1. Thomas B. Buell
The Warrior Generals: Combat Leadership in the Civil War.
Crown, 1997

Number one on my list is coincidentally my all-time favorite Civil War book. Buell examines combat leadership by comparing the performances of three pairs of generals from the Union and Confederate armies--Grant & Lee, Thomas & Hood, and Francis Channing Barlow & John B. Gordon--each of whom met repeatedly in battle during the course of the war.

2. Joshua Lawrence Chamberlain
The Passing of the Armies: An Account of the Final Campaign of the Army of the Potomac Based in Personal Reminiscences of the Fifth Army Corps.
Putnam's Sons, 1915

Of all the generals he had to chose from, U.S. Grant selected Chamberlain-not a professional soldier but a uniformed college professor--for the honor of accepting the flags of the surrendering Confederate army. During the war Chamberlain rose to the rank of brevet major-general, was wounded half-a-dozen times, and attained hero-status for his defense of Little Round Top at Gettysburg. His account of the war's last campaign is an intelligent, perceptive and literate read.

3. Edwin B. Coddington
The Gettysburg Campaign: A Study in Command.
Scribner's Sons, 1968.

No study of the pivotal battle at Gettysburg would be complete without Coddington's study of combat leadership before and during the three day engagement which concludes that it was the superior performance of Union commanders at every level (corps, division, brigade, regimental) that decided the outcome.

4. Peter Cozzens
Trilogy on the Civil War in the West beginning with the battle at Stones River (31 Dec. '62--2 Jan. '63) to the end of the Chattanooga campaign (Nov. '63).

No Better Place to Die: The Battle of Stones River. Univ. of IL, 1990
This Terrible Sound: The Battle of Chickamauga. Univ. of IL, 1992
The Shipwreck of Their Hopes: The Battles for Chattanooga. Univ. of IL, 1994

5. Ernest B. Furgurson
Chancellorsville, 1863: The Souls of the Brave
Knopf, 1992

At the time of its publication, this was a long over-due study of the battle that should have been a great victory for Fighting Joe Hooker but ended in triumph for the vastly outnumbered Robert E. Lee. The cost to the Confederate army, however, was high--the loss of Stonewall Jackson who was accidentally shot by his own men. A balanced and succinct examination.

6. A.M. Gambone
Hancock at Gettysburg...and Beyond
Butternut & Blue, 1997

Many historians credit MG Winfield Scott Hancock with saving the Army of the Potomac at Gettysburg. On each of the battle's three days the newly minted corps commander played a critical role in the outcome of the fighting. On day one he forged order out of chaos almost by virtue of his tremendous presence when it was most needed. The second day saw him commanding not one but two corps in the hottest spot on the battlefield, and it was his gallant Second Corps that bore the brunt of Longstreet's failed assault on the third day, during which he received the nearly mortal wound that eventually ended his career in the field.

7. David M. Jordan
Winfield Scott Hancock: A Soldier's Life
Indiana Univ. Press, 1988

Biography of my favorite Civil War general, who was (in my humble opinion) the best corps commander in either army. Hey, when you're nickname is "The Superb" you better be able to live up to it.

8. Thomas A Lewis
The Guns of Cedar Creek
H & R, 1988

The battle for control of the Shenandoah Valley ended at Cedar Creek where a surprise pre-dawn assault by Jubal Early's Confederates routed the Union left wing and seemed poised to deliver a devastating blow until the irrepressible Phil Sheridan made his famous 14-mile ride to rally his retreating army and drive the enemy from the field. The narrative follows the fortunes and misfortunes of rival commanders such as Early and Sheridan, glamorous George Custer and ambitious Thomas Rosser, and two young men destined for greatness whose lives were cut tragically short: Stephen Dodson Ramseur and Charles Russell Lowell.

9. Theodore Lyman
Meade's Headquarters, 1863-1865: Letters of Colonel Theodore Lyman from the Wilderness to Appomattox.
Atlantic Monthly, 1922

An immensely readable collection of letters written by Meade's volunteer aide-de-camp to his wife (who was the cousin of Col. Robert Gould Shaw) describing life at headquarters in the Army of the Potomac. His observations are intelligent, acute, full of wit, and often humorous.

10. David G. Martin
Gettysburg, July 1
Combined Books, 1995

The most detailed regimental-level account ever written on the crucial-but often overlooked-day of the three-day engagement that began as a scrap between Henry Heth's infantry division and John Buford's Union cavalry and quickly escalated into a full-scale battle as each side brought more troops to the field. Martin tackles a number of controversial issues: Would the presence of Stuart's missing cavalry have made a difference? Was Reynolds killed by a sharpshooter or by friendly fire? Would the battle have ended on day one if Ewell had occupied Cemetery Hill? Was it even feasible for Ewell to attempt to take Cemetery Hill?

11. James M. McPherson
Battle Cry of Freedom: The Civil War Era
Oxford UP, 1988

A superb single-volume overview integrating the political, social and military events from the outbreak of the Mexican War to the end of the "Second American Revolution."

12. Harry W. Pfanz

Gettysburg: The Second Day
Univ. of NC, 1987
A meticulous and remarkably thorough chronicle of the day in which Lee's army really lost the battle.

Gettysburg: Culp's Hill and Cemetery Hill
Univ. of NC, 1993
This is the definitive reconstruction of the fighting that took place on the right wing of the Union army, which, had the Confederates been able to break through would have made Longstreet's disastrous assault unnecessary on the third day.

13. Gordon C. Rhea
The Battle of the Wilderness, May 5-6, 1864
Louisiana Univ. Press, 1944
An absorbing overview of the bloody, confused battle that opened the 1864 campaign in Virginia. Although the two armies pummeled each other to a tactical draw it became a strategic (as well as moral) victory for the Union when Grant refused to follow the practice of his predecessors and retreat.

The Battles for Spotsylvania Court House and the Road to Yellow Tavern, May 7-12, 1864.
Louisiana Univ. Press, 1997
Continues the epic clash between the Armies of the Potomac and Northern Virginia as Grant attempts to smash Lee's line at Spotsylvania--only to produce another costly stalemate--and Lee suffers yet another blow with the loss his colorful and controversial cavalry commander, J.E.B. Stuart, mortally wounded at Yellow Tavern.

14. Stephen W. Sears
Landscape Turned Red: The Battle of Antietam
Ticknor & Fields, 1983

Lee's first bold attempt to bring the war to the North brought both armies to the vicinity of the little town of Sharpsburg, Maryland, and culminated in the bloodiest single day of fighting in American history with more than 20,000 casualties.

15. Stephen W. Sears
Chancellorsville
Houghton Mifflin, 1996

Another excellent study of the battle which saw some of the most intense and concentrated few hours of fighting of the entire war wherein one in six of the 200,000 men engaged became casualties.

16. Paul E. Steiner
Medical-Military Portraits of Union and Confederate Generals
Whitmore, 1968

Presents case histories of five Confederate (Ewell, Jackson, Forrest, Hood, Johnston) and five Union (Hooker, McClellan, Reynolds, McPherson, Sherman) and how their individual ills and maladies effected their performances on the field of battle and the outcomes of the battles in which they participated.

17. Wiley Sword
Mountains Touched With Fire: Chattanooga Besieged, 1863
St. Martin's, 1995

November 25, 1863, provided what had to have been one of the most thrilling spectacles ever witnessed on North American soil as George Thomas' Army of the Cumberland charged (without orders) headlong up the almost vertical slope of 600-foot high Missionary Ridge to drive Braxton Bragg's army from its "impregnable" position and break the Confederate stranglehold on Chattanooga.

18. Noah Andre Trudeau
Trudeau's trilogy outlines the campaigns and daily events of the war's last year through the words of the participants, thus these books concentrate more on character and atmosphere than detailed military history.

Bloody Roads South: The Wilderness to Cold Harbor, May-June, 1864. Little, Brown, 1989
The Last Citadel: Petersburg, Virginia, June 1864-April 1865. Little, Brown, 1991
Out of the Storm: The End of the Civil War, April-June, 1865. Little, Brown, 1994

19. Glenn Tucker
High Tide at Gettysburg
Bobbs-Merrill, 1958

This was the first "big" Civil War book I ever read after my dad took us to Gettysburg when I was about 11 and I still find it one of the most enjoyable reads on my bookshelf.

20. John C. Waugh
The Class of 1846: From West Point to Appomattox-Stonewall Jackson, George McClellan, and Their Bothers
Warner, 1994

Follows the 59 graduates of the West Point class of 1846, many of whom gained valuable experience in the Mexican War. In addition to Jackson & McClellan, the class produced 20 future Civil War generals including A.P. Hill-who lost the hand of Ellen Marcy to his roommate McClellan-Truman Seymour, George Stoneman, John Gibbon-a Union division commander from North Carolina whose three brothers fought for the Confederacy--Jesse Reno, Cadmus Wilson, Darius Couch, Samuel Sturgis, George Henry Gordon-who would give his old classmate Jackson all he could handle at Winchester--and George Pickett, who had the dubious distinction of ranking 59^th in his class.

Created and maintained by: Lynne M. Kennedy.
Photos by L.M. Kennedy

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