Question of the Week: What are your favorite Civil War books?
Over the last couple of weeks, and continuing through this week, we’ve asked our writers to share their five favorite books.
For our Question of the Week today, we want to know: What are your favorite Civil War books?
Shelby Foote’s “Stars in Their Courses” and “Shiloh”. Drew Gilpin Faust “Republic of Suffering”
The Killer Angels by Michael Shaara, read it in college.
Shelby Foote’s trilogy is great. I also enjoyed the Time-Life series of books about the Civil War put out via mail order some years ago.
The trilogy of Bruce Catton trilogies: the Army of Potomac trilogy, the Centennial History of the Civil War trilogy and the U.S. Grant trilogy … they read as good today as they did in the 1960s.
The Golden Book of the Civil War. The illustrated figures in the maps brought the battles and scenarios to life and inspired speculation. Although a little dated I still enjoy this book.
Freedom National and The Scorpion’s Sting has shaped my thinking on the secession crisis. Battle Cry of Freedom is invaluable, to me anyway. I loved Joseph Harsh’s “Taken at the Flood”
I enjoyed “Arguing About Slavery” with a sardonic J.Q. Adams leading the fight against the gag rule.
For fiction, I like “To Play for a Kingdom” with a baseball game played between Yanks and Rebs during the Overland Campaign. “Killer Angels” of course. And I book I flog constantly: “Miss Ravenel’s Conversion” by a Union officer, vivid, sexy and violent.
In addition to Catton and Foote, Donald S, Frazier’s Quadrille series.
The Wilderness by Gordon Rhea
Shiloh Conquer or Perish by Tim Smith
Gettysburg the Second Day by Harry Pfanz
Anything by Bruce Catton
This Republic of Suffering by Drew Gilpin Faust
Pickett’s Charge in History and Memory by Carol Reardon
Decision in the West: The Atlanta Campaign of 1864 by Albert Castel
Nothing But Victory: The Army of the Tennessee, 1861-1865 by Steven E. Woodworth
The Field of Blood: Violence in Congress and the Road to the Civil War by Joanne b. Freeman
Civil War Memoir by Philip D. Stephenson
Company Aytch by Sam Watkins
Recollections of a Confederate Staff Officer by G. Moxley Sorrel
Fighting for the Confederacy by E. Porter Alexander
Destruction and Reconstruction by Richard Taylor
The Battle of the Wilderness by Gordon Rhea
The Army of the Potomac Trilogy by Bruce Catton
John Brown’s Body by Stephen Vincent Benet
Of Age: Boy Soldiers and Military Power in the Civil War Era by Frances Clarke and Rebecca Jo Plant
Hearts Torn Asunder: Trauma in the Civil War’s Final Field Campaign in North Carolina by Ernest Dollar
The Real Horse Soldiers: Benjamin Grierson’s Epic 1863 Civil War Raid Through Mississippi by Timothy Smith
Recollections of a Confederate Staff Officer by G. Moxley Sorrel (great vignettes of Ewell, Mahone, Shanks Evans et al.)
The Smoothbore Volley That Doomed the Confederacy by Bob Krick (How else would you find out about the immortal Maxcy Gregg?)
No comments as yet about Southall Freeman? Come ‘on y’all.
I will throw in a vote for DSF … i am currently reading his magnum opus bio of George Washington for my dissertation — pretty good.
Any of Tim Smith’s books.
Lee’s Lieutenants: A Study in Command. By Douglas Southall Freeman. Still the undisputed champion study of its subject;
War on Record: The Archive and the Afterlife of the Civil War. By Yael A. Sternhell. A fascinating history of the archives of the War, and the surprising process by which a portion came to become the Official Records;
Creating a More Perfect Slaveholders’ Union: Slavery, the Constitution and Secession in Antebellum America. By Peter Radon. A deep, compelling (albeit not entirely convincing), legal analysis of pro-secession arguments;
Gettysburg: An Alternate History. By Peter G. Tsouras. A deeply researched and well-written “what if” story of the Battle of Gettysburg;
The Man Without a Country. By Edward Everett Hale. Still a wonderful patriotic story, written in the midst of the Civil War.
Mission Impossible. Even trying to winnow it down to 50 wouldn’t work. But I certainly see several in the posts that would be on my list.
James McPherson – Battle Cry of Freedom
Steven Woodworth – Nothing But Victory: The Army of the Tennessee, 1861-1865
Ulysses S. Grant – The Civil War Memoirs of Ulysses S. Grant
Albert Castel – Decision in the West – The Atlanta Campaign of 1864
Bruce Catton – Grant Moves South and Grant Takes Command
I really enjoyed Rebel Yell and Confederates in the Attic
R. E. Lee: A Biography by Freeman
Antietam: A Soldier’s Battle by Priest
Andersonville – The Last Depot by Marvel
General Grant and the Rewriting of History by Varney
Jim Hessler’s three Gettysburg microhistory books are all great. Check out his treatment of Sickles, Pickett’s Charge and the Peach Orchard. Oh, and obviously, Coddington.
It’s wonderful that we have so many people who have so many different favorite Civil War books – the topic is endlessly wonderful and fulfilling. As one music journalist wrote, “They could release a five CD Greatest Hits collection of Bob Dylan’s 100 best songs…and you’d get hundreds of people complaining that their favorite didn’t make the list.
For my money, the top five Civil War books are:
‘Lee’s Lieutenants: A Study in Command in Three Volumes’ by Douglas Southall Freeman. The Bible. There is no finer book on the Civil War.
‘The Civil War: A Narrative in Three Volumes’ by Shelby Foote. Beautifully written and powerfully accurate, Foote is reviled by dozens of historians for the unspeakable crime of not including footnotes, for not pillorying the South before the Maoist revisionism of the Civil War era began – how could he have known? – and because they’re viciously jealous that he sold millions of his books and was so popular when they were blessed with neither level of success. Or perhaps they merely hated him because he was Jewish.
‘Three Months in the Southern Confederacy’ (or ‘Three Months in the Southern States’) by Colonel Arthur J. L. Fremantle, Her Majesty’s Coldstream Guards. A masterpiece of primary source “in-time” writing – the book was researched in the spring and summer of 1863 and published that same year. Beautifully written, it is notable for Fremantle’s illuminating conversations with everyday Southerners, including their views on slavery; and because he was present when Lee gave his orders to Longstreet on July 2 at Gettysburg and yet did not hear Longstreet disagree with a single thing his chief requested, despite Longstreet’s later claims in his autobiography.
‘Extraordinary Circumstances: The Seven Days Battles’ by Brian K. Burton. The Bible on this most fascinating of battles – it was second only to Gettysburg for casualties, yet is never noted for such by historians, nor is it noted for its tremendous importance. This was the battle in which Robert Lee took command of the Army of Northern Virginia, saved Richmond, and drove McClellan off the Virginia Peninsula after coming within 50 yards of cutting his Army of the Potomac in two and destroying it. And, it was the battle that changed the war. Prior to it, the Federal Government considered it a war of rebellion and intended to bring the South back into the Union with slavery intact. After it, the war became a political struggle, with the North aiming to end slavery in the South, though all the while refusing to end slavery within its own borders. Brian grew up just down the road from me and has kindly given me much information, as the core of my book is the Seven Days; as such, his book is indispensable.
‘Gettysburg: The Second Day’ by Harry Pfanz. A masterpiece of detailed combat writing that should be on the bookshelf of every historian. It’s clear he put his heart and soul into it; the inevitable follow ups, Gettysburg: The First Day and Gettysburg: Culp’s and Cemetery Hills,’ while worth having, don’t seem to have the flair and love for the topic that The Second Day brims with; perhaps he felt forced to deliver the latter two and his heart wasn’t much in them.
Honorable mention: My ancestor’s Civil War diary, the most fascinating I’ve ever read. I will not mention his name here, but the entire diary will be published in my upcoming book ‘Till The Stars Appeared,’ which tells the story of his life, as well as the other 30 young men from my family who served on both sides in the war. The book will be published in 2025, and the story is so dramatic that we are already talking with Hollywood about the production of a major motion picture.
“A Field Guide To Gettysburg” and “A Field Guide To Antietam” both by Carol Reardon & Tom Vossler.
These books instruct you exactly where to where to stand, where to face while describing in great detail what actually transpired. There are vignettes of some who participated and maps. So much information. It has allowed me to truly walk in the footsteps of my ancestors.
I will always have a soft spot for “Battle Cry Freedom” as it was one of the first real civil war books I read. Currently I am reading “Vicksburg: The Campaign That Opened the Mississippi” by Micheal Ballard. I find it a very approachable overview of the entire campaign if you don’t want to dive into multi volume sets like Ed Bearss or Tim Smith.