American Civil War/Bibliography

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:

Rhodes, James Ford. History of the Civil War, 1861-1865 (1918), Pulitzer Prize

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.
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.

Vicksburg

Naval history

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)
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.
Rutkow, Ira M. Bleeding Blue and Gray: Civil War Surgery and the Evolution of American Medicine. 2005. 394 pp.
Schultz, Jane E. Women at the Front: Hospital Workers in Civil War America. 2004. 360 pp.
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)
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

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

Burnham, Philip. So Far from Dixie: Confederates in Yankee Prisons (2003)
Byrne, Frank L., "Libby Prison: A Study in Emotions," Journal of Southern History 1958 24(4): 430-444. in JSTOR
Chandler's 1864 Confederate report ; the single most important original document. From O. R., ser. ii. vol. vii. pp. 546-551
Futch, Ovid. "Prison Life at Andersonville," Civil War History 1962 8(2): pp. 121-135
Hesseltine, William B. Civil War Prisons: A Study in War Psychology 1930 online edition
Horigan, Michael. Elmira: Death Camp of the North (2002) excerpt
Marvel, William. Andersonville: The Last Depot. (U. of North Carolina Press, 1994). 337 pp. Excellent scholarly study. online edition
McAdams, Benton. Rebels at Rock Island: The Story of a Civil War Prison (2000)
Sanders, Charles W., Jr. While in the Hands of the Enemy: Military Prisons of the Civil War. Louisiana State U. Press, 2005. 390 pp.
WWW Guide to Civil War Prisons by Richard Jensen

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; topical

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. U. of North Carolina Pres, 2003. 177 pp.
Davis, William C. and Robertson, James I., Jr., eds. Virginia at War, 1861. U. Press of Kentucky, 2005. 241 pp.
Gordon, Lesley J. and Inscoe, John C., eds. Inside the Confederate Nation: Essays in Honor of Emory M. Thomas. Louisiana State U. Press, 2005. 381 pp.
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. U. of Oklahoma Press, 2004. 288 pp.
Morgan, Chad. Planters' Progress: Modernizing Confederate Georgia. U. Press of Florida, 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
Rembert, W. Patrick. Jefferson Davis and His Cabinet, 1944.
Rable, George C., The Confederate Republic: A Revolution against Politics, 1994. online edition
Rubin, Anne Sarah. A Shattered Nation: The Rise and Fall of the Confederacy, 1861-1868. U. of North Carolina Pr., 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
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, Oxford U. Press, 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. Routledge, 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
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
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
- Grant, Ulysses S. Memoirs and Selected Letters (Mary Drake McFeely & William S. McFeely, eds.) (The Library of America, 1990) ISBN 0-940450-58-5
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

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

The Birth of a Nation (1915)
The General (1927), with Buster Keaton
Gone with the Wind (1939), with Clark Gable
Friendly Persuasion (1956)
The Good, the Bad and the Ugly (1966)
The Blue and the Gray (1982)
Glory (1989), anout a black regiment
Gettysburg (1993)
Ride with the Devil (1999)
Gods and Generals (2003)
Cold Mountain (2003)
North and South (TV miniseries) (1984, 1985, 1986, 1994)