American Civil War Era Reads

brainstorm77

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If you have any recommendations I'd appreciate them. Anything from romance, memoirs, true accounts etc...

Thanks.
 
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Tazlima

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"Little Women."

It's set during the war. The character of the girls' father (Mr. March) is away at the battlefront for a good chunk of the story, serving as a chaplain in the Union army. His homecoming is a major plot point in the story.

The book itself was published just a few years after the end of the war (1868 & 1869: It was published in two volumes a year apart).
 
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brainstorm77

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"Little Women."

It's set during the war and the character of the girls' father (Mr. March) is away at the battlefront for a good chunk of the story. He's a chaplain in the Union army. He's wounded and his homecoming is a major plot point in the story.

The book itself was published just a few years after the end of the war.

I read it and liked it :)
 

blacbird

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The Red Badge of Courage, Stephen Crane
any number of short stories about the war by Ambrose Bierce
The Crisis, by Winston Churchill (no, not the famed 20th Century British Prime Minister, but an American fiction writer of the same name, little read nowadays)
Uncle Tom's Cabin, Harriet Beecher Stowe. Still worth reading.

and, of course:

Adventures of Huckleberry Finn, Mark Twain. Published just before the war broke out, but examines the issue of slavery in the South in pretty stark terms.

caw
 

Vito

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You might want to look into Charles Frazier's novel, Cold Mountain. I recently finished reading it for the first time and immediately placed it near the top of my all-time favorites list. It's historical fiction with more than a touch of romance. If you're not sure about it, check out the movie (starring Jude Law and Nicole Kidman) first. It lacks Frazier's poetic touch but presents the storyline in a reasonably faithful way.
 

alleycat

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A Stillness at Appomattox
 

mrsmig

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The Killer Angels by Michael Shaara.
 

Vito

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It's only America's Civil War?

On this side of the pond most of us refer to the 1861-1865 war between the U.S. and the Confederacy simply as "The Civil War". Some call it "The War Between the States". Conflicts that happened elsewhere are named for the country where they took place -- the English Civil War, the Spanish Civil War, the Greek Civil War, and so on.
 

blacbird

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Tracy Groot, The Sentinels of Andersonville

Also MacKinlay Kantor's novel Andersonville might be of interest. But I think the OP was actually looking for things writ in the Era, or at least later, from writers who had personal experience with the War, not just much later works about the Era.

caw
 

brainstorm77

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I'm writing all of these down. Thanks everyone.
 

Axl Prose

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Really awesome book right there. Covers everybody from the big dogs like Grant and Lee to people you have never heard of.

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That's a neat little read. Just off the wall tidbits you don't normally hear about it.
 

nahalwi

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I really enjoyed reading The Widow of the South. It is based off of a true story and from all I've heard about it, it keeps pretty close to the actual events.
 

brainstorm77

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All suggestions have been noted :)
 

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Liar, Temptress, Soldier, Spy, by Karen Abbott is brilliant. It's the true story of four women (two Union, two Confederate) who were undercover or spies during the war. You will get insights into the period that will blow your mind. It's an excellent and really fun read, not to mention, meticulously researched.

I also loved Killer Angels, by Michael Shaara.
 

BeesKnees

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Liar, Temptress, Soldier, Spy, by Karen Abbott is brilliant. It's the true story of four women (two Union, two Confederate) who were undercover or spies during the war. You will get insights into the period that will blow your mind. It's an excellent and really fun read, not to mention, meticulously researched.

I also loved Killer Angels, by Michael Shaara.

I'm not that far into Liar, Temptress, Soldier, Spy, ​but I also have been enjoying it a lot. The blend of the research into the writing is really well done.
 

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I'm not that far into Liar, Temptress, Soldier, Spy, ​but I also have been enjoying it a lot. The blend of the research into the writing is really well done.


If you like it, she also wrote a tremendous biography of Gypsy Rose Lee, called American Rose. It was a fascinating book and I would have guessed before reading it that I cared not one whit about a long ago stripper. I would have been wrong. It was terrific.
 

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This is very much an "etc.", but I thought Kindred by Octavia Butler was brilliant - it's a time slip novel between 1976 and the early 19thC, and the main character is a modern black woman who has to work out how to survive on the plantation that belongs (somewhat to her surprise) to one of her ancestors. And more importantly, she has to make sure he survives too, to become her ancestor.
 

brainstorm77

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I'm writing down all of these suggestions and keep them coming :) Thanks Peeps!
 

mfoley

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I can't remember if it's actually set in the Civil War, or if it's just antebellum, but The Known World by Edward P. Jones is pretty much required reading.