I was thinking of starting to dig into the Shelby Foote trilogy. Any opinions. I just took at look at the Catton series and it looks really good as well.
“I was thinking of starting to dig into the Shelby Foote trilogy. Any opinions. I just took at look at the Catton series and it looks really good as well.”
Both are excellent and particularly worth reading if you are just beginning to read about the civil war. Once you have a good overview I would recommend
Gettysburg by Sears
Landscape Turned Red also by Sears (Antietam battle)
Another great book not specifically about the war but good background is Team of Rivals by Goodwin.
For a bit of the naval side of the Confederacy, I found “Sea of Gray” by Tom Chaffin to be interesting. The story of the commerce raider, Shenandoah. 58,000 mile cruise.
That is the place to start.
It is a masterpiece of literature as well as history.
Shelby Foote’s 3 vols are great but it will take a long time. I got a boxed set for Christmas two years ago and haven’t finished yet, in part to starting on the “Battles and Leaders” series. I think if I live to be 150 years old I won’t finish reading everything of interest on the CW.