American Civil War/Bibliography

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A list of key readings about American Civil War.
Please sort and annotate in a user-friendly manner. For formatting, consider using automated reference wikification.

The American Civil War bibliography is vast, with over 50,000 books on the American Civil War, with many more appearing each year. This is a selected, annotated list of the most useful titles. The emphasis is on recent publications since 2000.

For a guide to the bibliography see:

  • Steven E. Woodworth, ed. The American Civil War: A Handbook of Literature and Research. Greenwood Press. 1996. 756pp online edition

For a guide to web sources see:

  • Alice E. Carter and Richard Jensen. The Civil War on the Web: A Guide to the Very Best Sites--Completely Revised and Updated (2003)

For an older short survey that is online and won the Pulitzer prize, see:

For the most recent surveys (not online) see:

  • Fellman, Michael et al. This Terrible War: The Civil War and its Aftermath (2nd ed. 2007), 544pp; textbook
  • Donald, David et al. The Civil War and Reconstruction (2001); 700 pages
  • McPherson, James M. Battle Cry of Freedom: The Civil War Era (1988), 900 pages; Pulitzer prize online edition

Surveys and reference books

  • Beringer, Richard E., Archer Jones, and Herman Hattaway, Why the South Lost the Civil War (1986) influential analysis of factors; The Elements of Confederate Defeat: Nationalism, War Aims, and Religion (1988), abridged version
  • Catton, Bruce. The Civil War, American Heritage, 1960, ISBN 0-8281-0305-4, illustrated narrative
  • Catton, Bruce. This Hallowed Ground: The Story of the Union Side of the Civil War 1956 online edition
  • Davis, William C. The Imperiled Union, 1861-1865 3v (1983)
  • Donald, David et al. The Civil War and Reconstruction (latest edition 2001); 700 page survey
  • Faust, Patricia L. (ed.) Historical Times Illustrated Encyclopedia of the Civil War (1986) (ISBN 0-06-181261-7) 2000 short entries
  • Fellman, Michael et al. This Terrible War: The Civil War and its Aftermath (2003), 400 page survey
  • Ford, Lacy K., ed. A Companion to the Civil War and Reconstruction. Blackwell, 2005. 518 pp. 23 essays by scholars excerpt and text search
  • Heidler, David Stephen, ed. Encyclopedia of the American Civil War: A Political, Social, and Military History (2002), 1600 entries in 2700 pages in 5 vol or 1-vol editions
  • McPherson, James M. Battle Cry of Freedom: The Civil War Era (1988), 900 page survey; Pulitzer prize
  • McPherson, James M. Ordeal by Fire: the Civil War and Reconstruction. (1992), uses modernization interpretation.
  • Nevins, Allan. Ordeal of the Union, an 8-volume set (1947-1971). the most detailed political, economic and military narrative; by Pulitzer Prize winner
    • 1. Fruits of Manifest Destiny, 1847-1852; 2. A House Dividing, 1852-1857; 3. Douglas, Buchanan, and Party Chaos, 1857-1859; 4. Prologue to Civil War, 1859-1861; 5. The Improvised War, 1861-1862; 6. War Becomes Revolution, 1862-1863; 7. The Organized War, 1863-1864; 8. The Organized War to Victory, 1864-1865
  • Rhodes, James Ford. History of the United States from the Compromise of 1850 (1920 and numerous editions) his 5-volume history of the war vol 1-7 online at Google.books.com
  • Rhodes, James Ford. History of the Civil War, 1861-1865 (1918), Pulitzer Prize; a short version of his 5-volume history
  • Wagner, Margaret E. Gary W. Gallagher, and Paul Finkelman, eds. The Library of Congress Civil War Desk Reference (2002)

Maps, photographs

  • West Point atlases; all maps are online: Eastern Theatre, Western theatre
  • McPherson, James M. The Atlas Of The Civil War (2005)
  • Symonds, Craig L. and William J. Clipson. A Battlefield Atlas of the Civil War (1993) schematic maps that are easy to understand
  • Swanson, Mark. Atlas of the Civil War: Month By Month. U. of Georgia Press, 2004. 141 pp.
  • U.S. War Dept. The Official Military Atlas of the Civil War (2003) large format copies of the maps the U.S. generals used at the time
  • Woodworth, Steven E., Kenneth J. Winkle, and James McPherson. The Oxford Atlas of the Civil War (2004)
  • Davis, William C. The Civil War In Photographs (2005)
  • Ward, Geoffrey C. The Civil War (1990), based on PBS series by Ken Burns; visual emphasis


Battles: surveys, strategies, tactics

  • Blair, Jayne E. The Essential Civil War: A Handbook to the Battles, Armies, Navies And Commanders (2006)
  • Boritt, Gabor S. ed. Why the Confederacy Lost (1992), essays by scholars online edition
  • Catton, Bruce. Centennial History of the Civil War, 3 vols. (1961-65);
  • Connelly, Thomas L., "Robert E. Lee and the Western Confederacy: A Criticism of Lee's Strategic Ability." Civil War History 15 (June 1969): 116-32
  • Eicher, David J., The Longest Night: A Military History of the Civil War, (2001), ISBN 0-684-84944-5.
  • Foote, Shelby. The Civil War: A Narrative (3 volumes), (1974), famous narrative of every major campaign by Southern scholar
  • Goss, Thomas J. The War within the Union High Command: Politics and Generalship during the Civil War. U. Press of Kansas, 2003. 320 pp.
  • McPherson, James ed. Battle Chronicles of the Civil War (6 vol 1989)
  • Polsky, Andrew J. "'Mr. Lincoln's Army' Revisited: Partisanship, Institutional Position, and Union Army Command, 1861–1865." Studies in American Political Development (2002), 16: 176-207
  • Royster, Charles. Destructive War: William Tecumseh Sherman, Stonewall Jackson, and the American Civil War (1992)
  • Simpson, Brooks D, "Continuous Hammering and Mere Attrition: Lost Cause Critics and the Military Reputation of Ulysses S. Grant," in Cad Gallagher and Alan T. Nolan, eds., The Myth of the Lost Cause and Civil War History, (2000)
  • Weigley, Russell Frank. A Great Civil War: A Military and Political History, 1861-1865 (2004); primarily military
  • Kenneth P. Williams. Lincoln Finds a General: A Military Study of the Civil War (1959) 5 volumes on Lincoln's control of the war
  • Williams, T. Harry. Lincoln and His Generals (1967).

Tactics

  • Griffith, Paddy. Battle Tactics of the Civil War (1989)
  • Hagerman, Edward. The American Civil War and the Origins of Modern Warfare: Ideas, Organization, and Field Command (1988).
  • McWhinney, Grady, and Perry D. Jameson. Attack and Die: Civil War Military Tactics and the Southern Heritage (1982) online edition

Battles and campaigns: East

  • West Point atlases; all maps are online: Eastern Theatre
  • Beatie, Russel H. Army of the Potomac. Vol. 2: McClellan Takes Command, September 1861-February 1862. Da Capo, 2004. 636 pp.
  • Cannan, John. The Antietam Campaign: August-September 1862 (1994) online edition
  • Cannan, John. The Spotsylvania Campaign: May 7-21, 1864 (1997) online edition
  • Cozzens, Peter, ed. Battles and Leaders of the Civil War. Vol. 6. U. of Illinois Press., 2004. 608 pp.; new essays
  • Davis, William C. Battle at Bull Run: A History of the First Major Campaign of the Civil War (1977).
  • Detzer, David. Donnybrook: The Battle of Bull Run, 1861. Harcourt, 2004. 490 pp.
  • Dowdey, Clifford. The Seven Days 1964.
  • Freeman, Douglas S., Lee's Lieutenants: A Study in Command (3 volumes), (1946). vol 1 from 1861 to the Seven Days' Battles; Vol 2 from Cedar Mountain to Chancellorsville, August 1862-May 1863; vol 3 to end of war.
  • Freeman, Douglas S., Lee's Lieutenants: A Study in Command (1946). 3 vol; excerpt and text search from 1-vol abridged edition (1997), 832pp
  • Furgurson, Ernest B. Chancellorsville 1863: The Souls of the Brave (1992)
  • Gallagher, Gary W.; Lee & His Army in Confederate History University of North Carolina Press, 2001 excerpt and text search' copmplete edition online
  • Gallagher, Gary, ed. The Fredericksburg Campaign: Decision on the Rappahannock (1995) excerpt and text search
  • Harsh, Joseph L. Taken at the Flood: Robert E. Lee and Confederate Strategy in the Maryland Campaign of 1862 Kent State University Press, 1999
  • Hennessy, John J. Return to Bull Run: The Campaign and Battle of Second Manassas (1993).
  • Johnson, R. U., and Buel, C. C., eds., Battles and Leaders of the Civil War. 4 vols. 1888; highly influential essays by leading generals of both sides; online edition
  • Luvaas, Jay and Harold W. Nelson, ed. The U.S. Army War College Guide to the Battle of Antietam: The Maryland Campaign of 1862 (1987), narratve, with excerpts from primary sources
  • Luvaas, Jay, and Harold Nelson. The U.S. Army War College Guide to the Battles of Chancellorsville and Fredericksburg (1988)
  • Martin, David G. The Second Bull Run Campaign, July-August 1862, (1997) online edition
  • Murfin, James V. The Gleam of Bayonets: The Battle of Antietam and the Maryland Campaign of 1862 (1965)
  • Rable, George. Fredericksburg! Fredericksburg! 2002. 671 pp.
  • Sears, Stephen W. To the Gates of Richmond: The Peninsula Campaign (1992).
  • Sears, Stephen W. Landscape Turned Red: The Battle of Antietam (1983)
  • Starr, Stephen Z. The Union Cavalry in the Civil War 3 vol (1979, 1981),
  • Swanberg, W. A. First Blood: The Story of Fort Sumter (1957)
  • Tanner, Robert G. Stonewall in the Valley: Thomas J. "Stonewall" Jackson's Shenandoah Valley Campaign Spring 1862 (1976)
  • Whan Jr., Vorin E. Fiasco at Fredericksburg (1961),

Gettysburg

See also Gettysburg Campaign and biographies of Lee

  • Brown, Kent Masterson. Retreat from Gettysburg: Lee, Logistics, and the Pennsylvania Campaign. U. of North Carolina Press, 2005. excerpt and text search
  • Coddington, Edwin B. The Gettysburg Campaign: A Study in Command (1968), the best single book; excerpt and text search
  • Gallagher, Gary W., ed. Three Days at Gettysburg: Essays on Confederate and Union Leadership (1999) online edition; also excerpt and text search
  • Gallagher, Gary ed. The First Day at Gettysburg (1993) online edition
  • Gallagher, Gary ed. The Second Day at Gettysburg and Beyond (1993) excerpt and text search
  • Gallagher, Gary ed. The Third Day at Gettysburg and Beyond (1994) online edition
  • Gottfried, Bradley M. The Artillery of Gettysburg (2008)
  • Longacre, Edward G. The Cavalry at Gettysburg: A Tactical Study of Mounted Operations during the Civil War's Pivotal Campaign, 9 June-14 July 1863 (1993) excerpt and text search
  • Luvaas, Jay, and Harold W. Nelson. The U.S. Army War College Guide to the Battle of Gettysburg (1994) excerpt and text search
  • Nofi, Albert A. The Gettysburg Campaign, June-July 1863 (1997) online edition; excerpt and text search
  • Pfanz, Harry W. Gettysburg: The First Day (2000) excerpt and text search
  • Pfanz, Harry W. Gettysburg: The Second Day (1987) complete online edition; also excerpt and text search
  • Pfanz, Harry W. Gettysburg: Culp's Hill and Cemetery Hill, (1993), 510pp online edition
  • Reardon, Carol. Pickett's Charge in History and Memory (1997) online edition
  • Robinson, Warren C. Jeb Stuart and the Confederate Defeat at Gettysburg (2007) excerpt and text search
  • Sears, Stephen W. Gettysburg (2004) excerpt and text search
  • Stackpole, Edward J., Wilbur Sturtevant Nye, and Bradley M. Gottfried. The Battle of Gettysburg: A Guided Tour (1998) excerpt and text search
  • Tucker, Glenn. High Tide at Gettysburg: The Campaign in Pennsylvania (1958).
  • United States Military Academy Dept. of Military Art and Engineering and Vincent J. Esposito. The West Point Atlas of American Wars: 1689-1900 (1995); all maps are online free: Eastern Theatre
  • Woodworth, Steven E. Beneath a Northern Sky: A Short History of the Gettysburg Campaign. (2003). 241 pp.

1864-65 campaigns in East

  • Cavanaugh, Michael A., and William Marvel, The Petersburg Campaign: The Battle of the Crater: "The Horrid Pit," June 25-August 6, 1864 (1989)
  • Coffey, David. Sheridan's Lieutenants: Phil Sheridan, His Generals, and the Final Year of the Civil War. Rowman & Littlefield, 2005. 173 pp.
  • Davis, William C. Death in the Trenches: Grant at Petersburg (1986).
  • Gallagher, Gary W. ed. The Wilderness Campaign (1997) excerpt and text search
  • Gallagher, Gary W., ed. The Shenandoah Valley Campaign of 1864. U. of North Carolina Press, 2006. 392 pp.
  • Grimsley, Mark, And Keep Moving On: The Virginia Campaign, May-June 1864 University of Nebraska Press, 2002.
  • McWhiney, Grady, Battle in the Wilderness: Grant Meets Lee (1995)
  • Maney, R. Wayne, Marching to Cold Harbor. Victory and Failure, 1864 (1994).
  • Marvel, William. Lee's Last Retreat: The Flight to Appomattox. University of North Carolina Press, 2002.
  • Matter, William D., If It Takes All Summer: The Battle of Spotsylvania (1988) excerpt and text search
  • Miller, J. Michael, The North Anna Campaign: "Even to Hell Itself," May 21-26, 1864 (1989).
  • Rhea, Gordon C., The Battle of the Wilderness May 5–6, 1864, (1994) ISBN 0-8071-1873-7. excerpt and text search
  • Rhea, Gordon C., The Battles for Spotsylvania Court House and the Road to Yellow Tavern May 7–12, 1864, (1997), ISBN 0-8071-2136-3. excerpt and text search
  • Rhea, Gordon C., To the North Anna River: Grant and Lee, May 13–25, 1864, (2000), ISBN 0-8071-2535-0. excerpt and text search
  • Rhea, Gordon C., Cold Harbor: Grant and Lee, May 26 – June 3, 1864, (2002), ISBN 0-8071-2803-1. [ excerpt and text search]
  • Simpson, Brooks D, "Continuous Hammering and Mere Attrition: Lost Cause Critics and the Military Reputation of Ulysses S. Grant," in Gary Gallagher and Alan T. Nolan, eds., The Myth of the Lost Cause and Civil War History, (2000)
  • Trudeau, Noah. Bloody Roads South: The Wilderness to Cold Harbor, May-June 1864 (2002) excerpt and text search
  • Trudeau, Noah Andrew. The Last Citadel: Petersburg, Virginia, June 1864-April 1865 (1991)

Battles and campaigns: West

  • West Point atlases; all maps are online:Western theatre
  • Bailey, Anne J. War and Ruin: William T. Sherman and the Savannah Campaign. Scholarly Resources, 2003. 152 pp.
  • Catton, Bruce, Grant Moves South, 1960, ISBN 0-316-13207-1;
  • Connelly, Thomas L., "Robert E. Lee and the Western Confederacy: A Criticism of Lee's Strategic Ability." Civil War History 15 (June 1969): 116-32
  • Cozzens, Peter, ed. Battles and Leaders of the Civil War. Vol. 6. U. of Illinois Press., 2004. 608 pp.
  • Cunningham, Edward. Shiloh and the Western Campaign of 1862 (2007)
  • Daniel, Larry. Cannoneers in Gray: The Field Artillery of the Army of Tennessee. U. of Alabama Press, 2005. 288 pp.
  • Daniel, Larry J. Days of Glory: The Army of the Cumberland, 1861-1865. Louisiana State U. Press, 2004. 490 pp.
  • Davis, Burke. Sherman's March: The First Full-Length Narrative of General William T. Sherman's Devastating March through Georgia and the Carolinas (1988)
  • Gilmore, Donald L. Civil War on the Missouri-Kansas Border. Pelican, 2006. 384 pp.
  • Glatthaar, Joseph. The American Civil War (4): The War In The West 1863-1865 (2001) 96pp
  • Gott, Kendall D., Where the South Lost the War: An Analysis of the Fort Henry-Fort Donelson Campaign, February 1862, (2003), ISBN 0-8117-0049-6.
  • Hughes, Nathaniel Cheairs, Jr. The Battle of Belmont: Grant Strikes South. (1991)
  • Johnson, R. U., and Buel, C. C., eds., Battles and Leaders of the Civil War. 4 vols. 1888; essays by leading generals of both sides; online edition
  • McDonough, James Lee, Shiloh: In Hell before Night (1977).
  • McDonough, James Lee, Chattanooga: A Death Grip on the Confederacy (1984).
  • McDonough, James Lee. Nashville: The Western Confederacy's Final Gamble. U. of Tennessee Press, 2004. 358 pp.
  • McKnight, Brian D. Contested Borderland: The Civil War in Appalachian Kentucky and Virginia. U. Press of Kentucky, 2006. 312 pp.
  • Marszalek, John F. Sherman's March To The Sea (2005)
  • Prushankin, Jeffery S. A Crisis in Confederate Command: Edmund Kirby Smith, Richard Taylor, and the Army of the Trans-Mississippi. LSU Press, 2005. 308 pp.
  • Sword, Wiley, Shiloh: Bloody April. 1974.
  • Woodworth, Steven E. Grant's Lieutenants: From Cairo to Vicksburg (2001) excerpt and text search

Vicksburg

See also biographies of Grant

  • Arnold, James R. Grant Wins the War (1997)
  • Ballard, Michael B. Vicksburg, The Campaign that Opened the Mississippi, (2004). excerpt and text search
  • Bearss, Edwin C., The Vicksburg Campaign, 3 volumes, Morningside Press, 1991, ISBN 0-89029-308-2.
  • Carter, Samuel III, The Final Fortress: The Campaign for Vicksburg, 1862-1863 (1980)
  • Martin, David G. The Vicksburg Campaign: April 1862-July 1863 (1994) excerpt and text search
  • Miers, Earl Schenck., The Web of Victory: Grant at Vicksburg. 1955.
  • Shea, William L. and Winschel, Terrence J. Vicksburg is the Key: The Struggle for the Mississippi River. (2003). 232 pp. online edition

Naval history

see also Union Blockade

  • Bennett, Michael J. Union Jacks: Yankee Sailors in the Civil War. U. of North Carolina Press, 2004. 352 pp.
  • Anderson, Bern. By Sea and by River (1962) survey
  • Davis, Lance E., and Stanley L. Engerman. Naval Blockades in Peace and War: An Economic History Since 1750 (2006)
  • Fowler, William M. Under Two Flags (1990),
  • Holzer, Harold and Mulligan, Tim, eds. The Battle of Hampton Roads: New Perspectives on the USS Monitor and CSS Virginia. (2006). 222 pp. excerpt and text search
  • Joiner, Gary D. Mr. Lincoln's Brown Water Navy: The Mississippi Squadron. (2007). 198 pp.
  • Merrill, James M. The Rebel Shore (1957), on Union navy
  • Roberts, William H. Now for the Contest: Coastal and Oceanic Naval Operations in the Civil War. U. of Nebraska Press, 2004. 272 pp.
  • Stern, Philip Van Doren. The Confederate Navy: A Pictorial History (1962)
  • Surdam, David G. Northern Naval Superiority and the Economics of the American Civil War. U. of South Carolina Press, 2001. 286 pp., the most detailed analysis of the impact online review
  • Weddle, Kevin J. Lincoln's Tragic Admiral: The Life of Samuel Francis Du Pont. (2005). 269 pp.
  • Whittle, William C. The Voyage of the CSS Shenandoah: A Memorable Cruise. (2005). 255 pp.
  • Wise, Stephen R. Lifeline of the Confederacy: Blockade Running during the Civil War. University of South Carolina Press, 1988, detailed scholarly history; argues that enough military suppies got through to extend the life of the Confederacy a little excerpt and text search

Technology, weapons, supplies, economics

  • Bilby, Joseph G. A Revolution in Arms: A History of the First Repeating Rifles. Westholme, 2006. 270 pp.
  • Bruce, Robert V. Lincoln and the Tools of War (1956) on weapons development during the war online edition
  • Fish, Carl Russell. "The Northern Railroads, April, 1861," The American Historical Review Vol. 22, No. 4 (Jul., 1917), pp. 778-793 in JSTOR
  • Hazlett, James C.; Olmstead, Edwin; and Parks, M. Hume. Field Artillery Weapons of the Civil War. U. of Illinois Press, 2004. 322 pp
  • Hess, Earl J. Field Armies and Fortification in the Civil War: The Eastern Campaigns, 1861-1864. U. of North Carolina Press, 2005. 428 pp.
  • Ripley, Warren. Artillery and Ammunition of the Civil War (1970)
  • Ross, Steven. From Flintlock to Rifle: Infantry Tactics, 1740-1866 (1979)
  • Tucker, Spencer. Arming the Fleet. U.S. Ordnance in the Muzzle-Loading Era (1988)
  • Turner, George Edgar. Victory Rode the Rails: The Strategic Place of the Railroads in the Civil War (1953)
  • Weigley, Russell F. Quartermaster General of the Union Army: A Biography of M. C. Meigs (1959)
  • Wilson, Mark R. The Business of Civil War: Military Mobilization and the State, 1861-1865 (2006) excerpt and text search

Medical, casualties

  • Adams, George Worthington. Doctors in Blue: The Medical History of the Union Army in the Civil War (1961)
  • Cunningham, Horace Herndon. Doctors in Gray: The Confederate Medical Service (1958)
  • Faust, Drew Gilpin, "'Numbers on Top of Numbers': Counting the Civil War Dead," Journal of Military History, 70 (Oct. 2006), 995–1009. in Project Muse
  • Flannery, Michael A. Civil War Pharmacy: A History of Drugs, Drug Supply and Provision, and Therapeutics for the Union and Confederacy. London: Pharmaceutical Press, 2004. 347 pp.
  • Flannery, Michael A. "Civil War Medicine: Approaches for Teaching." Magazine of History 2005 19(5): 41-43. Issn: 0882-228x Fulltext: in Ebsco
  • Freemon, Frank R. Gangrene and Glory: Medical Care during the American Civil War (2001) excerpt and text search
  • Green, Carol C. Chimborazo: The Confederacy's Largest Hospital. (2004). 200 pp.
  • Lande, R. Gregory. Madness, Malingering, and Malfeasance: The Transformation of Psychiatry and the Law in the Civil War Era. (2003). 233 pp. excerpt and text search
  • Rutkow, Ira M. Bleeding Blue and Gray: Civil War Surgery and the Evolution of American Medicine. (2005). 394 pp. excerpt and text search
  • Schultz, Jane E. Women at the Front: Hospital Workers in Civil War America. (2004). 360 pp. excerpt and text search
  • Letterman Medical Report on Antietam (1863)
  • "Report from the Union Medical Director at the Battle of Shiloh" (1862)

International affairs

  • Blackett, R. J. M. Divided Hearts: Britain and the American Civil War (2000) excerpt and text search
  • Case, Lynn Marshall. The United States and France: Civil War Diplomacy. (1970).
  • Daddysman, James W. The Matamoros Trade: Confederate Commerce, Diplomacy, and Intrigue. (1984).
  • Ferris, Norman B. Desperate Diplomacy: William H. Seward's Foreign Policy, 1861. (1976).
  • Hubbard, Charles M. The Burden of Confederate Diplomacy (1998)
  • Hyman, Harold Melvin. Heard Round the World; the Impact Abroad of the Civil War. (1969).
  • Jones, Howard. Union in Peril: The Crisis over British Intervention in the Civil War (1992) excerpt and text search
  • Jones, Howard. Abraham Lincoln and a New Birth of Freedom: the Union and slavery in the diplomacy of the Civil War, (1999) onlin e edition
  • Mahin, Dean B. One War at a Time: The International Dimensions of the American Civil War (1999) excerpt and text serch
  • Merli, Frank J. The Alabama, British Neutrality, and the American Civil War. 2004. 225 pp.
  • Monaghan, Jay. Diplomat In Carpet Slippers - Abraham Lincoln Deals With Foreign Affairs (2007) excerpt and text search
  • Owsley, Frank Lawrence. King Cotton Diplomacy: Foreign relations of the Confederate States of America (1931)

Union military leaders

  • American National Biography 24 vol (1999), essays by scholars on all major figures; online and hardcover editions at many libraries
  • Eicher, John H. and Eicher, David J. Civil War High Commands. 2001. 1009 pp. covers 3,396 generals of each side
  • McHenry, Robert ed. Webster's American Military Biographies (1978)
  • Taaffe, Stephen R. Commanding the Army of the Potomac. U. Press of Kansas, 2006. 284
  • Warner, Ezra J., Generals in Blue: Lives of the Union Commanders, (1964), ISBN 0-8071-0822-7

Grant and Sherman

  • Badeau, Adam. Military History of Ulysses S. Grant, from April, 1861, to April, 1865. 3 vols. 1882. full text online
  • Bunting III, Josiah. Ulysses S. Grant (2004), 208pp ISBN 0-8050-6949-6 excerpt and text search
  • Catton, Bruce. Grant Takes Command, 1968
  • Catton, Bruce. U. S. Grant and the American Military Tradition (1954)
  • Conger, A. L. The Rise of U.S. Grant (1931) online edition
  • Fellman, Michael. Citizen Sherman: A Life of William Tecumseh Sherman (1997) excerpt and text search
  • Fuller, Maj. Gen. J. F. C. Grant and Lee, A Study in Personality and Generalship, 1957.
  • Grant, Ulysses S. Memoirs (1885) online edition
  • Hirshson, Stanley P. The White Tecumseh: A Biography of General William T. Sherman (1998) excerpt and text search
  • Kennett, Lee. Sherman: A Soldier's Life. 2001. 426 pp.
  • Korda, Michael. Ulysses S. Grant: The Unlikely Hero (2004) 161 pp
  • Liddell Hart, Basil Henry, and Jay Luvaas.Sherman: Soldier, Realist, American (1993)
  • Longacre, Edward G. Ulysses S. Grant: The Soldier And the Man (2006) excerpt and text search
  • Marszalek, John F. Sherman: A Soldier's Passion for Order (1994) excerpt and text search
  • Marszalek, John F. Sherman's March To The Sea (2005) excerpt and text search
  • McFeely, William S. Grant: A Biography, (1981), ISBN 0-393-01372-3, Pulitzer prize, but negative twoard Grant. excerpt and text search
  • Mosier, John., "Grant", (2006), 224pp; ISBN 1-4039-7136-6. excerpt and text search
  • Rafuse, Ethan S. "Still a Mystery? General Grant and the Historians, 1981-2006," The Journal of Military History 71 #3 (July 2007): 849-874. in Project Muse
  • Simpson, Brooks D. "Continuous Hammering and Mere Attrition: Lost Cause Critics and the Military Reputation of Ulysses S. Grant," in Gary Gallagher and Alan T. Nolan, eds., The Myth of the Lost Cause and Civil War History, (2000)
  • Simpson, Brooks D. Ulysses S. Grant: Triumph Over Adversity, 1822-1865, (2000), ISBN 0-395-65994-9. first volume of major scholarly biography excerpt and text search
  • Smith, Jean Edward, Grant, (2002), 781pp; ISBN 0-684-84927-5. excerpt and text search

Other Union Generals

  • Bradford, Gamaliel. "A Portrait of General George Gordon Meade," The American Historical Review Vol. 20, No. 2 (Jan., 1915), pp. 314-329 in JSTOR
  • Drake, William F. Little Phil: The Story of General Philip Henry Sheridan. Biographical Press, 2005. 658 pp.
  • Jamieson, Perry D. Winfield Scott Hancock: Gettysburg Hero. 2003. 199 pp.
  • Marszalek, John F. Commander of All Lincoln's Armies: A Life of General Henry W. Halleck. Harvard U. Press, 2004. 324 pp
  • Rafuse, Ethan S. McClellan's War: The Failure of Moderation in the Struggle for the Union. Indiana U. Press, 2005. 525 pp. online review
  • Rafuse, Ethan S. George Gordon Meade and the War in the East. 2003. 192 pp.
  • Wittenberg, Eric J. Little Phil: A Reassessment of the Civil War Leadership of Gen. Philip H. Sheridan. 2002. 249 pp.

Confederate military leaders

  • American National Biography 24 vol (1999), essays by scholars on all major figures; online and hardcover editions at many libraries
  • Boritt, Gabor S. ed. Jefferson Davis's Generals (1999) 224 pgs. online edition
  • Current, Richard N., et al eds. Encyclopedia of the Confederacy (1993) (4 Volume set; also 1 vol abridged version)
  • Eicher, John H. and Eicher, David J. Civil War High Commands. 2001. 1009 pp. covers 3,396 generals of each side
  • McHenry, Robert ed. Webster's American Military Biographies (1978)
  • Gallagher, Gary W.; and Joseph T. Glatthaar. Leaders of the Lost Cause: New Perspectives on the Confederate High Command (2004)
  • Krick, Robert K. The Smoothbore Volley That Doomed the Confederacy: The Death of Stonewall Jackson and Other Chapters on the Army of Northern Virginia. (2002) online edition, evaluates several generals
  • Warner, Ezra J., Generals in Gray: Lives of the Confederate Commanders, (1959), ISBN 0-8071-0823-5

Lee and Stonewall Jackson

  • Carmichael, Peter S., ed. Audacity Personified: The Generalship of Robert E. Lee. LSU Press, 2004. 174 pp.
  • Fellman, Michael. The Making of Robert E. Lee. (2000)
  • Freeman, Douglas S., R. E. Lee, A Biography (4 volumes), 1934 (online in its entirety). The longest and most influential biography, by Pulitzer prize winner
  • Fuller, Maj. Gen. J. F. C. Grant and Lee, A Study in Personality and Generalship, Indiana University Press, 1957.
  • Gallagher, Gary W. Lee the Soldier (1996) online edition
  • Gallagher, Gary W. Lee & His Army in Confederate History. (2001) online edition
  • Harsh, Joseph L. Confederate Tide Rising: Robert E. Lee and the Making of Southern Strategy, 1861-1862 (1998) online edition
  • Harsh, Joseph L. Taken at the Flood: Robert E. Lee and Confederate Strategy in the Maryland Campaign of 1862 (1999) online edition
  • Henderson, G.F.R. Stonewall Jackson and the American Civil War (1905) vol 1 online, vol 2 online
  • Lee, Robert E. The Wartime Papers of Robert E. Lee (1987), primary source; excerpt and text search,
  • Martin, David G. Jackson's Valley Campaign: November 1861-June 1862 1994 online edition
  • Nolan, Alan T. Lee Considered: General Robert E. Lee and Civil War History 1991 online edition
  • Reid, Brian Holden. Robert E. Lee: Icon for a Nation. 2005. 271 pp.
  • Robertson, James. Stonewall Jackson: The Man, the Soldier, the Legend (1997), the most detailed biography excerpt and text search
  • Robertson, James. Robert E. Lee: Virginian Soldier, American Citizen (2005)
  • Royster, Charles. The Destructive War: William Tecumseh Sherman, Stonewall Jackson, and the Americans (1991) interpretive excerpt and text search
  • Thomas, Emory Robert E. Lee (1995) (ISBN 0-393-03730-4) full-scale biography excerpt and text search
  • Vandiver, Frank Everson. Mighty Stonewall (1957)

Other Confederate generals

  • Alexander, Edward Porter. Fighting for the Confederacy: the Personal Recollections of General Edward Porter Alexander (1989), insightful memoir of Lee's artillery commander
  • Ashdown, Paul and Caudill, Edward. The Myth of Nathan Bedford Forrest. 2005. 218 pp.
  • Casdorph, Paul D. Confederate General R. S. Ewell: Robert E. Lee's Hesitant Commander. U. Press of Kentucky, 2004. 474 pp.
  • DiNardo, Richard L. and Albert A. Nofi. James Longstreet: The Man, the Soldier, the Controversy (2001) online edition
  • Hartje, Robert G. Van Dorn (1994)
  • McMurry, Richard M. John Bell Hood and the War for Southern Independence 1992 online edition
  • Matthews, Gary Robert. Basil Wilson Duke, CSA: The Right Man in the Right Place. 2005. 358 pp. online review
  • Osborne, Charles C. Jubal: The Life and Times of General Jubal A. Early, CSA, Defender of the Lost Cause (1992)
  • Parrish, T. Michael Richard Taylor, Soldier Prince of Dixie (1992) online edition
  • Pfanz, Donald C. Richard S. Ewell: A Soldier's Life (1998) online edition
  • Piston, William Garrett. Lee's Tarnished Lieutenant: James Longstreet and His Place in Southern History (1987)
  • Prushankin, Jeffery S. A Crisis in Confederate Command: Edmund Kirby Smith, Richard Taylor, and the Army of the Trans-Mississippi. 2005. 308 pp.
  • Robertson, James. General A.P. Hill: The Story of a Confederate Warrior (1992)
  • Symonds, Craig L. Joseph E. Johnston: A Civil War Biography (1992)
  • Thomason, John W. Jeb Stuart (1994) online edition
  • Wert, Jeffry D. General James Longstreet: The Confederacy's Most Controversial Soldier (1994)

Union Soldiers, sailors, units

  • Bennett, Michael J. Union Jacks: Yankee Sailors in the Civil War. U. of North Carolina Press, 2004. 352 pp.
  • Bundy, Carol. The Nature of Sacrifice: A Biography of Charles Russell Lowell, Jr., 1835-1864. 2005. 548 pp. online review
  • Foote, Lorien. "Rich Man's War, Rich Man's Fight: Class, Ideology, and Discipline in the Union Army." Civil War History 2005 51(3): 269-287. Issn: 0009-8078 Fulltext: Project Muse and Ebsco
  • Frank, Joseph Allan and George A. Reaves. Seeing the Elephant: Raw Recruits at the Battle of Shiloh (1989)
  • Glatthaar, Joseph T. and Aaron Charles Sheehan. The View from the Ground: Experiences of Civil War Soldiers (2006)
  • Glatthaar, Joseph T. The March to the Sea and Beyond: Sherman's Troops in the Savannah and Carolinas Campaigns (1995)
  • Hartman, Michelle L. "Irish Military Service during the American Civil War: A Case against Assimilation - New York, 1861-1865." PhD dissertation New School U. 2007. 466 pp. DAI 2007 67(11): 4321-A. DA3239932 Fulltext: ProQuest Dissertations & Theses
  • Hess, Earl J. The Union Soldier in Battle: Enduring the Ordeal of Combat (1997)
  • McPherson, James. For Cause and Comrades: Why Men Fought in the Civil War (1998)
  • Nosworthy, Brent. The Bloody Crucible of Courage: Fighting Methods and Combat Experience of the Civil War. Carroll & Graf, 2003. 753 pp.
  • Priest, John M. Antietam: The Soldier's Battle (1989),
  • Rodgers, Thomas E. "Billy Yank and G.I. Joe: an Exploratory Essay on the Sociopolitical Dimensions of Soldier Motivation." Journal of Military History 2005 69(1): 93-121. Issn: 0899-3718 Fulltext: in Project Muse, Swetswise, and Ebsco. Billy Yanks functioned effectively under fire because society taught them masculinity, patriotism, and citizenship that emphasized character, the soldier's responsibility to his community, and the soldier's duty to defend the nation from threats. WW2 stressed expertise and bureaucratic conformity
  • Shannon, Fred A. The organization and administration of the Union army, 1861-1865 2 vol 1928 online at ACLS e-books
  • Still Jr. William N. The Common Sailor: The Civil War's Uncommon Man--Yankee Blue Jackets and Confederate Tars (1985)
  • Wiley, Bell Irvin. Life of Billy Yank: The Common Soldier of the Union (1952) (ISBN 0-8071-0476-0)

Confederate Soldiers, sailors, units

  • Burkhardt, George S. Confederate Rage, Yankee Wrath: No Quarter in the Civil War. (2007). 338 pp. focus on Confederate massacres of black soldiers
  • Frank, Joseph Allan and George A. Reaves. Seeing the Elephant: Raw Recruits at the Battle of Shiloh (1989)
  • Glatthaar, Joseph T. and Aaron Charles Sheehan. The View from the Ground: Experiences of Civil War Soldiers (2006)
  • Glatthaar, Joseph T. General Lees Army (2007)
  • Hilderman, Walter C., III. They Went into the Fight Cheering! Confederate Conscription in North Carolina. Boone, N.C.: Parkway, 2005. 272 pp.
  • Katcher, Philip. The Army of Northern Virginia: Lee's Army in the American Civil War, 1861-1865 (2003) online edition
  • McPherson, James. For Cause and Comrades: Why Men Fought in the Civil War (1998)
  • Nosworthy, Brent. The Bloody Crucible of Courage: Fighting Methods and Combat Experience of the Civil War. Carroll & Graf, 2003. 753 pp.
  • Power, J. Tracy. The Army of Northern Virginia: A Social and Institutional History (ABC-CLIO: 2008)
  • Power, J. Tracy. Lee's Miserables: Life in the Army of Northern Virginia from the Wilderness to Appomattox 1998 online edition
  • Priest, John M. Antietam: The Soldier's Battle (1989),
  • Still Jr. William N. The Common Sailor: The Civil War's Uncommon Man--Yankee Blue Jackets and Confederate Tars (1985)
  • Weitz, Mark A. More Damning than Slaughter: Desertion in the Confederate Army. U. of Nebraska Press, 2005. 346 pp.
  • Wiley, Bell Irvin. The Life of Johnny Reb: The Common Soldier of the Confederacy (1962) (ISBN 0-8071-0475-2)
  • Wise, Jennings Cropper. The Long Arm of Lee, Or, the History of the Artillery of the Army of Northern Virginia Vol. 1 (1991) online edition

Prisons

Union homefront

  • Bak, Richard. A Distant Thunder: Michigan in the Civil War. Chelsea: Huron River, 2004. 239 pp.
  • Green, Michael S. Freedom, Union, and Power: Lincoln and His Party during the Civil War. Fordham U. Press, 2004. 400 pp.
  • Nevins, Allan. Ordeal of the Union (1970), vol 5. The Improvised War, 1861-1862; vo 6. War Becomes Revolution, 1862-1863; vol 7. The Organized War, 1863-1864; vol 8. The Organized War to Victory, 1864-1865
  • Onuf, Nicholas and Onuf, Peter. Nations, Markets, and War: Modern History and the American Civil War. U. of Virginia Press, 2006. 362 pp.
  • Paludan, Philip S. The Presidency of Abraham Lincoln (1994), thorough treatment of Lincoln's administration
  • Resch, John P. et al., Americans at War: Society, Culture and the Homefront vol 2: 1816-1900 (2005)
  • Richardson, Heather Cox. The Greatest Nation of the Earth: Republican Economic Policies during the Civil War (1997) online edition
  • Thornton, Mark and Ekelund, Robert B., Jr. Tariffs, Blockades, and Inflation: The Economics of the Civil War. Scholarly Resources, 2004. 124 pp.
  • Weber, Jennifer L. Copperheads: The Rise and Fall of Lincoln's Opponents in the North (2006) excerpt and text search
  • Wilson, Mark R. The Business of Civil War: Military Mobilization and the State, 1861-1865. Johns Hopkins U. Press, 2006. 306 pp. excerpt and text search

Union civilian leaders

  • Boman, Dennis K. Lincoln's Resolute Unionist: Hamilton Gamble, Dred Scott Dissenter And Missouri's Civil War Governor (2006) excerpt and text search
  • Goodwin, Doris Kearns. Team of Rivals: The Political Genius of Abraham Lincoln (2005) excerpts and text search
  • Hesseltine, William Best. Lincoln and the war governors (1955)
  • Stanton
  • Chase
  • Seward

Abraham Lincoln

  • Boritt, Gabor S. ed. Lincoln the War President (1994)
  • Carwardine, Richard. Lincoln: A Life of Purpose and Power ISBN 1-4000-4456-1 (2003)
  • Donald, David Herbert. Lincoln (1999) ISBN 0-684-82535-X, very well reviewed by scholars; Donald has won two Pulitzer prizes for biography excerpt and text search
  • Gienapp. William E. Abraham Lincoln and Civil War America: A Biography by ISBN 0-19-515099-6 (2002), short online edition
  • Guelzo, Allen C. Abraham Lincoln: Redeemer President ISBN 0-8028-3872-3 (1999) online edition
  • John Hay & John George Nicolay. Abraham Lincoln: a History (1890); online at Volume 1 and Volume 2 10 volumes in all; highly detailed narrative of era written by Lincoln's top aides
  • McPherson, James M. Abraham Lincoln and the Second American Revolution (1992)
  • Neely, Mark E. The Abraham Lincoln Encyclopedia (1984), detailed articles on many men and movements associated with AL
  • Neely, Mark E. The Last Best Hope of Earth: Abraham Lincoln and the Promise of America (1993), Pulitzer prize winning author
  • Randall, James G. Lincoln the President (4 vol., 1945–55; reprint 2000.) by prize winning scholar
  • Thomas, Benjamin P. Abraham Lincoln: A Biography (1952) online edition

Confederacy

See Confederate States of America for more books

  • Current, Richard N., et al eds. Encyclopedia of the Confederacy (1993) (4 Volume set; also 1 vol abridged version)
  • Boritt, Gabor S., et al, Why the Confederacy Lost, 1992.
  • Coulter, E. Merton. The Confederate States of America, 1861-1865 (1950), highly detailed overview
  • Davis, William C. Look Away! A History of the Confederate States of America (2003)ISBN 0-684-86585-8
  • Eaton, Clement. A History of the Southern Confederacy, 1954.
  • Henry, Robert S. The Story of the Confederacy. Konecky & Konecky, na. ISBN: 1-56852-253-3. 497 pp.
  • Nevins, Allan. Ordeal of the Union, vol 5. The Improvised War, 1861-1862; vol 6. War Becomes Revolution, 1862-1863; vol 7. The Organized War, 1863-1864; vol 8. The Organized War to Victory, 1864-1865. (1970)
  • Resch, John P. et al., Americans at War: Society, Culture and the Homefront vol 2: 1816-1900 (2005)
  • Roland, Charles P. The Confederacy, 1960. brief
  • Thomas, Emory M. Confederate Nation: 1861-1865, 1979. Standard political-economic-social history

Confederacy: state, local; economic destruction

  • Andreano, Ralph L. ed. The Economic Impact of the American Civil War, (2d ed. 1967)
  • Ash, Stephen V. Middle Tennessee Society Transformed, 1860-1870: War and Peace in the Upper South. (1988)
  • Ayers, Edward L.; Gallagher, Gary W.; and Torget, Andrew J., eds. Crucible of the Civil War: Virginia from Secession to Commemoration. (2006). 226 pp.
  • Bell, Walter F. "Civil War Texas: a Review of the Historical Literature." Southwestern Historical Quarterly 2005 109(2): 204-232. Issn: 0038-478x
  • Campbell, Jacqueline Glass. When Sherman Marched North from the Sea: Resistance on the Confederate Home Front. (2003). 177 pp.
  • Davis, William C. and Robertson, James I., Jr., eds. Virginia at War, 1861. (2007). 241 pp.
  • Duncan, Richard R. Beleaguered Winchester: A Virginia Community at War, 1861-1865. (2007). 380 pp.
  • Goldin, Claudia D., and Frank D. Lewis, "The Economic Cost of the American Civil War: Estimates and Implications," Journal of Economic History 35#2 (June 1975), pp. 299-326 in JSTOR
  • Gordon, Lesley J. and Inscoe, John C., eds. Inside the Confederate Nation: Essays in Honor of Emory M. Thomas. (2005). 381 pp.
  • Grimsley, Mark. The Hard Hand of War: Union Military Policy toward Southern Civilians, 1861–1865 [1995), concludes "the extent to which houses and towns were burned during Sherman's March to the Sea thus turns out to be much exaggerated"
  • Jones, J. B. A Rebel War Clerk's Diary at the Confederate States Capital (1935)
  • Mackey, Robert R. The Uncivil War: Irregular Warfare in the Upper South, 1861-1865. (2004). 288 pp.
  • Massey, Mary Elizabeth. Refugee Life in the Confederacy (2001)
  • Morgan, Chad. Planters' Progress: Modernizing Confederate Georgia. (2005). 164 pp.
  • Neely, Mark E., Jr. Confederate Bastille: Jefferson Davis and Civil Liberties, 1993. online edition
  • Neely, Mark E., Jr. Southern Rights: Political Prisoners and the Myth of Confederate Constitutionalism (1999) excerpt and text search
  • Paskoff, Paul F. "Measures of War: A Quantitative Examination of the Civil War's Destructiveness in the Confederacy," Civil War History 54.1 (March 2008) 35-62 in Project Muse
  • Rembert, W. Patrick. Jefferson Davis and His Cabinet, (1944).
  • Rable, George C., The Confederate Republic: A Revolution against Politics, 1994. online edition
  • Ransom, Roger L. "The Economics of the Civil War," EH.Net Encyclopedia, ed. Robert Whaples (Aug. 25, 2001), online edition
  • Rubin, Anne Sarah. A Shattered Nation: The Rise and Fall of the Confederacy, 1861-1868. (2005). 319 pp.
  • Thomas, Emory M. The Confederacy as a Revolutionary Experience, 1992.
  • Waghelstein, John D. and Chisholm, Donald. "The Road Not Taken: Conflict Termination and Guerrillaism in the American Civil War." Journal of Strategic Studies (2006) 29(5): 871-904. Issn: 0140-2390 Fulltext: in Ebsco
  • Wallenstein, Peter and Wyatt-Brown, Bertram, eds. Virginia's Civil War. U. Press of Virginia, 2005. 303 pp. excerpt and text search

Confederate civilian leaders

  • Current, Richard N., et al eds. Encyclopedia of the Confederacy (1993) (4 Volume set; also 1 vol abridged version) (ISBN 0-13-275991-8)
  • Cooper, William J, Jefferson Davis, American, 2000. Standard biography.
  • Davis, William C. Jefferson Davis: The Man and His Hour (1991).
  • Mobley, Joe A. War Governor of the South: North Carolina's Zeb Vance in the Confederacy. U. Press of Florida, 2005. 264 pp.
  • Strode, Hudson. Jefferson Davis 3 vol (1955-1964).
  • Wakelyn, Jon L. Biographical Dictionary of the Confederacy Greenwood Press ISBN 0-8371-6124-X

African Americans

  • Berlin, Ira et al. Freedom's Soldiers: The Black Military Experience in the Civil War (1998) excerpt and text search
  • Berlin, Ira, ed. Freedom: A Documentary History of Emancipation (1982, 5 vol) excerpt and text search
  • Cimprich, John. Fort Pillow, a Civil War Massacre, and Public Memory. (2005). 193 pp. excerpt and text search
  • Cornish, Dudley Taylor. The Sable Arm: Negro Troops in The Union Army, 1861-1865 (1956), standard history excerpt and text search
  • Franklin, John Hope
  • Glatthaar, Joseph T. Forged in Battle: The Civil War Alliance of Black Soldiers and White Officers (2000) excerpt and text search
  • Glatthaar, Joseph T. The Civil War's Black Soldiers (1996)
  • Levine, Bruce. Confederate Emancipation: Southern Plans to Free and Arm Slaves during the Civil War. (2005). 272 pp. excerpt and text search
  • Longacre, Edward G. A Regiment of Slaves: The 4th United States Colored Infantry, 1863-1866. (2003). 227 pp. excerpt and text search
  • McPherson, James M. Marching Toward Freedom: The Negro's Civil War (1982); first edition was The Negro's Civil War: How American Negroes Felt and Acted During the War for the Union (1965),
  • Moore, Kenneth Bancroft. "Fort Pillow, Forrest, and the United States Colored Troops in 1864." Tennessee Historical Quarterly 54 (Summer 1995) 112-123.
  • Quarles, Benjamin. The Negro in the Civil War (1953), standard history excerpt and text search
  • Robinson, Armstead L. Bitter Fruits of Bondage: The Demise of Slavery and the Collapse of the Confederacy, 1861-1865. (2005). 326 pp. excerpt and text search
  • Samito, Christian G. "The Intersection Between Military Justice and Equal Rights: Mutinies, Courts-martial, and Black Civil War Soldiers." Civil War History 2007 53(2): 170-202. Issn: 0009-8078 Fulltext: [ 1. Project Muse |
  • Ward, Andrew. River Run Red: The Fort Pillow Massacre in the American Civil War. (2005). 531 pp. excerpt and text search
  • Wiley, Bell Irvin. Southern Negroes: 1861-1865 (1938)

Women, family, gender

  • Blanton, DeAnne. "Women Soldiers of the Civil War." Prologue: the Journal of the National Archives Sprg 1993 v 25#1 27-33
  • Clinton, Catherine and Silber, Nina, eds. Battle Scars: Gender and Sexuality in the American Civil War, (2006). 213 pp.
  • Clinton, Catherine & Nina Silber, eds. Divided Houses: Gender and the Civil War (1992), provocative essays online edition
  • Culpepper, Marilyn Mayer. Trials and Triumphs: Women of the American Civil War (1991)
  • Harper, Judith E. Women during the Civil War: An Encyclopedia. (2004). 472 pp.
  • Lowry, Thomas P. The Story the Soldiers Wouldn't Tell: Sex in the Civil War (1994)
  • Marten, James. The Children's Civil War 1998 online edition
  • Massey, Mary. Bonnet Brigades: American Women and the Civil War (1966), excellent overview
  • McDevitt, Theresa. Women and the American Civil War: An Annotated Bibliography. Praeger, 2003. 245 pp.

Gender, Family: North

  • Burgess, Lauren Cook, ed. An Uncommon Soldier: The Civil War Letters of Sarah Rosetta Wakeman, alias Pvt. Lyons Wakeman, 153rd Regiment, New York State Volunteers, 1862-1864 (Pasadena MD, 1994), A woman in disguise who did fight.
  • Marten, James. Children for the Union: The War Spirit on the Northern Home Front. Ivan R. Dee, 2004. 209 pp.
  • Osterud, Nancy Grey. "Rural Women during the Civil War: New York's Nanticoke Valley, 1861-1865". New York History. 71 (Oct 1990): 357-85.
  • Silber, Nina. Daughters of the Union: Northern Women Fight the Civil War. Harvard U. Press, 2005. 332 pp.
  • Smith, Michael T. "The Beast Unleashed: Benjamin F. Butler and Conceptions of Masculinity in the Civil War North." New England Quarterly 2006 79(2): 248-276. Issn: 0028-4866
  • Venet, Wendy Hamand. A Strong-Minded Woman: The Life of Mary Livermore. U. of Massachusetts Press, 2005. 322 pp.

Gender, Family: South

  • Berry, Stephen W., II. All that Makes a Man: Love and Ambition in the Civil War South. Oxford U. Press, 2003. 286 pp.
  • Burton, Vernon O. "The Effects of the Civil War and Reconstruction on the Coming of Age of Southern Males, Edgefield Country, South Carolina." in The Web of Southern Relations, ed. Walter J. Fraser et al. (New York, 1985), 204-223.
  • Chesson, Michael. "Harlots or Heroines? A New Look at the Richmond Bread Riot." Virginia Magazine of History and Biography 92 (April 1984): 131-75.
  • Cleaveland, R. Chris. "Southern Girls With Guns." Civil War Times Illustrated (May/June 1994) 33:2 44-45. An all-woman militia unit that did not fight when Sherman came.
  • Faust, Drew Gilpin. "Altars of Sacrifice: Confederate Women and the Narratives of War" Journal of American History 76 (Mar 1990) 1200-28.
  • Faust, Drew Gilpin. Mothers of Invention: Women of the Slaveholding South in the American Civil War, 1996. online edition
  • Gardner, Sarah E. Blood and Irony: Southern White Women's Narratives of the Civil War, 1861-1937. U. of North Carolina Press, 2004. 352 pp.
  • Massey, Mary. Bonnet Brigades: American Women and the Civil War (1966), excellent overview
  • Rable, George C. Civil Wars: Women and the Crisis of Southern Nationalism (1989), excellent
  • Revels, Tracy J. Grander in Her Daughters: Florida's Women during the Civil War. 2004. 205 pp.
  • Roberts, Giselle. The Confederate Belle. U. of Missouri Press, 2003. 245 pp.
  • Wiley, Bell Irvin. Confederate Women (1975), good survey
  • Woodward, C. Vann, Ed., Mary Chesnut's Civil War, Yale University Press, 1981, ISBN 0-300-02979-9 Pulitzer Prize
  • Wyatt-Brown, Bertram. The House of Percy: Honor, Melancholy, and Imagination in a Southern Family. (1994)

Ideology, rhetoric, religion

  • Brinsfield, John W.; Davis, William C.; Maryniak, Benedict; and Robertson, James I., eds. Faith in the Fight: Civil War Chaplains. Stackpole, 2003. 256 pp.
  • Durrill, Wayne K. "Ritual, Community and War: Local Flag Presentation Ceremonies and Disunity in the Early Confederacy." Journal of Social History 2006 39(4): 1105-1122. Issn: 0022-4529 Fulltext: at History Cooperative, Project Muse, Swetswise, and Ebsco
  • Foner, Eric. Free Soil, Free Labor, Free Men: The Ideology of the Republican Party before the Civil War (1970)
  • McPherson, James. What They Fought For, 1861-1865 (Louisiana State University Press, 1994)
  • Miller, Randall M., Harry S. Stout, and Charles Reagan Wilson. Religion and the American Civil War (1998) online edition
  • Noll, Mark A. The Civil War as a Theological Crisis. U. of North Carolina Press, 2006. 199 pp.
  • Phillips, Jason. "The Grape Vine Telegraph: Rumors and Confederate Persistence." Journal of Southern History 2006 72(4): 753-788. Issn: 0022-4642 Fulltext: in Ebsco
  • Stout, Harry S. Upon the Altar of the Nation: A Moral History of the Civil War. (2006). 544 pp.
  • Talley, Sharon. "Revisioning Death and Dying: 19th-century Attitudes as Reflected in Louisa May Alcott's Antebellum and Civil War Writings." Prospects 2005 30: 157-179. Issn: 0361-2333
  • Wells, Cheryl A. Civil War Time: Temporality and Identity in America, 1861-1865. U. of Georgia Press, 2005. 195 pp.
  • Wills, Garry. Lincoln at Gettysburg: The Words That Remade America by ISBN 0-671-86742-3
  • Wilson, Douglas L. Honor's Voice: The Transformation of Abraham Lincoln (1999).
  • Wilson, Edmund. Patriotic Gore: Studies in the Literature of the American Civil War (1962)

Historiography

  • Beale, Howard K., "What Historians Have Said About the Causes of the Civil War," Social Science Research Bulletin 54, 1946.
  • Bell, Walter F. "Civil War Texas: a Review of the Historical Literature." Southwestern Historical Quarterly 2005 109(2): 204-232. Issn: 0038-478x
  • Boritt, Gabor S. ed. Why the Civil War Came (1996)
  • Boritt, Gabor S., ed. The Historian's Lincoln U. of Illinois Press, 1988, historiography
  • Connelly, Thomas L., "The Image and the General: Robert E. Lee in American Historiography." Civil War History 19 (March 1973): 50-64.
  • Connelly, Thomas L., The Marble Man. Robert E. Lee and His Image in American Society. New York: Alfred A. Knopf, 1977.
  • Donald, David ed. Why the North Won the Civil War (1977) (ISBN 0-02-031660-7), short interpretive essays
  • Foner, Eric. "The Causes of the American Civil War: Recent Interpretations and New Directions." In Beyond the Civil War Synthesis: Political Essays of the Civil War Era, edited by Robert P. Swieringa. 1975.
  • Gallagher, Gary W.; Lee & His Army in Confederate History University of North Carolina Press, 2001
  • Hattaway, Herman, and Ethan S. Rafuse, eds. The Ongoing Civil War: New Versions of Old Stories. 2004 online edition
  • Kornblith, Gary J., "Rethinking the Coming of the Civil War: A Counterfactual Exercise". Journal of American History 90.1 (2003): 80 pars. detailed historiography; online version
  • Panabaker, James. Shelby Foote and the Art of History: Two Gates to the City. U. of Tennessee Press, 2004. 238 pp.
  • Pressly, Thomas. Americans Interpret Their Civil War (1966), sorts historians (before 1960) into schools of interpretation
  • Tulloch, Hugh. The Debate on the American Civil War Era (1999), historiography
  • Woodworth, Steven E. ed. American Civil War: A Handbook of Literature and Research (1996) (ISBN 0-313-29019-9), 750 pages of historiography and bibliography

Causes of the war

  • Ashworth, John. ** Slavery, Capitalism, and Politics in the Antebellum Republic. (1995)
  • Ayers, Edward L. What Caused the Civil War? Reflections on the South and Southern History. Norton, 2005. 222 pp.
  • Craven, Avery, "The Coming of the War Between the States," Journal of Southern History 2 (August 1936): 30-63; in JSTOR
  • Donald, David. "An Excess of Democracy: The Civil War and the Social Process" in David Donald, Lincoln Reconsidered: Essays on the Civil War Era, 2d ed. (New York: Alfred A. Knopf, 1966), 209-35.
  • Foner, Eric. "The Causes of the American Civil War: Recent Interpretations and New Directions." In Beyond the Civil War Synthesis: Political Essays of the Civil War Era, edited by Robert P. Swieringa. 1975.
  • Holt, Michael F. The Political Crisis of the 1850s. (1978) emphasis on political parties and voters
  • Olsen, Christopher J. Political Culture and Secession in Mississippi: Masculinity, Honor, and the Antiparty Tradition, 1830-1860" (2000), cultural interpretation
  • Potter, David The Impending Crisis 1848-1861. (1976), Pulitzer Prize-winning history emphasizing rise of Southern nationalism
  • Randall, James G. "A Blundering Generation," Mississippi Valley Historical Review 27#1 (June 1940): 3-28 in JSTOR
  • Stampp, Kenneth M. America in 1857: A Nation on the Brink (1990)
  • Stampp, Kenneth M. And the War Came: The North and the Secession Crisis, 1860-1861 (1950), narrative
  • Stampp, Kenneth M. The Imperiled Union: Essays on the Background of the Civil War 1981 online edition

Slavery topics

  • Huston, James L. Calculating the Value of the Union: Slavery, Property Rights, and the Economic Origins of the Civil War. (2003)
  • Luraghi, Raimondo, "The Civil War and the Modernization of American Society: Social Structure and Industrial Revolution in the Old South Before and During the War," Civil War History XVIII (Sept. 1972). in JSTOR
  • Morrison, Michael. Slavery and the American West: The Eclipse of Manifest Destiny and the Coming of the Civil War (1997)
  • Morrow, Ralph E. "The Proslavery Argument Revisited," The Mississippi Valley Historical Review, Vol. 48, No. 1. (Jun., 1961), pp. 79-94. in JSTOR
  • Ramsdell, Charles W. "The Natural Limits of Slavery Expansion," Mississippi Valley Historical Review, 16 (Sept. 1929), 151-71, says slavery had almost reached its outer limits of growth by 1860, so war was unnecessary to stop further growth. online version, also in JSTOR
  • Russo, Peggy A. and Finkelman, Paul, eds. Terrible Swift Sword: The Legacy of John Brown. Ohio U. Press, 2005. 228 pp.

Reconstruction

  • See Reconstruction: Bibliography for complete guide.
  • Donald, David et al. The Civil War and Reconstruction (2001); textbook
  • Fellman, Michael et al. This Terrible War: The Civil War and its Aftermath (2nd ed. 2007), 544pp; textbook
  • Foner, Eric. A Short History of Reconstruction (1990) excerpt and text search

Primary sources

  • Lee, Robert E. The Wartime Papers of Robert E. Lee (1987), primary source; excerpt and text search,
  • Lincoln, Abraham. Lincoln: Speeches and Writings (2 vol Library of America edition 1989)
  • U.S. War Dept., The War of the Rebellion: a Compilation of the Official Records of the Union and Confederate Armies, U.S. Government Printing Office, 1880–1901. 70 very large volumes of letters and reports written by both armies. Also online at Ohio State; also online edition at Cornell
  • American Annual Cyclopaedia for 1861 (N.Y.: Appleton's, 1864), a remarkable collection of reports on each state, Congress, and military activities, and many other topics; annual issues from 1861 to 1901 in major libraries
  • Angle, Paul M. , and Earl Schenck Miers, eds. Tragic Years, 1860-1865: A Documentary History of the American Civil War - Vol. 1 1960 online edition
  • Commager, Henry Steele (ed.). The Blue and the Gray. The Story of the Civil War as Told by Participants. (1950), excerpts from primary sources
  • Dee, Christine, ed. Ohio's War: The Civil War in Documents. (2007). 244 pp.
  • Eisenschiml, Otto; Ralph Newman; eds. The American Iliad: The Epic Story of the Civil War as Narrated by Eyewitnesses and Contemporaries (1947), excerpts from primary sources
  • Hesseltine, William B. ed.; The Tragic Conflict: The Civil War and Reconstruction (1962), excerpts from primary sources online edition
  • Johnson, R. U., and Buel, C. C., eds., Battles and Leaders of the Civil War. 4 vols. New York, 1887-88; essays by leading generals of both sides; online edition
  • Marten, James. Civil War America: Voices from the Home Front. ABC-CLIO, 2003. 346 pp.
  • Risley, Ford, ed. The Civil War: Primary Documents on Events from 1860 to 1865. Greenwood, 2004. 320 pp.
  • Sizer, Lyde Cullen and Cullen, Jim, ed. The Civil War Era: An Anthology of Sources. Blackwell, 2005. 434 pp.
  • Yearns, W. Buck and Barret, John G.,eds. North Carolina Civil War Documentary, 1980.
  • Confederate official government documents major online collection of complete texts in HTML format, from U. of North Carolina
  • diaries, journals. reminiscences

Memoirs and edited papers

  • Salmon P. Chase, Inside Lincoln's Cabinet: The Civil War Diaries of Salmon P. Chase edited by David Donald, 1954 online edition
  • Grant, Ulysses S. Memoirs (1885) online edition
  • Hay, John. Lincoln and the Civil War in the Diaries and Letters of John Hay edited by Tyler Dennett; 1939 online edition
  • Hay, John. Inside Lincoln's White House: The Complete Civil War Diary of John Hay. edited by Michael Burlingame and John R. Turner Ettlinger; (1999) online edition
  • Jones, J. B. A Rebel War Clerk's Diary at the Confederate States Capital (1935)
  • Porter, Horace, Campaigning with Grant (1897, reprinted 2000)
  • Sherman, William Tecumseh, Memoirs of General William T. Sherman. 2 vols. 1875.
  • Simon, John Y., ed., The Papers of Ulysses S. Grant, Southern Illinois University Press (1967- ) multivolume complete edition of letters to and from Grant. As of 2006, vol 1-28 covers through September 1878.
  • Woodward, C. Vann, Ed., Mary Chesnut's Civil War, Yale University Press, 1981, ISBN 0-300-02979-9 Pulitzer Prize

Veterans

  • Logue, Larry M. and Barton, Michael, eds. The Civil War Veteran: A Historical Reader. (2007). 457 pp. excerpt from books and articles online review

Memory

  • Ayers, Edward L.; Gallagher, Gary W.; and Torget, Andrew J., eds. Crucible of the Civil War: Virginia from Secession to Commemoration. (2006). 226 pp.
  • Blair, William. Cities of the Dead: Contesting the Memory of the Civil War in the South, 1865-1914. (2004). 250 pp.
  • Blight, David W. Beyond the Battlefield: Race, Memory, and the American Civil War. (2002). 301 pp.
  • Brown, Thomas J. The Public Art of Civil War Commemoration: A Brief History with Documents. (2004). 189 pp.
  • Cimprich, John. Fort Pillow, a Civil War Massacre, and Public Memory. (2005). 193 pp.
  • Desjardin, Thomas A. These Honored Dead: How the Story of Gettysburg Shaped American Memory. (2003). 246 pp. online review
  • Eicher, David J. Mystic Chords of Memory: Civil War Battlefields and Historic Sites Recaptured. (1998). 232 pp.
  • Fahs, Alice and Waugh, Joan, eds. The Memory of the Civil War in American Culture. (2004). 286 pp. online review
  • Fraley, Miranda L. "The Politics of Memory: Remembering the Civil War in Rutherford County, Tennessee." PhD dissertation Indiana U. 2004. 266 pp. DAI 2005 65(12): 4688-4689-A. DA3156292 Fulltext: ProQuest Dissertations & Theses
  • Gallagher, Gary W. Lee and His Generals in War and Memory. (1998). 298 pp.
  • Goldfield, David. Still Fighting the Civil War: The American South and Southern History. (2002). 354 pp.
  • Horton, James Oliver and Horton, Lois E., eds. Slavery and Public History: The Tough Stuff of American Memory. (2006). 272 pp.
  • Hutchison, Coleman. "Revision, Reunion, and the American Civil War Text." PhD dissertation : Northwestern U. 2006. 346 pp. DAI 2007 67(8): 2985. 3230099 Fulltext: ProQuest Dissertations & Theses
  • Jackson, Katherine Ann. "Reenacting the Past: Authenticity Claims and the Production of Collective Memory." PhD dissertation Northwestern U. 2001. 328 pp. DAI 2002 62(11): 3624-A. DA3033498 Fulltext: ProQuest Dissertations & Theses
  • Johnson, Steven Kirkham. "Re-enacting the Civil War: Genre and American Memory." PhD dissertation U. of Washington 2006. 319 pp. DAI 2007 67(7): 2578-A. DA3224240 Fulltext: ProQuest Dissertations & Theses
  • Kaufman, Will. The Civil War in American Culture. (2006). 193 pp.
  • Neff, John R. Honoring the Civil War Dead: Commemoration and the Problem of Reconciliation. (2005). 328 pp. online review
  • Poole, W. Scott Never Surrender: Confederate Memory and Conservatism in the South Carolina Upcountry. (2004) 263 pp. ISBN 978-0-8203-2508-8. online review
  • Reardon, Carol. Pickett's Charge in History and Memory. (1997). 285 pp.
  • Shackel, Paul A. Memory in Black and White: Race, Commemoration, and the Post-Bellum Landscape. (2003). 250 pp.
  • Smith, Timothy B. This Great Battlefield of Shiloh: History, Memory, and the Establishment of a Civil War National Military Park. (2004). 179 pp.
  • Waldrep, Christopher. Vicksburg's Long Shadow: The Civil War Legacy of Race and Remembrance. (2005). 344 pp.
  • Warren, Craig Andrew. "Regimental Memory: Veterans' Narratives and Civil War Fiction." PhD dissertation U. of Virginia 2004. 243 pp. DAI 2004 65(4): 1374-1375-A. DA3131378 Fulltext: ProQuest Dissertations & Theses
  • Weeks, Jim. Gettysburg: Memory, Market, and an American Shrine. (2003). 267 pp.


Popular culture, novels, films

  • Aaron, Daniel. The Unwritten War: American Writers and the Civil War (1973)
  • Wilson, Edmund. Patriotic Gore: Studies in the Literature of the American Civil War (1962)

Novels

  • Blackwood, Gary, Second Sight
  • Crane, Stephen, The Red Badge of Courage
  • Doctorow, E.L., The March
  • Frazier, Charles, Cold Mountain
  • Jakes, John, The Titans ISBN 0-515-04827-5
  • Johnston, Mary, The Long Roll
  • Keith, Harold, Rifles for Watie
  • Mitchell, Margaret, Gone with the Wind
  • Ripley, Alexandra, Charleston
  • Reed, Ishmael, Flight to Canada
  • Safire, William, Freedom: A Novel of Abraham Lincoln and the Civil War (1987) ISBN 0-385-15903-X
  • Shaara, Jeffrey, Gods and Generals; The Last Full Measure
  • Shaara, Michael, The Killer Angels
  • Street, James, By Valour and Arms
  • Turtledove, Harry, Fort Pillow
  • Verne, Jules, Texar's Revenge, or, North Against South (Nord Contre Sud)
  • Vidal, Gore, Lincoln
  • Willis, Connie, Lincoln's Dreams

Poems and songs

  • Benet, Stephen Vincent, John Brown's Body
  • For songs about the war written in the 1860s see [1].

Films about the war

  • Gary W. Gallagher, Causes Won, Lost, and Forgotten: How Hollywood and Popular Art Shape What We Know about the Civil War (2008)
    • Gary W. Gallagher, "Causes Won, Lost, and Forgotten: Hollywood and the Civil War since Glory Perspectives on History (May 2008) online edition


  • The Birth of a Nation (1915)
  • The General (1927), with Buster Keaton
  • Gone with the Wind (1939), with Clark Gable
  • Friendly Persuasion (1956)
  • The Blue and the Gray (1982)
  • Glory (1989), with Matthew Broderick, Denzel Washington and a black regiment
  • Gettysburg (1993)
  • Ride with the Devil (1999), Southern bushwhackers in Missouri
  • Gods and Generals (2003)
  • Cold Mountain (2003)
  • North and South (TV miniseries) (1984, 1985, 1986, 1994)