"It has a vividness and a drama that draws you to it. It's a small battle, there's less than ten thousand men involved and yet it has a tremendous dramatic impact -- it has a clarity to it, such as you get when you look through the wrong end of a telescope. Its small but its quite vivid and clear. And that's characteristic of Brices Crossroads. . . ."

Shelby Foote from the epilogue in the film.

Battle of Brices Crossroads, was a small but significant Civil War Battle fought by Confederate General Nathan Bedford Forrest on July 10, 1864. Despite being vastly outnumbered, it became his most famous victory and is still studied by military commanders.
 

Shelby Foote provides commentary for The Battle of Brices Crossroads. When he saw the completed film, he said:

I think it’s a skillful and accurate reenactment of what happened at Brices Crossroads. It was one of the best Civil War things I’ve seen.

Front Box Cover for The Battle of Brices Crossroads
Author & Civil War Historian Shelby Foote
  There is also a racial dimension to the Brices Crossroads Battle that has been little discussed, but is addressed in this film. There were two African American regiments fighting on the Union side. As Shelby Foote says, "They were good men . . . apparently Sturges [their Union commander] mistrusted their fighting abilities, or something -- and held them back at the times when they would have been most useful. On the retreat they were the only soldiers who made any kind of substantial stand and if he had used them earlier or used them better, it might have been considerably different".
 
 
Back Box Cover for The Battle of Brices Crossroads