UNDERSTANDING THE AMERICAN CIVIL WAR – A SELECT BIBLIOGRAPHY

Compiled by Ed Reed, Ottawa, CWRT

An estimated 60,000 books and pamphlets have been published about the American Civil War since 1861. The aim of the present bibliography is to offer members of the Ottawa Civil War Round Table (and other students of the War) a selection of  books and journal articles, which can be obtained through the inter-library loan service of the Ottawa Public Library, that will further broaden and deepen their understanding of how and why the War was fought in the way it was and had the outcome it did. Accordingly, the bibliography does not include histories of particular engagements, biographies of particular generals, personal reminiscences, or regimental histories. (Extensive working bibliographies on those topics can be developed using the search facilities of the Library of Congress Online Catalog.) Rather, the focus of the books and articles listed below is on such subjects as strategy, command, combat motivation, technology, and, tactics. Most of the items also contain bibliographies that will enable members to explore the various subjects in greater detail.

The bibliography will be updated periodically as interesting or new items come to the attention of the compiler.

Michael C.C. Adams, Our Masters the Rebels: A Speculation on Union Military Failure in the East, 1861-1865

Bern Anderson, By Sea and by River: The Naval History of the Civil War

Richard E. Beringer, Herman Hattaway, Archer Jones, and William N. Still, Jr., Why the South Lost the Civil War

Robert C. Black, III, The Railroads of the Confederacy

Albert Castel, “Mars and the Reverend Longstreet: On Attacking and Dying in the Civil War”, Civil War History, vol. 33, no. 2 (June 1987): 104-114

Paul A. Cimbala, Soldiers North and South: The Everyday Experiences of the Men Who Fought American’s Civil War, Fordham University Press.

Jack Coggins, Arms and Equipment of the Civil War

Thomas Lawrence Connelly and Archer Jones, Politics of Command; Factions and Ideas in Confederate Strategy

Kevin Dougherty, Civil War Leadership and Mexican War Experience

Douglas Southall Freeman, Lee’s Lieutenants: A Study in Command (3 vols.)

Kent Gramm, ed., Battle: The Nature and Consequences of Civil War Combat

Joseph T. Glatthaar, Partners in Command: The Relationship between Leaders in the Civil War

Paddy Griffith, Rally Once Again: Battle Tactics of the American Civil War

Robert Gardiner, ed., Steam, Steel and Shellfire: The Steam Warship, 1815-1905

Richard Goff, Confederate Supply

Edward Hagerman, The American Civil War and the Origins of Modern War: Ideas, Organization, and Field Command

Herman Hattaway and Archer Junes, How the North Won: A Military History of the Civil War

Roman Heleniak and Larry Hewitt, eds., The Confederate High Command

Earl J. Hess, The Union Soldier in Battle Enduring the Ordeal of Combat

Earl J. Hess, The Rifle Musket in Civil War Combat

Richard D. Hill, War at Sea in the Ironclad Age

Ludwell H. Johnson, “Jefferson Davis and Abraham Lincoln as War Presidents: Nothing Succeeds Like Success”, Civil War History, vol. 27, no.2 (March 1981): 49-63

Archer Jones, Confederate Strategy from Shiloh to Vicksburg (1991 edition)

Archer Jones, Civil War Command and Strategy: The Process of Victory and Defeat

Robert L. Kerby, “Why the Confederacy Lost”, Review of Politics, vol. 35 (July 1973):326-345

Stanley Lebergott, “Why the South Lost: Commercial Purpose and the Confederacy”, Journal of American History, vol. 70 (June 1983); 58-74

Gerald F. Linderman, Embattles Courage: The Experience of Combat in the American Civil War

  1. Luraghi, History of the Confederate Navy

Richard M. McMurry, Two Great Rebel Armies: An Essay in Confederate Military History (Offers a comparison of the main Confederate armies in Virginian and Tennessee)

James M. McPherson, For Cause and Comrades: Why Men Fought in the Civil War

Grady McWhinney and Perry D. Jamieson, Attack and Die: Civil War Military Tactics and the Southern Heritage

Reid Mitchell, Civil War Soldiers

Marck E. Neely, Jr., “Was the Civil War a Total War?”, Civil War History, vol, 37, no, 2 (March 1991): 5-28

Brent Nosworthy, The Bloody Crucible of Courage: Fighting Methods and Combat Experience of the Civil War

Rowena Reed, Combined Operations in the Civil War

James I. Robertson, Jr., Soldiers Blue and Gray

Steven Ross, From Flintlock to Rifle: Infantry Tactics, 1740-1866

Craig L. Symonds, Lincoln and the Navy

Craig L. Symonds, Lincoln and His Admirals

Craig L. Symonds, ed., Union Combined Operations in the Civil War

Frank E. Vandiver, Rebel Brass: The Confederate

Books, books and books. Never enough…

Command System

Frank E. Vandiver, Ploughshares into Swords: Josiah Gorgas and Confederate Ordnance

Russell Weigley, The American Way of War

Kenneth P. Williams, Lincoln Finds a General: A Military Study of the Civil War (5 vols.)

T; Harry Williams, Lincoln and His Generals

Stephen R. Wise, Lifeline of the Confederacy: Blockade Running During the Civil War

W.J. Wood, Civil War Generalship: The Art of Command

Stephen E. Woodworth, Jefferson Davis and His Generals: The Failure of Confederate Command in the West

Stephen E. Woodworth, No Band of Brothers: Problems in the Rebel High Command