What the.....Where am I? Civil War?..

[Marc Adamchek]

Usually my time machine reliably delivers me to the second half of the 18th century, a place I love. BUT....recently the controls got jammed up and I found myself in the second half of the 19th century, specifically the period of the Civil War. All of a sudden I'm reading "The Killer Angels" and really enjoying it. Looks like I might be stuck here for awhile. Can any of you reccommend any other books about this time period?

 

[Coot]

A fun read about present day people getting "into" the Civil War is "Confederates in the Attic".

 

[Pigman]

Read hardtack and coffee then read Si Klegg and his pard Shorty.

 

[colmoultrie]

James McPherson, The Battle Cry of Freedom - the best one-volume study of the Civil War I've read.

Shelby Foote, The Civil War, 3 vols. Each volume is about 800 pages, but it's a page-turner the whole way through. I lost many hours of sleep (and saved a lot of bar tab $) reading that evenings the year I lived in Kitzbuehel, Austria.

Forrest Carter, Gone to Texas - novel introducing Josey Wales

Stephen Crane, The Red Badge of Courage - one of the best American novels, as well as a great Civil War story.

Bruce Catton, A Stillness At Appomattox - vol. 3 of his Army of the Potomac trilogy.

Bell Wiley, The Life of Johnny Reb, and The Life of Billy Yank - 2 excellent companion books on the life of the common soldier.

Others will suggest more good books, but this will keep you occupied for a few weeks at least.

 

[TFoley]

James McPherson, The Battle Cry of Freedom - the best one-volume study of the Civil War I've read.

Shelby Foote, The Civil War, 3 vols. Each volume is about 800 pages, but it's a page-turner the whole way through. I lost many hours of sleep (and saved a lot of bar tab $) reading that evenings the year I lived in Kitzbuehel, Austria.

Forrest Carter, Gone to Texas - novel introducing Josey Wales

Stephen Crane, The Red Badge of Courage - one of the best American novels, as well as a great Civil War story.

Bruce Catton, A Stillness At Appomattox - vol. 3 of his Army of the Potomac trilogy.

Bell Wiley, The Life of Johnny Reb, and The Life of Billy Yank - 2 excellent companion books on the life of the common soldier.

Others will suggest more good books, but this will keep you occupied for a few weeks at least.

To them may I add -

Berry Benson's 'Civil War Book' - Memoirs of a Confederate Scout and sharpshooter.

and

'Rebel Private: Front and Rear - Memoirs of a Confederate Soldier' by Wm A Fletcher.

tac

 

[ozark57]

The movie "Gettysburg" is an adaptation of the Killing Angels. I just got the DVD at Wal-Mart for $5. It is 4 hours long and has a lot of period correct scenes. :thumbsup:

 

[Marc Adamchek]

Coot - Actually, that's the book i DID read which got me on the trail I'm on now!

 

[jbg]

James McPherson, The Battle Cry of Freedom - the best one-volume study of the Civil War I've read.

Shelby Foote, The Civil War, 3 vols. Each volume is about 800 pages, but it's a page-turner the whole way through. I lost many hours of sleep (and saved a lot of bar tab $) reading that evenings the year I lived in Kitzbuehel, Austria.

Forrest Carter, Gone to Texas - novel introducing Josey Wales

Stephen Crane, The Red Badge of Courage - one of the best American novels, as well as a great Civil War story.

Bruce Catton, A Stillness At Appomattox - vol. 3 of his Army of the Potomac trilogy.

Bell Wiley, The Life of Johnny Reb, and The Life of Billy Yank - 2 excellent companion books on the life of the common soldier.

Others will suggest more good books, but this will keep you occupied for a few weeks at least.

To them may I add -

Berry Benson's 'Civil War Book' - Memoirs of a Confederate Scout and sharpshooter.

and

'Rebel Private: Front and Rear - Memoirs of a Confederate Soldier' by Wm A Fletcher.

tac

And to the great choices mentioned above may I add:

anything by Stephen Sears; great accounts of battles in Virginia

Company 'Aytch; a first person account of life in the Army of Tennesee

The Devil Knows How to Ride; a very good read on Quantrill

Stonewall Jackson, by James Robertson

The Confedearcy's Last Hurrah by Wiley Sword; a great account of Hood's wasting of The Army of Tennessee at Franklin and Nashville.

The Coming Fury by Bruce Catton, and just about everything else he wrote, too.

And there are literally hundreds of other great books on The Civil War, we have just scratched the surface.

 

[jbwilliams3]

As mentioned, Foote and Macpherson have written must-reads. Macphereson’s Battle Cry of Freedom is the best, concise work I’ve read on it.

For novels, don’t forget to read prequel and sequal to the Killer Angels, written by Sharaa’s son, Jeff: God’s and Generals and The Last Full Measure. When you’re finished, go back to the 18th century and read Jeff Shaara’s two novels on the Revolution.

 

[Coot]

Well, since you have finished Confederates in the Attic & are ready for more, I might suggest the following for a look at the naval side of the war:

By Sea and by River - Bern Anderson
or
Under Two Flags - William M. Fowler

A History of the Confederate Navy - Raimondo Luraghi

Iron Afloat - William N. Still



And for the Civil War Trivia question of the day, what was the role of James D. Bullock and who is his extremely well known nephew?

 

[Marc Adamchek]

Thanks for all the suggestions, guys. Right now it looks like I'll be seeking out the Shelby Foote trilogy. Hey, here's a trivia game. The only requirement is that you've gotta be an old guy (I'm 55) like me. I fell in love, and I mean IN LOVE with the Civil War when I was 7 years old. Why? Does anyone remeber the Civil War Cards? They were like Baseball cards. You got 5 cards, a stick of bubble gum, and a fake genuine fake confederate money bill. As I remeber, the total series was 61 cards, or somewhere around that. There was also a special series outside of the regular collection - kinda like a BONUS thing. You could even come upon a card that was basically a checklist of all the cards. The art work was really good, at least to this 7 year old mind. I don't know if the distribution was a regional thing or national. Can't remeber if they were put out by TOPP'S or other company. They were COOL. I was a little surprised they weren't mentioned in the Horwitz book Confederates in the Attic, but then again he may have been a little young. The sad thing is I don't have them today. Why? Because ALL my cards (baseball from the late 50's early 60's, Beatle cards, Addams Family cards, football cards etc etc were destroyed in a basdement flood back in the summer of 1965. SIGH! Oh well......I'm REALLY interested to hear from anyone who remembers collecting these Civil War cards. (Right now the card that's in my brain shows the erroneous shooting of Stonewall Jackson in the fog).

 

[jbg]

Thanks for all the suggestions, guys. Right now it looks like I'll be seeking out the Shelby Foote trilogy.

Great choice. I took me over a yer and half to read the trilogy. It has, at least in my opinion about the best account of the battle at Gettysburg I have ever read.

 

[JV Puleo]

I remember Civil War cards... I'm a little older than you so I was probably 12 at the time and already "collecting" (I had an Egyptian Model Rolling Block, a birthday present from my mother) I always remember that the Ft. Sumpter card (which may have been #1) had a correct description of the battle, and the fact that the only casualty was the poor guy who was blown up during the salute when the flag came down. Nevertheless, the card showed dead bodies all over the place! By then I was already reading books about the war, there were lots of them during the centennial. In fact, I still have many of them, complete with worn-out bindings. I must have been a strange kid to most people.

 

[Lostrifle]

The only Civil War cards I can remember(going back to the early -to-mid '60's) is a bunch that seemed to always be showing guys getting killed in various unpleasent ways, frequently by being impaled on bayonets and the like.
Really nice stuff to be selling to schoolkids! :shocked2:

 

[wolffeone]

The cards by Topps were "CIVIL WAR NEWS". They command in mint condition, especially card #88 (unmarked check-list)a very large amount of money. Could buy a custom built rifle with it.

 

[Lostrifle]

Definitely NOT the ones I was thinking of!

 

[Many Klatch]

I highly recommend Ulysses Grant's Memoirs. It is probably the only first person narrative of the war that never once uses the word "glory". Grant is very matter of fact and concise. He finished writing the Memoirs just a few weeks before he died of throat cancer.

Another good one is Sherman's memoirs.

If all you read is books about the war East of the Adirondacks, then you wonder how the Federals ever won. Once you read these two books you find that the Federals rarely lost a battle on this side of the Adirondacks. Lee and Jackson couldn't be everywhere.

Many Klatch