I have Allen Nevins 8 volume work on the Civil War - “ Ordeal of the Union”. I devoted a year to read it 20 years ago. It was worth it!
I recommend that you begin with this set of commemorative pamphlets recently done by the US Army Center of Military History on the history, by campaign, of the American Civil War. All are available online and each one gives a short list of recommended books for further reading.
Campaigns of the Civil War: http://history.army.mil/html/bookshelves/collect/cwcb.html
The Center’s full Civil War Homepage:
http://history.army.mil/html/bookshelves/resmat/civil_war/index.html
One new book I recommend is The Last Generation: Young Virginians in Peace, War, and Reunion by Peter S. Charmichael
Found it.
Morgan’s Raiders By Dee Alexander Brown
Dee Alexander Brown, other works...
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The greatest story about one man in the Civil War in my opinion is about it’s best fighting General, Nathan Bedford Forrest. Even as a General, he rode at the front of his attacking cavalry and is credited with some 20 kills of Union Soldiers in hand to hand combat. A rich man at the beginning of the war he spent his own money to exhaustion equipping his troops. All this with no formal education.
There are about a half dozen or so good books about him. Some Union Generals after the war credited him with being the best General on either side. You will be amazed about this man if you read his books. He was the closest to being absolutely fearless as any man that ever lived. He survived the war and some 160 engagements and died in his fifties of diabetes.
Are you perchance, sir, referring to the War of Northern Aggression? Or the War Between the States?
My two favorites: "Company Aytch" by Sam Watkins and "Hardtack and Coffee" by John Billings.
Also good are "The Life of Johnny Reb" and "The Life of Billy Yank" by Bell Wiley, and "All For The Union" by Elisha Hunt Rhodes.
Earl Hess Pickett’s Last Charge
A Diary From Dixie by Mary Boykin Miller Chesnut, 1823-1886
April 1865: The Month That Saved America by Jay Winik
The Reconstruction Era is equally important. How in the world do you put the nation back together after that cataclysm? I highly recommend “Reconstruction: America’s Unfinished Revolution, 1863-1877” by Eric Foner.
All...don’t forget to add keyword “FreeperBookClub” on all book threads. Makes it easy to find by clicking on that keyword at the top of the main page. Lots of excellent book threads disappear without that keyword.
I added it to this thread.
Two unusual but unique Civil war books are “Come Retribution” and “April 65” both books on the Confederate Secret Service and its possible role in the Lincoln assassination. One of the things that was really interesting was how innovative the CSA Secret Service was compared to its Northern counterpart.
The actual war? Or anything relating to it?
“The Real Lincoln”, by my own local author, Tom DiLorenzo.
“Guns Of the South”. :-)
I found Grant’s memoirs to be a very good read that offered a different perspective on the campaigns conducted by Grant and his subordinates. It is available as a free ebook at the Gutenberg Project, Gutenberg.org.
The NappyOne
Anything by Bruce Catton.
A Stillness at Appomatox
Guns Of The South
by Harry Turtledove
It’s science fiction, but a wild great story and really does a good job of portraying historical figures like Davis, Lee and Lincoln and also does a good job of portraying life in the army.
Bump