What are the decent military books on the Civil War?

[Minh]

I am looking for good treatments on the military operations and battles of the American Civil War. You can recommend books for certain battles (e.g. Antietam, Vicksburg, etc...). I would prefer those that provide decent maps and order of battle.

The two books I am reading right now are Too Useful to Sacrifice: Reconsidering George B. McClellan’s Generalship in the Maryland Campaign from South Mountain to Antietam and Tullahoma: The Forgotten Campaign that changed the Civil War, June 23 - July 4, 1863. I am impressed of the former because of the author extensive use of sources to restore the reputation of Little Mac.

Any recommendation?

 

[Edward]

The Official History of the War of the Rebellion (sometimes called "The War of the Rebellion: a Compilation of the Official Records of the Union and Confederate Armies) . 127 volumes plus index and Atlas. Once you've read through that, you can dig down on battles of particular interest.

Catton's books are generally good for a lighter read.

Some suggestions from before I showed up here:

Books on the Civil War?

Hi everyone, My wife and I are about halfway through the movie "Gods and Generals" which was recommended to me on this board. So, could anybody recommend me some good books about the civil war? As an Aussie, I really know nothing at all, apart from the whole "It was about slavery" excuse.

www.puritanboard.com

 

[JimmyH]

35 years ago I slogged through Shelby Foote's trilogy, The Civil War, and it was quite good. James McPherson's Battle Cry of Freedom is considered the best 1 volume treatment of the war. For first hand accounts by the participants Century Magazine's compilation, Battles and Leaders of the Civil War is a 4 volume collection of essays written by those who actually fought in the conflict. I've not read any of his stuff, but Allen Guelzo has some great youtube videos on Abraham Lincoln, Lee, and the war in general. James McPherson also has many video lectures and there is a 2-3 hour video of Shelby Foote done by Cspan (on youtube) that I enjoyed. My great great grandfather fought for the confederacy and his son, my great great uncle was killed in action in Northern VA.

 

[RobertPGH1981]

I had a few copies of this CIvil War collection when I was younger. The information, pictures and charts were really interesting. I am pretty sure its out of print now though.

Time Life Civil War Series

 

[greenbaggins]

Shelby Foote is incomparable.

 

[Minh]

I was fortunate to have access to McPherson's book free of charge because of my university affiliation. Sadly, I had to manually download every chapter of it since there's no single file. I was also able to obtain Ezra Carman's treatment of Antietam, which was considered a should read for those interested in the Maryland campaign.

Thanks for the recommendation so far.

 

[dhh712]

Hey Minh, here are some of my favorite books about the battles of the Civil War.

Sears "Chancellorsville", "Landscape turned Red: the battle of Antietam". His "Gettysburg" is pretty good too, but I think Coddington's "Gettysburg, A study in Command" to be a classic on the battle (and a good one too).

Cozzen's "This Terrible Sound" and "Shipwreck of their Hopes"; they're my favorite so far about the Chickamauga and Chattanooga Campaign. David Powell's come out with a newer 3-volume series. I've just gotten through the first volume--it is much more detailed with newer research than Cozzens (I think Cozzens contains some anecdotes of the battles that have been looked into more recently as possible myths; from what I recall Powell explores a newer look at these controversies).

Hennessy has one of the few if only in-depth study about 2nd Manassas (if they hadn't already, someone's gotta get out there and do another book on this with perhaps newer resources if more have been discovered since Hennessy's book) "Return to Bull Run". It's a enjoyable read though, one of the few I've re-read.

Another I enjoyed immensely, read this one twice too is Greene's "The Final Battles of the Petersburg Campaign". That's another battle where there's a lack of written work out there that hopefully will be remedied someday.

I can't say too much about the maps in these books. Often I've found the maps within Civil War books to be lacking for some reason (they would appear to be pretty vital to the understanding of the battle, but I find that commonly there are just not enough provided). One alternative to obtain exhaustive maps of particular battles would be to get the ones that are available in the "The Maps of -----" Series (I just checked amazon and they look to have them on a great many battles). I currently have the ones on Gettysburg , Antietam (somewhere apparently) and Chickamauga. It may be a bit cumbersome, but to have those on hand to refer to while reading another book on the battle may be an idea. Of course, the series itself contains written information about the battle itself, but I find the regular books (with the often not-so-great maps) of the battles to be more readable (probably because of their inclusion of anecdotes and biographical information; the map-books from what I recall appear to often be just dry facts).

In addition to the battles, I also enjoy biographies about the characters in the war, and books about different regiments or other units of the army [I really don't care for the Navy (apologize to any nautical Civil War enthusiasts out there) or cavalry or artillery; it's just the infantry that interests me]. One of my favorites of the latter topic is "The Last Full Measure" by Richard Moe. I'm about due for a re-read of that. There's a ton more of my favorite biographical works but not sure if that would interest you.

Not sure if this would be of any interest to you either, but I just have to mention if you're interested at all in anything about Jackson's wounding at Chancellorsville, "Calamity at Chancellorsville" by Lively. That was like one of the best treatments I've ever read about the topic (and one of the better Civil War books in general that I've read); it really goes into huge depth about what happened and the aftermath.

Well, these all are fairly popular works, so not sure that you may have already run into many of them. The Civil War's one of my favorite interests so I have quite a library of books here. That one you mentioned about McClellan looks to be one I've got to pick up here in the near future. I've always had an interest in him as one of the more peculiar characters of the war (in a whole cast of interesting and eccentric people). Not sure if you've picked up his biography yet (probably the most popular one out there, though there may be newer works I'm not familiar with) by Sears [I hadn't realized that was written by him as well; I find his writing style to be very readable and enjoyable. Did Stotelmyer's book have the McClellan quote where he compares himself to Jesus being betrayed by Judas (Lincoln)? That's one of my favorite McClellan quotes; he surely said some wild things. If I'm remembering correctly, I think it was one of his more popular quotes, but the Sears book should have that along with a lot of other good information].

 

[arapahoepark]

This no doubt has an up to date bibliography somewhere: https://www.battlefields.org/learn

 

[Reformed Covenanter]

If you have access to Project Muse, check out Civil War History and The Journal of the Civil War Era - both of which should have at least some articles on specific battles. I once set up a module on the ACW when I was at UCD; my focus, however, was on religious, social, and political issues rather than on military history.

 

[Minh]

@dhh712 Thanks for those recommendations. I will check them soon.

For Stotelmyer's book, I have not found the betrayal quote so far. It's a good work in my opinion. It tackle certain narratives such as:

• McClellan's failure to capitalize R. E. Lee special order 191.
• Also his failure to prevent Lee's troop from retreating after Antietam. For this one, the author boldly alleged that "the war department, Lincoln's cabinet, and perhaps Lincoln himself, deliberately created McClellan's supply crisis" that prevented him from pursuing Lee. Interesting claim.