7 Fascinating American Civil War Books

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“The world will little note, nor long remember what we say here, but it can never forget what they did here.”

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Fought between April 12, 1861, to May 26, 1865, the American Civil War was a civil war between the Union (‘the North’) and the Confederacy (‘the South’), a collection of seceded states. Whilst the conflict had many different themes and disputes, the central cause was whether slavery should be permitted to be expanded into the nation’s western territories. Following the election of Abraham Lincoln, conflict began following the Confederacy’s bombing of Fort Sumter. Over four years, between 620,000 and 750,000 soldiers were killed, making the American Civil War the deadliest conflict in American history. Still one of the most studied and written about parts of US history, the consequences of the Civil War still permeate the country. If you’re looking to learn more about everything from the technology, politics, strategies and people of this era, join us at What We Reading for the best American Civil War books. 

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The Demon Of Unrest: A Saga Of Hubris, Heartbreak And Heroism At The Dawn Of The Civil War – Erik Larson

Kicking off our list of great American Civil War books is Erik Larson’s new historical work, The Demon of Unrest. Beginning in November 1860 when Abraham Lincoln emerged as the victor in a tight battle for the White House, masterful storyteller Larson brings to life the chaotic months between the election and the shelling of Sumter. This pivotal period in American history is stacked full of errors, miscommunication, egos, ambitions, tragedies and betrayal. 

At the heart of this suspenseful narrative are Major Robert Anderson, Sumter’s commander and former slave owner sympathetic to the South but loyal to the Union; Edmund Ruffin, a vain and bloodthirsty secessionist radical; and Mary Boykin Chesnut, wife to a prominent planter who sees the parallels between slavery and marriage. And in the middle of this gripping historical book is Lincoln himself, trying desperately to avert a war that he fears is already inevitable. 

Battle Cry For Freedom: The Civil War Era (Oxford History Of The United States #4) – James M. McPherson 

James McPheron’s fast-paced narrative of the deadliest conflict in US history encompasses all the political, social and military events across two decades that started with the outbreak of war in Mexico and the end of another at Appomattox, making it the go-to one-volume history of the American Civil War. 

Packed with thrilling drama and cutting-edge analysis, McPherson chronicles the fateful decisions in the build-up to the Civil War including the Dred Scott decision, the Lincoln-Douglas debates, and John Brown’s raid on Harper’s Ferry. He also expertly documents the politics, personalities and strategies of the war as it happened. Finally, Battle Cry for Freedom is one of the best American Civil War books for studying the wider consequences of the conflict ranging from the reasons the Union won to the origins of the modern Republican Party. 

Team Of Rivals: The Political Genius Of Abraham Lincoln – Doris Kearns Goodwin 

In Doris Kearns Goodwin’s Lincoln Prize-winning biography, Team of Rivals, readers gain an unmatched portrait of the savviness and political genius of President Abraham Lincoln. In this wholly original work, Goodwin demonstrates how Lincoln’s rise from obscurity to the White House came from an extraordinary ability to empathise with others, to experience what they were feeling, and to understand both their motivations and desires. 

It was this capacity, Goodwin presents, that allowed Lincoln to bring his disgruntled and dismayed opponents together, create the most unusual cabinet, preserve the Union and guide the North to victory. By focusing on Lincoln’s mastery of men, Team of Rivals presents a new vantage point on the American Civil War from the White House. As he overcomes incompetent generals, hostile congressmen and his raucous cabinet, this is one of the best books for understanding what makes Lincoln one of the most significant presidencies in the nation’s history. 

Grant – Ron Chernow 

Another one of the best Civil War biographies, Ron Chernow’s Grant reassesses how the former Union military general and US president is perceived in the history books. Grant is often depicted as a failed businessman, boozed-up alcoholic, triumphant but brutal general and hapless president whose time in office came to symbolise the worst of the Gilded Age. 

Yet, through his meticulous research and acclaimed extensive storytelling, Chernow shows how there is so much more to Ulysses S. Grant’s life and legacy. From his incredible rise up the military ranks, his bloody campaigns in Virginia against General Robert E. Lee, taking on the Ku Klux Klan, to his friendships with the likes of Abraham Lincoln, Mark Twain and Frederick Douglass, Grant vividly depicts all of the triumphs and struggles that helped define one of America’s finest, if underappreciated, leaders. 

Confederates In The Attic: Dispatches From The Unfinished Civil War – Tony Horwitz 

Confederates in the Attic is an American Civil War book by prize-winning war correspondent Tony Horwitz. In it, he embarks on a tour through the people and places that are still held in thrall by the conflict. The result is a compelling adventure through the soul of the South where the remnants of the Lost Cause are kept alive by ritual and remembrance. 

In Virginia, Horwitz joins a group of devout reenactors who crash-diet to achieve the hollowed-eyed look of starved Confederates. In Kentucky, he witnesses Klan rallies. At Andersonville, he learns that a prison commander, executed as a war criminal, is now executed as a martyr. Finally, he treks from Antietam to Gettysburg to Appomattox in the company of Robert Lee Hodg, an outlandish pilgrim who claims their journey the ‘Civil Wargasm’. 

Gettysburg: The Last Invasion – Allen C. Guelzo 

No list of American Civil War books would be complete without one dedicated to Gettysburg, and acclaimed historian Allen C. Guelzo takes readers through everything they need to know about the war’s biggest battle in Gettysburg: The Last Invasion. 

Whilst the Battle of Gettysburg has been studied and depicted extensively as the face of the American Civil War, Guelzo’s book stands out by diving to the heart of the experiences of individual soldiers over three days of intense fighting, the way in which politics swayed military decisions, and how the war placed in the context of nineteenth-century-era strategy. From the stone walls, and the gunpowder clouds to Pickett’s Charge, the Battle of Gettysburg is given new life by Guelzo, allowing readers to experience the faces, sights and sounds of the battle like never before. 

This Republic Of Suffering: Death And The American Civil War – Drew Gilpin Faust 

To put the bloodiness of the American Civil War into context, the 620,000 conservative estimates of soldiers killed during the conflict would be equivalent to six million in today’s population. In his Civil War book This Republic of Suffering, historian Drew Gilpin Faust examines the impact of this extraordinary death from material, political, intellectual and spiritual angles. 

Faust describes the ways death changed not only individual lives but profoundly shaped the nation and its understanding of rights and responsibilities. She chronicles how people mourned, how religions struggled to comprehend how such slaughter could exist with a benevolent God, and also explains the sheer logistics involved when thousands were left dead, many of whom without identification, at everywhere from Bull Run, Shiloh to Antietam. From these challenges, breakthroughs were made in embalming, national graves and cemeteries and undertaking as a profession. Most of all, Faust pays homage to how the war victimised civilians through violence that went beyond the battlefield – disease, displacement, hardships and shortages.