# Civil War Dopers...... what are the best books? **URL:** \ **Category:** Cafe Society\ **Created:** [December 6, 2010, 5:15pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/civil-war-dopers-what-are-the-best-books/563163 "2010-12-06T17:15:50Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 20\ **Page:** 1
**Author:** ![What\_the](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/w/f4b2a3/32.png) [@What\_the](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/What_the)\ **Post date:** [December 6, 2010, 5:15pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/civil-war-dopers-what-are-the-best-books/563163/1 "2010-12-06T17:15:50Z")
Shelby Foote and James McPherson’s works are too easy… but who am I to say you shouldn’t mention them. I’m particularly interested in bios and campaign/battle studies… but that’s just me. ---
**Author:** ![FasterThanMeerkats](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/f/278dde/32.png) [@FasterThanMeerkats](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/FasterThanMeerkats)\ **Post date:** [December 6, 2010, 5:23pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/civil-war-dopers-what-are-the-best-books/563163/2 "2010-12-06T17:23:00Z")
The books by the Shaara’s (Michael and Jeff, father & son), **Killer Angels** and **Gods and Generals** , are pretty darn good. Historical fiction, true, but I got a much better understanding of general strategies, tactics, politics, and personalities through the narratives than I ever did from a purely factual history book. ---
**Author:** ![gallows\_fodder](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/g/8c91f0/32.png) [@gallows\_fodder](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/gallows_fodder)\ **Post date:** [December 6, 2010, 11:32pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/civil-war-dopers-what-are-the-best-books/563163/3 "2010-12-06T23:32:59Z")
I really enjoyed reading Horace Porter’s **Campaigning with Grant** back when I was in my Civil War phase (lo about fifteen years ago, so my memory is kind of spotty otherwise). Porter was Grant’s aide de camp (and remained a personal friend long after the war) and was right up close and personal with him during the war, and the book is filled with interesting personal details about Grant and other big-name historical figures that Grant was in contact with. Biographies of Nathan Bedford Forrest are a sure bet for an interesting and entertaining read – that man was, well, quite a character. He was (IIRC) the only soldier in US history to climb from the rank of private to Lieutenant General in the span of four years, a total backwoods uneducated hick among the ranks of Southern gentlemen in the CSA brass, an excellent soldier and leader who was widely feared by the Union, and also one of the early founders of the Ku Klux Klan. Lots of shades of grey to this man. I think Jack Hurst’s biography (simply titled **Nathan Bedford Forrest** ) is a good place to start. ETA: Seconding **FasterThanMeerkats** – you can’t go wrong with **The Killer Angels** for an incredibly well-written, well-researched historical novel. ---
**Author:** ![The\_Peyote\_Coyote](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/5f8ce5/32.png) [@The\_Peyote\_Coyote](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/The_Peyote_Coyote)\ **Post date:** [December 6, 2010, 11:54pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/civil-war-dopers-what-are-the-best-books/563163/4 "2010-12-06T23:54:32Z")
\*Ordeal by Fire \*by Fletcher Pratt. It contains some factual errors, but is the most readable book about the Civil War, IMO. Pratt was L. Sprague de Camp’s collaborator on the Gauvigin (sic) bar and Harold Shea (the Compleat Enchanter" stories. His opinions of the Confederate leadership and why McClellan was a failure are quite interesting. \*The Beleagured City \*by Shelby Foote is an account of the Vicksburg campaign & siege. Bruce Catton’s books For fiction, Dover Press has an edition of Ambrose Bierce’s stories, including “The Occurence at Owl Creek Bridge.” I highly recommend it. ---
**Author:** ![silenus](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/silenus/32/166_2.png) [@silenus](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/silenus)\ **Post date:** [December 7, 2010, 12:50am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/civil-war-dopers-what-are-the-best-books/563163/5 "2010-12-07T00:50:24Z")
Just randomly pulling books from the shelves: _Extraordinary Circumstances - The Seven Days Battles_ - Brian K. Burton \* Lee’s Miserables - Life in the Army of Northern Virginia from the Wilderness to Appomattox\* - J. Tracy Power _The Devil Knows How to Ride_ - Edward E. Leslie (Quantrill’s Raiders) _Landscape Turned Red_ - Stephen W. Sears (Antietam) _Gettysburg: The Second Day_ - Harry W. Pfanz _Lee’s Tigers_ _- The Louisiana Infantry in the Army of Northern Virginia_ - Terry L. Jones A quick count shows right around a hundred volumes on the War of Northern Aggression. Name your interest more specifically. I probably have a volume on it. Biography-wise, might I recommend: _Fighting for the Confederacy - The Personal Recollections of General Edward Porter Alexander_ \* General A.P. Hill\* - James I. Robertson, Jr. _Stonewall Jackson_ - ibid ---
**Author:** ![What\_the](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/w/f4b2a3/32.png) [@What\_the](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/What_the)\ **Post date:** [December 7, 2010, 1:50pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/civil-war-dopers-what-are-the-best-books/563163/6 "2010-12-07T13:50:03Z")
Great list **Silenus** … got anything on Leonidis Polk or Judson Kilpatrick? ---
**Author:** ![Elendil\_s\_Heir](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/e/7cd45c/32.png) [@Elendil\_s\_Heir](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Elendil_s_Heir)\ **Post date:** [December 7, 2010, 3:19pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/civil-war-dopers-what-are-the-best-books/563163/7 "2010-12-07T15:19:29Z")
James McPherson, _Battle Cry of Freedom_ - One of the best one-volume histories of the Civil War ever, IMHO. Won the Pulitzer Prize, and rightly so. Geoffrey Ward et al., _The Civil War: An Illustrated History_ - Fewer words, more pictures, if that’s what you’re into, but still very good. Bruce Catton, _The American Heritage Picture History of the Civil War_ - A bit dated now, but still excellent. David Herbert Donald, _Lincoln_ - The best one-volume bio of Lincoln around, I think. Michael Shaara, _The Killer Angels_ - The best single novel about the Civil War. Also won the Pulitzer Prize. Garry Wills, _Lincoln at Gettysburg_ - Disassembles and explains the Gettysburg Address - literate, classy and insightful. Another Pulitzer winner. Doris Kearns Goodwin, _Team of Rivals_ - How Lincoln formed his Cabinet and led the nation to victory. Paul R. Clancy, _Ironclad_ - Good short book on arguably the most important naval battle of the war, the March 1862 clash of the armored warships USS _Monitor_ and CSS _Virginia_. An earlier thread that might be of interest: [recommend a good general book about the American Civil War - Cafe Society - Straight Dope Message Board](http://boards.straightdope.com/sdmb/showthread.php?t=240332) Want to read more about Lincoln? Here’s a great place to start: [http://clevelandcivilwarroundtable.com/articles/comment/lincoln\_books.htm](http://clevelandcivilwarroundtable.com/articles/comment/lincoln_books.htm) And a book to avoid at all costs, despite its popularity: [http://clevelandcivilwarroundtable.com/articles/comment/april1865.htm](http://clevelandcivilwarroundtable.com/articles/comment/april1865.htm) ---
**Author:** ![TheChileanBlob](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/thechileanblob/32/435_2.png) [@TheChileanBlob](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/TheChileanBlob)\ **Post date:** [December 7, 2010, 3:21pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/civil-war-dopers-what-are-the-best-books/563163/8 "2010-12-07T15:21:08Z")
My husband recommends the book he is currently re-reading, “Pea Ridge: Civil War Campaign in the West,” by William L. Shea and Earl J. Hess. ---
**Author:** ![Spavined\_Gelding](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/958977/32.png) [@Spavined\_Gelding](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Spavined_Gelding)\ **Post date:** [December 7, 2010, 5:38pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/civil-war-dopers-what-are-the-best-books/563163/9 "2010-12-07T17:38:35Z")
You are going to have to go a long way to beat that old war horse, Bruce Catton’s Army of the Potomac Trilogy, _Mr. Lincoln’s Army, Glory Road_ and _Stillness at Appomattox_. They may be old, they may be out of date but they are good history and good literature. ---
**Author:** ![Spavined\_Gelding](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/958977/32.png) [@Spavined\_Gelding](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Spavined_Gelding)\ **Post date:** [December 7, 2010, 5:53pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/civil-war-dopers-what-are-the-best-books/563163/10 "2010-12-07T17:53:09Z")
On further thought: Harry W. Pfanz’s Gettysburg books are highly detailed and thoroughly footnoted. George Stewart’s micro-history of Pickett’s Charge has been supplanted by more recent studies but it is still a good read. You can never go wrong with _Battles and Leaders_, a source book for every student of the period composed of first person accounts and essays by the people who made the decisions in the field on both sides of the fight and endlessly argued with each other about it afterwards. ---
**Author:** ![Sampiro](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/2acd7d/32.png) [@Sampiro](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Sampiro)\ **Post date:** [December 7, 2010, 6:22pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/civil-war-dopers-what-are-the-best-books/563163/11 "2010-12-07T18:22:44Z")
> [@What\_the](#): > > Great list **Silenus** … got anything on Leonidis Polk or Judson Kilpatrick? If novels count, Kilpatrick is a character of some importance in E.L. Doctorow’s _The March_ (which if you’re not familiar is about Sherman’s March. If you’ve read RAGTIME this book is similar in the way historical and fictional characters interact (and two of the characters are Coalhouse’s parents though it takes place years before his birth). I’ve mainly read about Polk in books about the Tennessee campaign- I haven’t read an actual bio of him- but those are enough to let you know what an incompetent prick he was. Had he replaced Bragg I seriously doubt there’d have been any difference as far as success in that theatre went. ---
**Author:** ![villa](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/v/bc79bd/32.png) [@villa](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/villa)\ **Post date:** [December 7, 2010, 6:31pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/civil-war-dopers-what-are-the-best-books/563163/12 "2010-12-07T18:31:28Z")
Eric Foner’s [Reconstruction: America’s Unfinished Revolution](http://www.amazon.com/Reconstruction-Americas-Unfinished-Revolution-1863-1877/dp/0060937165/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1291746555&sr=8-1) is an excellent treatment of the latter period of the war, and of course the post war period. Unsurprisingly, it’s not a campaign or battle study, but it is very readable. ---
**Author:** ![Gordon\_Urquhart](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/g/db5fbb/32.png) [@Gordon\_Urquhart](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Gordon_Urquhart)\ **Post date:** [December 7, 2010, 7:19pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/civil-war-dopers-what-are-the-best-books/563163/13 "2010-12-07T19:19:12Z")
The Library of America has published the memoirs of both [Sherman](http://www.loa.org/volume.jsp?RequestID=89) and [Grant](http://www.loa.org/volume.jsp?RequestID=46), as well as the speeches and letters of Lincoln (in two volumes). If anyone reading this thread has not yet read _Battle Cry of Freedom_, allow me to add my recommendation. I just finished it yesterday, and it’s very, very good – an excellent narrative of the war, and I especially appreciated McPherson’s description of the events leading up to the war. ---
**Author:** ![BrainGlutton](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/82dd89/32.png) [@BrainGlutton](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/BrainGlutton)\ **Post date:** [December 7, 2010, 7:46pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/civil-war-dopers-what-are-the-best-books/563163/14 "2010-12-07T19:46:20Z")
[_Jesus Hates Zombies/Lincoln Hates Werewolves, Vol. 1._](http://www.amazon.com/Jesus-Hates-Zombies-Lincoln-Werewolves/dp/0979787483) ---
**Author:** ![Damfino](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/f9ae1b/32.png) [@Damfino](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Damfino)\ **Post date:** [December 7, 2010, 8:15pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/civil-war-dopers-what-are-the-best-books/563163/15 "2010-12-07T20:15:28Z")
Bernard Cornwell’s Starbuck series give a good fictional account of the Civil War in the early years from the Confederate side. \*Rebel, Copperhead, Battle Flag \* and _The Bloody Ground_ cover Bull Run to Antietam. ---
**Author:** ![Peremensoe](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/p/ce7236/32.png) [@Peremensoe](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Peremensoe)\ **Post date:** [December 7, 2010, 9:47pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/civil-war-dopers-what-are-the-best-books/563163/16 "2010-12-07T21:47:02Z")
I can second those volumes of **silenus** ’ list that I’ve read. Some others from or about the less-told side of the affair, including the most neglected stories of all, the experiences of Southern civilians: [ul] [li] _Defend the Valley: A Shenandoah Family in the Civil War_, edited by Margaretta Barton Colt. This is an absolute trove of letters and diaries by various members of an extended family, Colt’s ancestors, that sent twelve men to battle with the VMI cadets, Virginia militia, 1st Rockbridge Artillery (commanded by William Pendleton, as depicted in _Gods and Generals_), and the 2nd and 33rd Virginia Volunteer Infantry Regiments (like the Rockbridge Artillery, these were elements of the Stonewall Brigade; the 2nd was raised in what later became West Virginia). Primary documents, 1855-1897; this volume 1994.[/li] > [@New York Times Book Review](#): > > It is impossible to convey in a review the weight and substance, the quiet and insistent human majesty of _Defend the Valley_…It has all the tension and feeling of a first-rate novel…unlike anything else that I know of in the literature of the Civil War. [li] _The Confederate War: How Popular Will, Nationalism, and Military Strategy Could Not Stave Off Defeat_, by Gary W. Gallagher. 1997.[/li][li] _General Stand Watie’s Confederate Indians_, by Frank Cunningham. 1998.[/li][li] _When the Yankees Came: Conflict and Chaos in the Occupied South, 1861-1865_, by Stephen V. Ash. 1999.[/li][li] _A City Laid Waste: The Capture, Sack, And Destruction of the City of Columbia_, by William Gilmore Simms, edited by David Aiken. Primary documents 1865; this volume 2005.[/li] > [@Amazon](#): > > _A City Laid Waste_ captures in riveting detail the destruction of South Carolina’s capital city as Gen. William T. Sherman brought his scorched-earth campaign to a hotbed of secession. William Gilmore Simms, a native South Carolinian and one of the nation’s foremost men of letters, was in Columbia and witnessed firsthand the city’s capture and destruction. A renowned novelist and poet who was also an experienced journalist and historian, Simms deftly recorded the events of February 1865… [li] _War Crimes Against Southern Civilians_, by Walter Cisco. 2007.[/ul][/li] Also I have a soft spot for a small book, _Stonewall Jackson’s Book of Maxims_, edited with extensive comments by James I. Robertson, Jr. While not a biography in any conventional narrative sense, and with no direct remarks by Jackson on the war, it is a unique journey into the mind of a legendary figure. Robertson discovered the unpublished writings in a box at Tulane University in the course of researching his biography of Jackson. ---
**Author:** ![Sampiro](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/2acd7d/32.png) [@Sampiro](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Sampiro)\ **Post date:** [December 7, 2010, 9:53pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/civil-war-dopers-what-are-the-best-books/563163/17 "2010-12-07T21:53:51Z")
I’ve mentioned before that there’s a huge discrepancy in the amount of books written about the northern/eastern theater (the Army of the Potomac v. the Army of Northern Virginia) as opposed to the western theater (The Army of _ **the** _ Tennessee\* v. The Army of Tennessee) which is a pity as the west was not only just as interesting in terms of personalities and battles and blunders but it’s where a lot of the people important in the later years (e.g. Grant, Sherman, Johnston) really made their bones. The best historian I’ve found of the southern side of the western theatre is Thomas L. Connelly (_Army of the Heartland_ and _Autumn of Glory_). Both are readable, a bit academically dry but still good. His primary focus is the Army of Tennessee. If you like fiction, a young adult’s book I heartily recommend (and a quick read) is [Across Five Aprils](http://www.amazon.com/Across-Five-Aprils-Irene-Hunt/dp/0425102416) by Irene Hunt. She based it on her grandfather’s childhood and it’s about a family in southern Illinois who have relatives on both sides and it’s set completely on the homefront at their small farm. The relatively low review average on Amazon comes mostly from people who seemed to think they were getting a war novel (which it is, but doesn’t have battle scenes) and from people who had to read it in junior high. For the sordid side, there’s [The Story the Soldiers Wouldn’t Tell: Sex and the Civil War](http://www.amazon.com/Story-Soldiers-Wouldnt-Tell-Civil/dp/0811715159/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&s=books&qid=1291758937&sr=1-1). It deals with things like brothels and the astonishingly high rates of STDs and the “soiled doves” of the war, and is a very good read for the life of the common soldier. One of its most memorable segments deals with the nationalization of prostitution in Tennessee by the U.S. government, which actually was one of the most effective government takeovers ever. (\*For anyone not aware, as with battles and campaigns the North often named things for rivers/water while the south did for towns and places; The Army of **the** Tennessee refers to the river and was the Union forces; the Army of Tennessee refers to the state/theatre and was the Confederacy.) ---
**Author:** ![Sampiro](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/2acd7d/32.png) [@Sampiro](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Sampiro)\ **Post date:** [December 7, 2010, 10:00pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/civil-war-dopers-what-are-the-best-books/563163/18 "2010-12-07T22:00:04Z")
Ah, and two “never gone out of print in decades” classics in the field just in case you aren’t familiar: [The Life of Johnny Reb: The Common Soldier of the Confederacy](http://www.amazon.com/Life-Johnny-Reb-Soldier-Confederacy/dp/0807133256/ref=sr_1_1?s=books&ie=UTF8&qid=1291759071&sr=1-1) and its companion [The Life of Billy Yank: the Common Soldier of the Union](http://www.amazon.com/Life-Billy-Yank-Common-Soldier/dp/0807133752/ref=sr_1_1?s=books&ie=UTF8&qid=1291759133&sr=1-1) both by Wiley and Robertson. They deal with the mundane and not-so-mundane issues like food, hygiene, clothing, and daily life for the fighting men (i.e. not the high ranking officers) on both sides. ---
**Author:** ![gonzomax](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/g/e8c25b/32.png) [@gonzomax](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/gonzomax)\ **Post date:** [December 8, 2010, 4:10am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/civil-war-dopers-what-are-the-best-books/563163/19 "2010-12-08T04:10:29Z")
Grant’s autobiography was a great read. It was certainly from his point of view but you really get an understanding of the complications of waging the war. ---
**Author:** ![silenus](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/silenus/32/166_2.png) [@silenus](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/silenus)\ **Post date:** [December 8, 2010, 4:17am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/civil-war-dopers-what-are-the-best-books/563163/20 "2010-12-08T04:17:06Z")
A few more I like: \* Lee’s Tarnished Lieutenant - James Longstreet and his place in Southern History\* - William Piston \* On Many A Bloody Field - Four Years in the Iron Brigade\* - Alan D. Gaff \* If It Takes All Summer - The Battle of Spotsylvania\* - William D. Matter \* The Shipwreck of Their Hopes - The Battles for Chattanooga\* - Peter Cozzens _George R. McClellan - The Young Napoleon_ - Stephen W. Sears [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/civil-war-dopers-what-are-the-best-books/563163.md?page=2)