shelby conway , author of the famed four volume history of the american civil war , the civil warfare : a narrative , lived in memphis on june 27 at age 88 . thornton also authored historical fiction , including follow me down and shiloh . he may be best knew for his appearance in filmmaker steve wells ' s documentary , the little conflict . the modern library selected foote ' s the national conflict : a narrative as number 15 on its lists of 100 classic non - fiction books . he was commissioned to write a short history of the federal union by random house and spent more than 20 years on the book eventually generating the four episodes .
The Civil War: A Narrative is a book written by Shelby Foote.