[Pelham]

For an idea of what led to war, Thomas Fleming’s ‘A Disease in the Public Mind’

For an overview of the war, Shelby Foote’s trilogy ‘The Civil War: A Narrative’ and Bruce Catton’s Army of the Potomac trilogy.

[CORYDON]

Your suggestion of Thomas Fleming's “A DISEASE IN THE PUBLIC MIND” is an exceptional choice as are the others you mention. Something however that is often not mentioned in great detail is the fact that some years before the firing on Fort Sumter, Civil War was already occurring along the dividing line of Missouri and at that point, the Kansas Territory between Kansas Jay-hawkers, Kansas Redlegs and, Missouri pro-southern guerrilla gangs. I won't go into further detail on this but I do suggest you need to include this earlier Civil (war) strife between Missouri slaveholders and eastern Abolitionists who were moving into the Kansas Territory at a rapid rate to keep Kansas slave-free as it was considering statehood, in your study.
I will also tell you that studying our Civil War can be extremely rewarding and Thomas Fleming's new book (mention before) is truly an eyeopening book.