American Civil War Reference Books
American Civil War Book Titles
Shades of Blue and Gray: An Introductory Military History of the Civil War
The Civil War with an emphasis on contemporary advances in military technology and their effects on behavior in the field. Ulysses Grant was speaking nearly literally when he wrote, "the iron gauntlet must be used more than the silken glove to destroy the Confederacy" |
The Battle of the Wilderness May 5-6, 1864
Fought in a tangled forest fringing the south bank of the Rapidan River, the Battle of the Wilderness marked the initial engagement in the climactic months of the Civil War in Virginia, and the first encounter between Ulysses S. Grant and Robert E. Lee |
Black Confederates and Afro-Yankees in Civil War Virginia
African American life in Virginia, both slave and free, during the civil war, from soldiers who fought in the Confederate and Union armies to those who acted as spies |
Black Masters: A Free Family of Color in the Old South
This book focuses on biracial persons of white/black ancestry. Persons who tend to be dark complected often consider themselves to be black and because the laws of antebellum South Carolina clearly differentiated between whites and free persons who did not fall into the white category |
Illustrated Catalog of Civil War Military Goods: Union Weapons, Insignia, Uniform Accessories and Other Equipment
Unabridged reproduction of rare and valuable 1864 catalog brimming with uniform and dress regulations, arms and ammunition, horse "furniture," tables of military pay, uniform accessories, insignia and other equipment. Detailed descriptions of hats, coats, "trowsers," boots, tents, swords, more. 226 illustrations |
Uniforms of the Civil War: An Illustrated Guide for Historians, Collectors, and Reenactors
Hundreds of photographs and paintings illustrate this definitive guide to the uniforms worn by both sides |
The Civil War Reenactors' Encyclopedia
Besides his weapons, the soldier needed a leather belt with a cap box for the percussion caps that fired his weapon, a box for his cartridges, a sling/scabbard for his bayonet, a haversack and/or knapsack to carry his rations and his few personal items |
Don Troiani's Regiments and Uniforms of the Civil War
Individual units that earned their reputations on the battlefield and the distinctive uniforms they wore. In addition to 130 paintings of battle scenes and individual figures, the book also includes more than 250 full-color photographs of the uniforms the soldiers wore and the accouterments they carried |
The Untold Story of Shiloh: The Battle and the Battlefield
Fought in south central Tennessee, north of Corinth, Mississippi, the battle showed the nation that the Civil War would be long and difficult. The Battle of Shiloh opened up the western Confederacy to the Union invasion that would ultimately prove its undoing |
Shiloh and Corinth: Sentinels of Stone
The brave deeds performed by soldiers of the North and South. Approximately 93 striking photographs and accompanying histories bring the battlefields to life, from Shiloh and Savannah, Tennessee, to Iuka and Corinth, Mississippi |
One Continuous Fight: The Retreat from Gettysburg and the Pursuit of Lee's Army of Northern Virginia
The first detailed military history of Lee's retreat and the Union effort to catch and destroy the wounded Army of Northern Virginia Complimented with 18 original maps, dozens of photos, and a complete driving tour with GPS coordinates of the entire retreat |
Bloody Roads South: The Wilderness to Cold Harbor, May-June 1864
This chronicles the great 1864 Overland Campaign, forty days that marked the end of the Civil War. In detail the battles in Virginia's Wilderness to the combat at Spotsylvania the trap laid by Lee at the North Anna River, to the killing ground of Cold Harbor |
The Confederate Housewife
Receipts & Remedies, Together with Sundry Suggestions for Garden, Farm, & Plantation
T his receipt book provides for the first time a comprehensive, grass roots picture of what many Confederate housewives faced during those tumultuous years. Substitutes abound, as do ways to preserve food, care for crops and animals, make straw hats and squirrel-skin shoes, and cure everything from cancer to small pox to ingrown toenails
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To 'Joy My Freedom: Southern Black Women's Lives and Labors after the Civil War
Thousands of former slaves flocked to southern cities in search of work, they found the demands placed on them as wage-earners disturbingly similar to those they had faced as slaves: seven-day workweeks, endless labor, and poor treatment |
Mothers of Invention: Women of the Slaveholding South in the American Civil War
When Confederate men marched off to battle, southern women struggled with the new responsibilities of directing farms and plantations, providing for families, and supervising increasingly restive slaves |
She Went to the Field:
Women Soldiers of the Civil War
several substantiated cases of female soldiers during the American Civil War, including Sarah Rosetta Wakeman (aka Private Wakeman, Union); Sarah Emma Edmonds (aka Private Thompson, Union); Loreta Janeta Velazquez (aka Lieutenant Buford, Confederate); and Jennie Hodgers (aka Private Cashier, Union). |
Ironclads and Big Guns of the Confederacy : The Journal and Letters of John M. Brooke
Information about the Confederate Navy's effort to supply its fledgling forces, the wartime diaries and letters of John M. Brooke tell the neglected story of the Confederate naval ordnance office, its innovations, and its strategic vision. |
Confederate Phoenix: The CSS Virginia
The CSS Virginia of the Confederate States Navy destroyed two of the most formidable warships in the U.S. Navy. Suddenly, with this event, every wooden warship in every navy in the world became totally obsolete |
Struggle for the Heartland: The Campaigns from Fort Henry to Corinth
The military campaign that began in early 1862 with the advance to Fort Henry and culminated in late May with the capture of Corinth, Mississippi. The first significant Northern penetration into the Confederate west |
John Hunt Morgan and His Raiders
The "Thunderbolt of the Confederacy" John Hunt Morgan from Tompkinsville, Kentucky to Greeneville, Tennessee. |
A Grand Army of Black Men: Letters from African-American Soldiers in the Union Army 1861-1865
Almost 200,000 African-American soldiers fought for the Union in the Civil War. Although most were illiterate ex-slaves, several thousand were well educated, free black men from the northern states |
Where the South Lost the War: An Analysis of the Fort Henry-Fort Donelson Campaign
The war probably could have been over in 1862 had Lieutenant Phelps destroyed the bridge at Florence. Not doing so provided a retreat for A. S. Johnston to move his men to Corinth and then to Shiloh |
FAME'S ETERNAL CAMPING-GROUNDS: A Historical AND the Original Authentic Accounts of the Civil War Battles Fort Donelson, Shiloh, and Vicksburg
This two-part book has something for everyone from the Civil War novice to the Civil War buff; for those who enjoy historicals and those who want authentic material |
War in Kentucky: From Shiloh to Perryville
Union gains in the Mississippi Valley and in Tennessee and Kentucky had brought the Confederacy to a point of crisis. This addition to the literature on the Civil War in the West tells how the Union then failed to press home its advantage while the Confederacy failed to force Kentucky into the Confederacy |
The Battle of the Wilderness May 5-6, 1864
Fought in a tangled forest fringing the south bank of the Rapidan River, the Battle of the Wilderness marked the initial engagement in the climactic months of the Civil War in Virginia, and the first encounter between Ulysses S. Grant and Robert E. Lee |
To the North Anna River: Grant and Lee, May 13-25, 1864
Spectacular narrative of the initial campaign between Ulysses S. Grant and Robert E. Lee in 1864. May 13 through 25, was critical in the clash between the Army of the Potomac and the Army of Northern Virginia. |
Lee's Miserables: Life in the Army of Northern Virginia from the Wilderness to Appomattox
The words of the soldiers themselves provide a view of the army's experiences in camp, on the march, in combat, and under siege—from the battles in the Wilderness to the final retreat to Appomattox. It sheds new light on such questions as the state of morale in the army, the causes of desertion, ties between the army and the home front |
Men of Fire: Grant, Forrest, and the Campaign That Decided the Civil War
In the winter of 1862, on the border between Kentucky and Tennessee, two extraordinary military leaders faced each other in an epic clash that would transform them both and change the course of American history forever |
The Longest Raid of the Civil War: Little-Known & Untold Stories of Morgan's Raid into Kentucky, Indiana & Ohio
Kentucky, a slave state, did not secede. Many were pro Confederate however. Jefferson Davis was from Kentucky, Lincoln was also born there. |
Charles W. Quantrell
A True History Of His Guerilla Warfare On The Missouri And Kansas Border During The Civil War Of 1861-1865
This book was written just as Captain Harrison Trow told it to John P. Burch, giving accounts of fights that he participated in, narrow escapes experienced, dilemmas it seemed almost impossible to get out of, and also other battles
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A Very Violent Rebel: The Civil War Diary of Ellen Renshaw House
The Siege of Knoxville (November 1863) is covered and Sutherland's footnotes make for good history |
The Shipwreck of Their Hopes: The Battles for Chattanooga
All the information you need to understand the flow of the battle at Chattanooga as well as the political intriguing that helped to shape the results is here |
Young Reader Selections
Women Subject Reference Books
American Civil War Exhibits
Civil War Timeline
Documents of the Civil War
Civil War Naval Resources
Civil War Summary
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Don't Know Much About the Civil War : by Kenneth C. Davis
Everything You Need to Know About America's Greatest Conflict but Never Learned |
This fresh look at America's greatest conflict will dispel all those misconceptions you acquired by watching "Gone With the Wind". Davis has a genius for bringing history to life, sorting out the players, the politics and the key events -- Harpers Ferry, Shiloh, Gettysburg, Emancipation, Reconstruction -- in a way that will enlighten even the most dedicated back-of-the-class napper. A brilliant crash course, this book vividly brings to life the people -- from Dred Scott to Abraham Lincoln -- and the everyday details that make up History with a capital H. |
The Civil War : A Narrative
by Shelby Foote
Fort Sumter to Perryville
Fredericksburg to Meridian
Red River to Appomattox
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This beautifully written trilogy of books on the American Civil War is not only a piece of first-rate history, but also a marvelous work of literature. Shelby Foote brings a skilled novelist's narrative power to this great epic. Many know Foote for his prominent role as a commentator on Ken Burns's PBS series about the Civil War. These three books, however, are his legacy. His southern sympathies are apparent: the first volume opens by introducing Confederate President Jefferson Davis, rather than Abraham Lincoln. But they hardly get in the way of the great story Foote tells. This hefty three volume set should be on the bookshelf of any Civil War buff. |
The Railroads of the Confederacy
by: Robert C. Black, Robert C. III Black |
The Railroads of the Confederacy tells the story of the first use of railroads on a major scale in a major war. Robert Black presents a complex tale, with the railroads of the American South playing the part of tragic hero in the Civil War: at first vigorous though immature; then overloaded, driven unmercifully, starved for iron; and eventually worn out - struggling on to inevitable destruction in the wake of Sherman's army, carrying the Confederacy down with them. With maps of all the Confederate railroads and contemporary photographs and facsimiles of such documents as railroad tickets, timetables, and soldiers' passes, the book will captivate railroad enthusiasts as well as readers interested in the Civil War. |
Photographic History of the Civil War
by William C. Davis,
Vicksburg to Appomattox
Fighting for Time
The South Besieged
The End of an Era |
This picture and reference book provides many of the often searched for pictures that have previously been lost in the Library of Congress |
Grant Rises in the West
by Kenneth P. Williams
From Iuka to Vicksburg, 1862-1863 |
Paperback - 654 pages
University of Nebraska June 1997 |
'The Damned Red Flags of the Rebellion'
by Richard Rollins
The Confederate Battle Flag at Gettysburg |
This is the first and foremost book on the subject of the Confederate battle flags. Not only does it provide a very detailed look at the flags lost at Gettysburg but, it also gives a true relationship of the men and their flags and what it meant to them. It is a book all people, who look at the Condeferate Flag either as a symbol of hate or one of a heritage long past, should read. It places the flag and the people surrounding it in their proper light. It tells the concise story of how the flag came to be, it military as well as social place in the American Civil War and in this country's heritage. |
After Appomattox
by Stetson Kennedy
How the South Won the War |
"A fascinating study of the failure of Reconstruction. . . . This lively and compelling account of the tragedy of Reconstruction is a useful volume which clearly makes its point and deserves to be read by novices as well as those familiar with the subject. Kennedy uses a variety of sources and successfully argues that although the South lost on the battlefield, they won the war during Reconstruction." |
Escape from Slavery
by: Frederick Douglass, Michael McCurdy
The Boyhood of Frederick Douglass in His Own Words |
With the power of his words and the truth of his own experience, Frederick Douglass dramatized the abomination of slavery and the struggle of a young man to break free. In this shortened version of Douglass' 1845 autobiography, McCurdy has done a splendid job of bringing the Narrative of the Life of Frederick Douglass to middle-grade readers. |
Frederick Douglass
by: David B. Chesebrough
Oratory from Slavery
Great American Orators, No. 26 |
Frederick Douglass, once a slave, was one of the great 19th century American orators and the most important African American voice of his era. This book traces the development of his rhetorical skills, discusses the effect of his oratory on his contemporaries, and analyzes the specific oratorical techniques he employed. |
Battle on the Bay:
The Civil War Struggle for Galveston
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First detailed study of a Texas city during the Civil War. At the end of the war, Galveston was the last major port in Confederate hands. Its story is dramatic and one of the great untold stories of the war. A must for anyone interested in the Trans-Mississippi department as well as the serious collector.
Civil War history of Galveston is one of the last untold stories from America's bloodiest war, despite the fact that Galveston was a focal point of hostilities throughout the conflict. Galveston emerged as one of the Confederacy's only lifelines to the outside world. |
Antietam The Soldiers Battle
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Synopsis : A historian tells of this bloody Civil War battle from an entirely new point of view: that of the common enlisted man. Seventy-two detailed maps describe the battle in both hourly and quarter-hourly formats. 37 rare photos.
As the book runs from anectdote to anectdote, the reader is able to get a clearer picture of the battle and what happened there. As a Civil War Reenactor, my unit fought at Antietam, and the anectdotes helped me to be more realistic in my impression. |
Days of Defiance
by Maury Klein
Sumter, Secession, and the Coming of the Civil War |
Military History Editor's Recommended Book
Maury Klein's knack for words shows up on the first page of this book: "How could the oldest, deadliest, most divisive conflict of a proud nation come down, after decades of bitter strife, to a dispute over an insignificant fort squatting on a hunk of rock in the harbor of the South's oldest and most defiant city?" Klein, a history professor at the University of Rhode Island, goes on to answer this question in lively prose. The Fort Sumter saga, of course, has been told well by others, but Klein makes the tale worth reading again. |
American Realities
by J. William T. Youngs, Cecly Moon
Historical Episodes :
From the First Settlements to the Civil War |
Paperback - 322 pages
Addison-Wesley 1996
4th edition |
Harriet Beecher Stowe
by Suzanne M. Coil
Impact Books
Impact Biographies |
Grade 7-12. Coil's admiring biography of Harriet Beecher Stowe creates a portrait of the celebrated author as a dutiful daughter; a committed abolitionist; a loving wife devoted to an often brilliant but ineffectual husband. The biography will be a useful addition to any collection, but it will be particularly helpful to students needing information about the years leading up to the Civil War, the work of the abolitionists, and the novel that "moved the world." |
Uncle Tom's Cabin
by Harriet Beecher Stowe |
An international bestseller that sold more than 300,000 copies when it first appeared in 1852, Uncle Tom's Cabin was dismissed by some as abolitionist propaganda; yet Tolstoy deemed it a great work of literature "flowing from love of God and man." Today, however, Harriet Beecher Stowe's stirring indictment of slavery is often confused with garish dramatizations that flourished for decades after the Civil War: productions that relied heavily on melodramatic simplifications of character totally alien to the original. Thus "Uncle Tom" has become a pejorative term for a subservient black, whereas Uncle Tom in the book is a man who, under the most inhumane of circumstances, never loses his human dignity. "Uncle Tom's Cabin" is the most powerful and most enduring work of art ever written about American slavery," said Alfred Kazin. |
The Mutiny at Brandy Station: The Last Battle of the Hooker Brigade
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THE MUTINY AT BRANDY STATION presents, in microcosm, the character and actions of men who served the United States Army of the Potomac in 1864. The story follows key players through the reorganization, the courts martial, and into the Wilderness using direct quotes from their diaries, memoirs, and reports as well as original transcripts of the trials. 78 b&w illustrations. |
Chesapeake Bay in the Civil War
by Eric L. Mills |
Received a copy of this splendid book Xmas 1996. Have already read it cover-to-cover three times. Have not met its superior for information and entertainment in more than 50 years of reading Civil War material. To those of us with "second homes" on Virginia's Eastern Shore (Chincoteague in this instance), it is a real eye-opener--and long overdue. Highest possible recommendation |
The Alabama Confederate Reader
by Malcolm C. McMillan
Library of Alabama Classics |
Paperback - 468 pages
University of Alabama Press
Reprint edition 1992 |
Andersonville
by William Marvel
The Last Depot (Civil War America) |
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The Abc-Clio Companion to American Reconstruction
by William L. Richter
1862-1877 Abc-Clio Companions to Key Issues in American History and Life |
Reconstruction has been more misinterpreted than in any other era of American history, and this seeks to remedy the problem through a thorough documentation of the politics, ideas, incidents and power struggles which took place during the era. An alphabetical format containing over 150 entries provides important keys to understanding the era: a "must" for any serious American history collection or course of study at the high school or college levels. |
Battle at Bull Run
by William C. Davis
A History of the First Major Campaign of the Civil War |
This new and revised edition of the original 1977 book offers the reader a splendid narrative of the first major battle of the American Civil War. On the 21st of July 1861, 60,000 American soldiers from the North and South met along the banks of Bull Run. In the fighting that followed the Union forces lost 2,900 out of the 20,000 men engaged while the Confederates lost 2,000 out of about 17,000 engaged.
This book is an enjoyable and easy to read story and is well presented by a number of photographs taken at the time of the battle or shortly after. The author has included 8 small, but easy to read maps that help you follow the outline of events during the battle. This book is recommended to any body who has a love for this period of history or to the general reader who likes a good story. |
| The Abolitionists and the South, 1831-1861 : by Stanley Harrold |
Stanley Harrold’s well-written work is an important contribution to antislavery historiography. Taking to task those historians who see antislavery as primarily a movement to reform Northern society, Harrold demonstrates that Northern and Southern abolitionists were active in the South up until the Civil War. Furthermore, Harrold makes a convincing case that the very real abolitionist presence in the Upper South was a "precipitative cause of secession and the Civil War." For Harrold, the Southern response to the abolitionist threat was neither irrational or exaggerated. I commend Harrold’s work to any student of antislavery or the antebellum South. |
Allen Jay and the Underground Railroad
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Allen Jay and the Underground Railroad is the retelling of a man's recollections of his first experience helping an escaped slave. The book brings the underground railroad down to the level primary students can comprehend. This book makes for wonderful discussions regarding overcoming one's fears, going against the norm and doing what you believe to be morally correct. |
Above a Common Soldier : by Charles Francis Clarke
Darlis A. Miller
Frank and Mary Clarke in the American West and Civil War |
First published as TO FORM A MORE PERFECT UNION in 1941, this rare volume of Civil War-era letters relates the poignant experiences of an English immigrant in the service of the United States Army. After Frank Clarke's tragic death in 1862, his wife Mary corresponded with his English mother, detailing the daily struggles of a military widow and her five sons in frontier Kansas. 12 halftones . |
The Battle of Glorieta Pass
by Thomas S. Edrington, John Taylor
A Gettysburg in the West, March 26-28, 1862 |
Following the third day of the Battle of Glorieta Pass, the Texans found themselves surrounded without provisions. Thomas Edrington and John Taylor combine data from records and documents with their firsthand inspections of the battlefield to reconstruct what happened on both sides of the line before, during, and after this controversial Civil War engagement. 35 photos. 14 maps. |
1863 : The Crucial Year
by C. Carter Smith
A Sourcebook on the Civil War
(American Albums from the Collections of the Library of Congress) |
Focusing on the Civil War's most critical year, this illustrated history of 1863 begins with the Emancipation Proclamation and details the Union's key victories at Gettysburg and Vicksburg, which turned the tide against the Confederacy. |
No Better Place to Die
by Peter Cozzens
The Battle of Stones River |
Cozzens's chronicle of the Battle of Stones River is a superb, engaging work. His careful work and skillful writing does justice to the memories of the 24,988 men who were injured or killed those cold days in Tennessee. |
First Manassas
Voices of the Civil War
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The soilders story of the battle in their own words rather then hearing the historians perspective of battle we read the privates letter home or the Colonels battle report this book examines Bull Run, the battle for West Virginia, and the battle of Big Bethel |
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