Good Civil War Book

wintermute

wintermute

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Oct 18, 2007
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I have great all-encompassing books on:

The American Revolution: Almost a Miracle by John Ferling
The Napoleonic Wars
the First World War: The First World War by John Keegan

Does anyone have a good recommendation on The Civil War?
 
Guns of the South by Harry Turtledove..... :D

Just kidding, Battle Cry of Freedom by James McPherson is good.
 
Back during the centennial I read a huge amount of books about the Civil War .Analysis of strategy, battles etc . But there was one I remember ,a book written from letters sent home by a private. IIRC his name was Robert Strong though I don't remember the title.He was one of 'Sherman's bummers ' who gave a day by day discription of life in the army. Much more interesting than the dry analysis types.
 
"Co. Aytch" (for Company H) - A civil war memoir by a Tennessee Confederate veteran, written as a serial article for his local newspaper after the war. Very good day-to-day insight from the infantryman point of view.
 
MikeH said:
"Co. Aytch" (for Company H) - A civil war memoir by a Tennessee Confederate veteran, written as a serial article for his local newspaper after the war. Very good day-to-day insight from the infantryman point of view.
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Kind of depends on what you are interested in... For example "Regimental Histories" are excellent and were generally written shortly after wars end (and were normally written by members of the unit). The Fifth NH Volunteers was a good one (they were considered some what of a 'special forces' bunch... often took on the toughest tasks and lost more men that any other unit (I think)). Personally, I like 'first person accounts'... "Letters from a Civil War Sharpshooter", and "Letters from a Civil War Surgeon" are both essentially the written letters from the battlefield to the folks back home.

I like "first person" because you draw your own conclusions... no mucky-muck historian putting any spin on stuff from his "learned" position as a historian. Who BETTER to tell you about the Civil war than the guys themselves who were fighting it and writing home about it.

FIRST PERSON ACCOUNTS RULE!!!

ON EDIT: I should have mentioned that the language used in Regimental Histories and other first-person accounts are most always written in an early form of "English", and it takes a bit of getting used to... for example, from "Letters of A Civil War Surgeon" By Dr. William Child..

"My dear wife:
Wild dreams and real facts are but brothers. This night I have seen the murder of the President of the United States... Just at the close of an interesting scene, a sharp quick report of a pistol was heard and instantly a man jumped from the box in which was the president, to the stage - and rushing across the stage made his escape. This I saw and heard. I was in the theatre - and sat opposite the President's box. The assassin exclaimed as he leaped 'Sic Semper Tyrannis' - Thus always to tyrants." Washington D.C., April 14, 1865.

"To see or feel that a power is in existence that can and will hurl masses of men against each other in deadly conflict - slaying each other by the thousands - mangling and deforming their fellow men - is almost impossible. But it is so - and why we cannot know," Dr. Child wrote after the battle of Antietam in 1862.
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i have about a hundred civil war titles in my library

i am most interested in battle/campaign histories and biographies of the leaders and have very few all-encompassing histories

for a general history it is hard to beat the "battle cry of freedom" by Mcpherson, it deservedly won the pulitzer prize

while not a single volume, shelby footes three volume history is well worth reading, although it certainly has a pro southern bias.
 
Or if you want a more real view, read Bruce Catton's "Centennial History of the Civil War" trilogy. I say real because I'm a Northerner, and Bruce Catton is less biased than Shelby Foote (or as my Southron buds say, Yankee biased). His book "A stillness at Appomatox" won a Pulitzer, as well.

Go to a good library with a good selection of old books, and it is amazing how many old long out of print civil war books there are. Some of the old books make for some interesting reading.

I also highly recommend Sandburg's "Lincoln" - though they may not technically be a civil war books by some's definition, it is a valuable perspective. Also McPherson is excellent...
 
If you like historical fiction, then:

The Killer Angels by Michael Shaara.

Gods and Generals by Jeff Shaara (son) (also a great movie).

Last Full Measure by Jeff Shaara (son).

Fun reading.

M.
 
I forgot to look at this thread after I started it. Thanks for all the recommendations. What I'm looking for is kind of an good first shot "all-in" military history with some good maps, and some reference to goings-on outside the military realm. If any of that makes sense.
 
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