History of the US Civil War – US History Books PDF

Hospital Sketches and Camp and Fireside Stories – American Civil War Books PDF Free Download

Alcott, Louisa May

Boston: Roberts 1885 Dewey Dec. 973.7

“Several years before Louisa May Alcott created “Little Women” (1868), her most well- known novel, she worked as a nurse at a soldiers’ hospital in Washington, D.C., during the Civil War. Drawing on that experience, Alcott wrote ‘Hospital Sketches’ (1863), a vivid account that offers rich insights into women’s wartime roles, the shocking conditions in soldiers’ hospitals, the lives of the soldiers themselves, and the racial prejudice of the time. Alice Fahs’s introduction supplies biographical, literary, and historical context for Alcott’s work.” -Publisher

The Women of the South in War Times – History of the Civil War in America

Andrews, Matthew Page, comp.

Baltimore: Norman, Remington 1920 Dewey Dec. 973.7

“The following pages depict the life of the southern people within the lines of the Confederacy during the four years of its storm-tossed existence. The greater part of the material is given in the words of those who were a part of the times in which they lived …[Editorial notes were added that] bar upon related events of larger historical import…” -Author’s Preface. History of the US Civil War.

American Civil War: The Essential Reference Guide – History of the US Civil War

Arnold, James R. and Wiener, Roberta, ed.

ABC-CLIO 2011

Offers an accessible, single-volume source on the conflict that helped define the American nation. In addition to an A–Z encyclopedia of major leaders, events, and issues, this work includes a comprehensive overview essay on the war, plus separate essays by a prominent Civil War historian on its causes and consequences. Biographies of military and political leaders provide insights about those individuals who played major roles in the conflict, while entries on key battles showcase the strategies of both sides. History of the US Civil War.

Firebrand of Liberty: The Story of Two Black Regiments that Changed the Course of the Civil War – American Civil War Books PDF Free Download

Ash, Steven V.

Norton 2007 Dewey Dec. 973.7

“In March 1863, nine hundred black Union soldiers, led by white officers, invaded Florida and seized the town of Jacksonville. They were among the first African American troops in the Northern army, and their expedition into enemy territory was like no other in the Civil War. It was intended as an assault on slavery by which thousands would be freed. At the center of the story is prominent abolitionist Colonel Thomas Wentworth Higginson, who led one of the regiments. After waging battle for three weeks, Higginson and his men were mysteriously ordered to withdraw, their mission a seeming failure. Yet their successes in resisting the Confederates and collaborating with white Union forces persuaded President Abraham Lincoln to begin full-scale recruitment of black troops, a momentous decision that helped turned the tide of the war.” -Publisher. History of the US Civil War.

A Virginia Girl in the Civil War, 1861-1865; being a record of the actual experiences of the wife of a Confederate officer – History of the Civil War in America

Avary, Myrta Lockett, ed.

NY: Appleton 1903 Dewey Dec. 973.7

The author tells of her many travels across the war-torn South, her capture behind enemy lines, her encounter with the famous Belle Boyd, her friendship with the dashing general J E B Stuart, and the devastation suffered by the citizens of Richmond in the last days of the Confederacy. History of the US Civil War.

Flawed Victory; a New Perspective on the Civil War – History of the US Civil War

Barney, William L.

Praeger 1975 Dewey Dec. 973.7

The author “poses two central questions about the Civil War: How was the South able to hold out for so long against the far greater strength of the North? And why did the Northern victory perpetuate, rather than eradicate, the flaws of the antebellum Union?” -Book cover. History of the US Civil War.

The Confederacy: a Guide to the Archives of the Government of the Confederate States of America – History of the Civil War in America

Beers, Henry Putney

Washington: National Archives and Records Administration 1986 Dewey Dec. 973.7

The second of two volumes originally prepared in the 1960s by the National Archives as part of a Civil War Centennial commemoration, and re-issued in the 1980s. The first volume, ‘The Union: A Guide to Federal Archives Relating to the Civil War’, is also on this web page. History of the US Civil War.

The Union: A Guide to Federal Archives Relating to the Civil War – History of the Civil War in America

Beers, Henry Putney and Munden, Kenneth W., eds.

National Archives and Records Administration 1986 Dewey Dec. 973.7

The first of two volumes originally prepared in the 1960s by the National Archives as part of a Civil War Centennial commemoration, and re-issued in the 1980s. The second volume, ‘The Confederacy: A Guide to Federal Archives Relating to the Civil War’, is also on this web page. History of the US Civil War.

Reconstructing the Union; Theory and Policy during the Civil War – History of the US Civil War

Belz, Herman

Cornell University 1969 Dewey Dec. 973.7

“Reconstruction as a problem that concerned both the President and Congress from the beginning of the war is the subject of this valuable addition to Civil War literature. Focusing on the theories and policies, the attitudes and actions, of the executive and legislative branches in Washington, and treating peripherally efforts in the several southern states, the author views from a new perspective the entire struggle over rebuilding the Union.” -Book jacket. History of the US Civil War.

Loss of the Sultana and Reminiscences of Survivors – History of the US Civil War

History of a disaster where over one thousand five hundred human beings were lost, most of them exchanged prisoners of war on their way home after privation and suffering from one to twenty-three months in Cahaba and Andersonville prisons

Berry, Rev. Chester D.

Lansing: Thorp 1892 Dewey Dec. 973.7

This is mainly a collection of many first-person accounts by survivors, and also includes a roster of the exchanged prisoners of war on the boat. What happened in the 1860s.

The Great Rebellion: its Secret History, Rise, Progress, and Disastrous Failure – American Civil War Books PDF Free Download

Botts, John Minor

NY: Harper 1866 Dewey Dec. 973.7

John Minor Botts (1802-1869) was a politician, planter and lawyer from Virginia, who was a prominent supporter of the Union during the Civil War. First elected to the U.S. House of Representatives in 1838, he vehemently opposed the extension of slavery into the territories, even though he himself was a slave-owner. He spent the war living on his Virginia farm, where he wrote letters in support of the union. He was arrested in 1862 and confined without trial for eight weeks for espousing Unionist views. This history draws heavily upon Botts’s own experience as a participant in and close observer of southern politics for decades prior to the Civil War, and is a reminder of the disagreement among southern leaders and politicians about secession. History of the US Civil War.

The Civil War and the Constitution 1859-1865 vol 1 (American History series) – History of the Civil War in America

– Volume 2

Burgess, John William

1901 Dewey Dec. 973.7

A clear study of the war and of the various constitutional and political questions connected with it. Contains maps. “Meant chiefly for students of political science; and . . . these will find much of interest in Professor Burgess’s discussions of various questions, and in his judgments of persons.” American Historical Review. History of the US Civil War.

The Army of the Potomac: A Stillness at Appomattox – History of the Civil War in America

Catton, Bruce

Doubleday 1953 Dewey Dec. 973.7

Winner of the Pulitzer Prize and National Book Award for nonfiction. Concluding volume of trilogy which began with Mr. Lincoln’s Army (1951) and Glory Road (1952). This final volume covers the period from early 1864 to April 1865. “The author’s approach is judicious, his interpretation unbiased and his coverage comprehensive… A magnificent piece of writing.” NY Times book review. History of the US Civil War.

Harriet Tubman: The Road to Freedom – History of the US Civil War

Clinton, Catherine

Little, Brown 2004 Dewey Dec. 973.7

Every schoolchild knows of Harriet Tubman’s heroic escape and resistance to slavery. But few readers are aware that Tubman went on to be a scout, a spy, and a nurse for the Union Army, because there has never before been a serious biography for an adult audience of this important woman. This is that long overdue historical work, written by an acclaimed historian of the antebellum era and the Civil War. Illiterate but deeply religious, Tubman left her family in her early 20s to escape to Philadelphia, then a hotbed of abolitionism.There she became the first and only woman, fugitive slave, and black to work as a conductor on the Underground Railroad. So successful was she in spiriting away slaves that the state of Maryland put a $40,000 bounty on her head. Within a year of starting her work, fellow slaves and Northerners began referring to Tubman as ‘Moses’ because of how many people she had freed. With impeccable scholarship that draws on newly available sources and research into the daily lives of slaves, HARRIET TUBMAN is an enduring work on one of the most important figures in American history. History of the US Civil War.

The Politics of Command: Factions and Ideas in Confederate Strategy – History of the Civil War in America

Connelly, Thomas Lawrence and Jones, Archer

Louisiana State University 1973 Dewey Dec. 973.7

The Politics of Command reevaluates the continual controversy over strategy that occurred between Jefferson Davis and his high command, and within the command itself. Thomas Lawrence Connelly and Archer Jones illustrate how Davis’ decisions were affected by officers in the field, politicians, the considerable clout of the western bloc and its network of informal associations, the input of Robert E. Lee, the pressure brought to bear by P.G.T. Beauregard, and Davis’ own changing concept of the departmental command system. Connelly and Jones were the first to realize that any significant assessment of Davis’ strategy must examine those who influenced him, for his key decisions were products of the politics of command. History of the US Civil War.

Chronological and Alphabetical Record of the Engagements of the Great Civil War – History of the Civil War in America

with the casualties on both sides and full and exhaustive statistics and tables of the army and navy, military prisons, national cemeteries, etc.

Cooper, Charles R., comp.

Milwaukee: Caxton 1904 Dewey Dec. 973.7

“compiled from the official records of the War Department and Confederate Archives, Washington, D.C.”

Stealing Lincoln’s Body – History of the US Civil War

Craughwell, Thomas J.

Harvard Univ. 2006 Dewey Dec. 973.7

On the night of the presidential election in 1876, a gang of counterfeiters out of Chicago attempted to steal the entombed embalmed body of Abraham Lincoln and hold it for ransom. The custodian of the tomb was so shaken by the incident that he willingly dedicated the rest of his life to protecting the president’s corpse. In a lively and dramatic narrative, Thomas J. Craughwell returns to this bizarre, and largely forgotten, event with the first book to place the grave robbery in historical context. He takes us through the planning and execution of the crime and the outcome of the investigation. He describes the reactions of Mary Todd Lincoln and Robert Todd Lincoln to the theft–and the peculiar silence of a nation. He follows the unlikely tale of what happened to Lincoln’s remains after the attempted robbery, and details the plan devised by the Lincoln Guard of Honor to prevent a similar abominable recurrence. Along the way, Craughwell offers entertaining sidelights on the rise of counterfeiting in America and the establishment of the Secret Service to combat it; the prevalence of grave robberies; the art of nineteenth-century embalming; and the emergence among Irish immigrants of an ambitious middle class–and a criminal underclass. This rousing story of hapless con men, intrepid federal agents, and ordinary Springfield citizens who honored their native son by keeping a valuable, burdensome secret for decades offers a riveting glimpse into late-nineteenth-century America, and underscores that truth really is sometimes stranger than fiction.

Kate: the Journal of a Confederate Nurse – History of the Civil War in America

Cumming, Kate; edited by Richard Barksdale Harwell

Baton Rouge: Louisiana State University 1959 Dewey Dec. 973.7

This fascinating journal of Kate Cumming, one of the first women to offer her services for the care of the South’s wounded soldiers of the bloody Civil War, represents a detailed record of her activities and thoughts as a nurse. Spanning the time she was assigned to her first post in Okolona, Mississippi in April 186, working under Doctor S. H. Stout, a progressive military physician committed to the employment of women in hospitals, until May 29, 1865, this book provides a solid look behind the lines of Civil War action in depicting civilian attitudes, army medical practices, and the administrative workings of the Confederate hospital system. History of the US Civil War.

The Battle of Shiloh – History of the Civil War in America

Daniel, Larry J.

Eastern National Park and Monument Association 1998 Dewey Dec. 973.5

National Park guide to the battle and the battlefield. It provides a narrative of the battle for the general reader, with ample maps and illustrations. History of the US Civil War.

Sherman’s March – History of the US Civil War

Davis, Burke

Vintage 1988 Dewey Dec. 973.7

In November 1864, just days after the reelection of President Abraham Lincoln, Gen. William T. Sherman vowed to “make Georgia howl.” The hero of Shiloh and his 65,000 Federal troops destroyed the great city of Atlanta, captured Savannah, and cut a wide swath of destruction through Georgia and the Carolinas on their way to Virginia. A scorched-earth campaign that continues to haunt the Southern imagination, Sherman’s “March to the Sea” and ensuing drive north was a crucial turning point in the War between the States.
Weaving together hundreds of eyewitness accounts, bestselling author Burke Davis tells the story of this infamous episode from the perspective of the Union soldiers and the Confederate men and women who stood in their path. Eloquent, heartrending, and vastly informative, Sherman’s March brilliantly examines one of the most polarizing figures in American military history and offers priceless insights into the enduring legacy of the Civil War. History of the US Civil War.

Don’t Know Much about the Civil War: Everything You Need to Know about America’s Greatest Conflict but Never Learned – History of the Civil War in America

Davis, Kenneth C.

William Morrow 1996 Dewey Dec. 973.7

“Davis gives readers everything they “need to know” about the Civil War – and not just the battles. With his deft wit and unconventional style, Davis sorts out the players, the politics, and the key events. Drawing on the moving eyewitness accounts of the people who lived through the war, he brings the reader into the world of the ordinary men and women who made history – the human side of the story that the textbooks never tell.” Book jacket. History of the US Civil War.

Battle at Bull Run: A History of the First Major Campaign of the Civil War – History of the Civil War in America

Davis, William C.

Doubleday 1977 Dewey Dec. 973.7

Davis writes of the first major engagement of the Civil War, a battle won by the inexperienced Confederates who routed the unseasoned Union troops and sent them slogging back to Washington in full retreat. Davis talks about people and what they were as well as about what they did. He follows Confederate and Union troops as they inched toward confrontation, talks about the faults and assets and quirks of leaders and men, describes things as they happened. – Pub Wkly
“A thoroughly researched narrative that is likely to remain the standard work for some time.” -Choice. History of the US Civil War.

Army Letters 1861-1865 – History of the Civil War in America

De Fontaine, F. G.

Columbia, SC: War Record 1896-97 Dewey Dec. 973.7

This is a re-publication of a series of letters that Fontaine, a journalist, published during the war. These were all written from various locations in the south between February and June, 1861. America in 1860s. History of the US Civil War.

Allegiance: Fort Sumter, Charleston, and the Beginning of the Civil War – History of the Civil War in America

Detzer, David

Harcourt 2001 Dewey Dec. 973.7

Original and deeply human, this tense and surprising story, filled with indecisive bureaucrats, uninformed leaders, hotheaded politicians, and dedicated soldiers, is a clear and intimate portrait of the prolonged drama that unfolded at Fort Sumter and incited the first shot of the Civil War on April 12, 1861.
The six-month-long agony that began with Lincoln’s election in November sputtered from one crisis to the next, and finally exploded as the soldiers at Sumter neared starvation. With little help from Washington, D.C., Major Robert Anderson, a soldier whose experience had taught him above all that war is the poorest form of policy, almost single-handedly forestalled the beginning of the war until he finally had no choice but to fight.
Skillfully re-created from a decade of extensive research, Allegiance exposes the passions that led to the fighting, the sober reflections of the man who restrained its outbreak, and the individuals on both sides who changed American history forever. History of the US Civil War.

Why the North Won the Civil War – History of the Civil War in America

Donald, David H.

Collier 1962 Dewey Dec. 973.7

What led to the downfall of the Confederacy? The distinguished professors of history represented in this volume examine the following crucial factors in the South’s defeat:
ECONOMIC—RICHARD N. CURRENT of the University of Wisconsin attributes the victory of the North to fundamental economic superiority so great that the civilian resources of the South were dissipated under the conditions of war.
MILITARY—T. HARRY WILLIAMS of Louisiana State University cites the deficiencies of Confederate strategy and military leadership, evaluating the influence on both sides of Baron Jomini, a 19th-century strategist who stressed position warfare and a rapid tactical offensive.
DIPLOMATIC—NORMAN A. GRAERNER of the University of Illinois holds that the basic reason England and France decided not to intervene on the side of the South was simply that to have done so would have violated the general principle of non-intervention to which they were committed.
SOCIAL—DAVID DONALD of Columbia University offers the intriguing thesis that an excess of Southern democracy killed the Confederacy. From the ordinary man in the ranks to Jefferson Davis himself, too much emphasis was placed on individual freedom and not enough on military discipline.
POLITICAL—DAVID M. POTTER of Stanford University suggests that the deficiencies of President Davis as a civil and military leader turner the balance, and that the South suffered from the lack of a second well-organized political party to force its leadership into competence. History of the US Civil War.

Regimental Publications & Personal Narratives of the Civil War: A Checklist (6 parts) – History of the Civil War in America

Dornbusch, Charles Emil

NY: New York Public Library 1961-1972 Dewey Dec. 973.7

This is a 6-part work (all parts at this href=”https://archive.org/stream/pictorialhistorywils#page/n7/mode/2up”) which covers Civil War histories of 17 participating northern states. According to the compiler’s Preface, every battery and regiment in those states is listed, and arranged numerically by arm of service – Artillery, Cavalry and Infantry. Any publications that could be associated with a particular battery or regiment are listed under that unit, including regimental histories, personal narratives, reunion proceedings, unit rosters and even sermons preached at soldiers’ funerals. Personal narratives by individuals who served under more than one unit are found under the unit of their first service. History of the US Civil War.

Essays on the Civil War and Reconstruction and Related Topics – History of the US Civil War

Dunning, William Archibald

NY: MacMillan 1904 Dewey Dec. 973.7

The author was a professor of history at Columbia University, and the essays collected here were his own.

Contents: The Constitution of the U.S. in Civil War – The Constitution of the U.S. in reconstruction – Military government during reconstruction – The process of reconstruction – The impeachment and trial of President Johnson – Are the states equal under the Constitution? – The undoing of reconstruction. History of the US Civil War.