realistic portrayal of the Civil War -- factually accurate, richly detailed, and entering into the minds of men on both sides -- led his editors at Random House to invite him to write a short history of the war to appear for the conflict's centennial.
Foote subsequently wrote a comprehensive three volume history of the Civil War, together entitled The Civil War: A Narrative. The individual volumes include Fort Sumter to Perryville (1958), Fredericksburg to Meridian (1963), and Red River to Appomattox (1974).
Foote was featured prominently in Ken Burns' PBS documentary The Civil War.
Foote has been a Guggenheim Fellow three times, and has served as a lecturer at the University of Virginia and Memphis State.
He currently resides in Memphis, Tennessee.