Tragic years, 1860-1865 : a documentary history of the American Civil War

• RC 45638
  Paul M. Angle and Earl Schenck Miers, compliers              
  Using primary sources including diaries, letters, speeches, and written recordings of conversation, two historians have compiled a record of the Civil War. The war caused social upheaval that tore the country apart as evidenced in documents from the general population as well as those from famous statesmen and military commanders.

In the presence of mine enemies : war in the heart of America, 1859-1863

• RC 58770
  Edward L. Ayers
  University of Virginia history professor constructs a social narrative of the American Civil War as experienced by the residents of Augusta County, Virginia, and Franklin County, Pennsylvania. Using letters, diaries, newspaper articles, and other records, Ayers illustrates the shared Shenandoah Valley lifestyle of two societies divided by the conflict. 2003.

A Creek warrior for the Confederacy: the autobiography of Chief G.W. Grayson

• RC 29623
  W. David Baird, editor
  Historical memoir traces the Creek Nation to the dissolution of its tribal government in 1906. Grayson (1843-1920) campaigned with other Creek soldiers during the Civil War. Later he supported the constitutional tribal government and in 1917 became the last chief of the tribe.

Soldiering : the Civil War diary of Rice C. Bull, 123rd New York Volunteer Infantry

• RC 13264, 1842-1930.
  Rice C. Bull          
  Civil War memoir portrays the ordinary soldiers--their struggles, victories, and defeats. The author, who entered the Union Army in 1862, was a young farm boy from upper New York State with very little formal education.

The secret service of the Confederate States in Europe, or, How the Confederate cruisers were equipped

• RC 58772
  James Dunwody Bulloch, 1823-1901.
  Memoir of a secret envoy sent by Confederate president Jefferson Davis to Europe in 1861 to acquire ships and arms for the fledgling southern navy. The author, a relative of Theodore Roosevelt, describes his covert diplomatic missions throughout the four years of the Civil War. 1884.

Mr. Lincoln's Army

• RC 40519
  Bruce Catton, 1899-                 
  The first book in a trilogy about Lincoln's famous Army of the Potomac. Based on diaries, letters, and published reports of soldiers, this volume tells of the early days of the Civil War under the command of General George B. McClellan. Prequel to Glory Road (RC 40520).

Glory Road

• RC 40520
  Bruce Catton, 1899-        
  This volume continues with the campaigns of late 1862 and early 1863, when the tide began to turn in favor of the Union cause. The author interweaves the personalities of the leaders and the experiences of the common soldier in a military history of the bloody route from Fredericksburg to Gettysburg. Sequel to Mr. Lincoln’s Army (RC 40519).

A stillness at Appomattox

• RC 40521
  Bruce Catton, 1899-       
  A description of the last year of the Civil War when General Grant rebuilt the Union Army into a fighting force and turned defeat into victory. Awarded the Pulitzer Prize for history in 1954.

The Civil War notebook of Daniel Chisholm : a chronicle of daily life in the Union Army, 1864-1865

• RC 31843
  Daniel Chisholm              
  The letters and diary of a nineteen-year-old Union soldier who, upon returning home after the war, had the foresight to preserve his memoirs. He recounts the long marches, making and breaking camp, eating hardtack, the cold winter and hot summer, and mourning the death of Abraham Lincoln.

Lincoln’s men: how President Lincoln became father to an army and a nation

• RC 49400
  William C. Davis
  Explores the role of Abraham Lincoln as the practical and inspirational leader of the Union Army. An examination of letters and diaries of Union soldiers reveals their affection for the president, their belief that he understood and supported them, and their abiding loyalty to "Father Abraham." 1999.

I rode with Stonewall, being chiefly the war experiences of the youngest member of Jackson's staff from the John Brown raid to the hanging of Mrs. Surratt

• RC 14731
  Henry Kyd Douglas, 1838-1903.
  Written with humor and pathos from first-hand notes and diaries made on the battlefield. Colonel Douglas tells of gallant riders, dashing young officers, and their loyal soldiers. He also reveals an intimate portrait of Stonewall Jackson.

My dear parents: the Civil War seen by an English Union soldier

• RC 21070
  James Horrocks
  The vivid letters of a young Englishman who fled a paternity suit in Lancashire, worked his passage to New York, and enlisted in the Union Army. His letters to his parents offer a remarkable picture of an agonizing segment of American history, and they chronicle the unique circumstances of his transition from boyhood to manhood.

Dream's end : two Iowa brothers in the Civil War

• RC 50648
  Orr Kelly and Mary Davies Kelly.                  
  A genealogist and her historian husband chronicle the military service of two teenage brothers--his great uncles--in the Civil War. Traces their Union regiments' battle histories, depicting the valor and arduous existence of the common soldier, the horrific conditions in hospitals and POW camps, and the often incompetent leadership. Violence. 1998.

I seat myself to write you a few lines : Civil War and homestead letters from Thomas Lucas and family

• RC 58374
  Thomas Emery Lucas, 1836-1926.
  Chronicles the life and times of the Lucas family in hundreds of letters. Reveals pivotal events such as Thomas Lucas joining the First Pennsylvania Cavalry to fight in the Civil War and, decades later, the family migration to Nebraska to homestead. 2002.

For cause and comrades : why men fought in the Civil War

• RC 44934
  James M. McPherson.                  
  Examines the motivations of Civil War soldiers to serve and fight, drawing upon thousands of letters and diaries of Confederate and Union men. Avers that strong political and ideological beliefs undergirded a sense of duty and honor that sustained many through the perils of combat. Violence.

Voices from the Civil War : a documentary history of the great American conflict

• RC 31328
  Milton Meltzer, editor          
  Letters, memoirs, diaries, interviews, ballads, newspaper articles, and speeches vividly and passionately depict life and events during the four years of the Civil War. For grades 6-9 and older readers.

Civil War soldiers

• RC 29483
  Reid Mitchell
  Drawing on a abundance of primary sources--diaries, letters, and family papers--the author paints a portrait of Civil War soldiers, North and South. Probes the soldiers' views of the sociopolitical events that surrounded the war, their fears of battle, their religious outlooks, and their preconceived ideas about the people they fought.

Campaigning with Grant

• RC 24539
  Horace Porter
  A firsthand account by a lieutenant colonel on Ulysses S. Grant’s staff during the Civil War. Porter’s aim is "to recount the daily acts of General Grant in the field, to describe minutely his personal traits and habits, and to explain the motives which activated him in important crises."

Memoirs of General William T. Sherman

• RC 30946
  Reprinted in their entirety from the 1875 work, these memoirs of General Sherman offer a narrative about one of this country’s national tragedies. Sherman, tired of waiting for the War Department to publish an official history, recreated as complete an account as he could, from his recollections and memoranda, of all the events in which he was involved during the Civil War.

Civil War eyewitness reports

• RC 23810
  Harold Elk Straubing, editor                
  Diary entries, battle histories, and sociological reflections chronicle the Battle of Shiloh, the naval encounter between the "Monitor" and the "Merrimac;" life in the South and the place of the American Indian during the war.

Mary Chesnut’s Civil War

• RC 17474
  C. Vann Woodward, editor
  Married to a high-ranking member of the Confederate government, diarist Mary Chesnut was in an ideal position to observe and record the South’s headlong plunge to ruin. An aristocrat, she had a horror of slavery and called herself an abolitionist from early youth, and as a vehement feminist she declared "There is no slave after all like a wife."