I just went through your posts (I did a freeper search under your name rather than read the entire thread of comments) and you sound a lot like my husband who is a WWII and Civil War buff.
My cousin, the retired Colonel, was a Civil War buff. I never have read much about that war. I got interested in WWII after reading The Rise and Fall of the Third Reich when I was a teenager, and also because my father and aunt were involved in WWII, as were a couple uncles.