My Very Biased List Of The 10 All Time Best American Civil War Books
For American history buffs books about the American Civil War are always a compelling read. Though in reality, as almost every combat veteran will tell you, war is an ugly, gruesome thing that is often falsely glorified. Still, there are aspects of combat relationships — powerful human bonds formed — that can never be matched under any other situation than the terrifying life and death struggle of the battlefield.
For the reader our attention is brought to books of the American Civil War in some respect no differently than we feel compelled to look upon a terrible auto accident. Yes, we don’t want to look, but for some deep-seated reason we can’t help but look. Indeed, with the Civil War it’s as if everything despicable and everything wonderful about America is wrapped around this tumultuous conflagration of violence.
Personally I’m fascinated by the qualities of political and military leadership displayed, the chessboard tactics involved and the logistical complexities and new fangled technologies brought to the war. Perhaps it is like Confederate General Robert E. Lee is reported to have said when looking down upon the fighting spread before him at Fredericksburg: it is good that war is so terrible else we would become too fond of it, or something to that effect.
So here is my list of all time favorite Civil War Books
The Civil War: A Narrative
By Shelby Foote
Stillness At Appomattox
By Bruce Catton
Lee’s Lieutenants: A Study In Command
By Douglas Southall Freeman
Team of Rivals: The political Genius Of Lincoln
By Doris Kearns Goodwin
Apprentice Killers: The War of Lincoln And Davis
By James M. Ridgway, Jr. (my all time favorite of course)
The Gettysburg Campaign: A Study In Command
By Edward B. Coddington
Battle Cry Of Freedom
By James M. McPherson
Landscape Turned Red: The Battle Of Antietam
By Stephen W. Sears
Memoirs And Selected Letters
By Ulysses S. grant
With Malice Toward None: A Biography Of Abraham Lincoln
By Stephen B. Oats
