Here are some of the Civil War books I’ve read, and can pretty happily recommend to others. Will be updated (I’ve read like 30) as the mood suits me.

Embattled Rebel by James MacPhearson

A relatively short (300-odd pages) and readable summary of Jeff Davis’ career as president of the Confederacy, Embattled Rebel offers a balanced look at one of the war’s more maligned characters. And like many such characters, there tended to be good reasons for his actions that hindsight would judge harshly. He should have replaced Bragg… with who? He should have done better militarily… how? The book ignores the internal politics of the Confederate government to focus on his role as military leader, and the strengths and foibles therein. By sticking to facts without being mired in them, MacPhearson creates an interesting portrait of the unenviable position Davis occupies – then and now.

Midnight Rising by Tony Horwitz

A book covering the rise and (literal, from a rope) fall of John Brown. The figure of John Brown is so controversial, and his story so dynamic, that he seems a ready candidate for a modern movie. They would hardly need to embellish the cast for the silver screen, as his followers were an eclectic band that more resembled a role-play adventuring party than a gang of conspirators: A slick-talking Yankee who almost dodged the noose, an escaped slave seeking to free his wife, a brawling ex-soldier who fearlessly turned his court stand into an abolitionist pulpit, and more. Stubborn John Brown himself is covered without whitewashing in the book – his many failures in business, his near-uncaring relation with his wife, and his willful participation in the atrocities of Bleeding Kansas. His raid on Harper’s Ferry had no chance of success in the way he envisioned, and even without the benefit of hindsight it is difficult to imagine it as anything other than an insane action. That he and others embraced such action speaks of equal parts fanaticism and desperation, and makes for a very fine read.

Plenty of Blame to go Around by Eric Wittenburg

Of the controversies surrounding the Gettysburg battle, one of the most enduring and bitter is the absence of Stuart and the Confederate cavalry. Half of this book covers what he was doing at that time, itself an adventure – capturing a wagon train, and fighting a string of battles with Custer and other Union forces. It lays out Lee’s orders that kind of permitted him to launch his raid, and Pleasanton’s (his Union opposite) response. Throughout it all is a vague sense of sunset: where once Stuart could ride circles around timid foes, time and again in this raid he clashed with determined enemies, increasingly armed with repeater carbines. Stuart’s time was ending (and indeed, his own life did end a year later), and hunger for glory may have shaped his decisions.

The second half deals with the controversy, as men went to postwar-war over Stuart’s blame in the defeat. His detractors included jealous subordinates and bitter generals, anxious to vent over the Gettysburg loss while deflecting from themselves and the sainted Lee. His defendants included Mosby, more loyal subordinates, and – oddly – Union officers, who perhaps were amused that Southern debate of why they lost at Gettysburg rarely included the Northern army. Later generations brought historians into the fight, on one side or another. Perhaps Col. Porter Alexander (Longstreet’s artillery chief) was the most correct when he noted the raid “was a very unwise proposition [by Stuart] which Lee more unwisely entertained.” However much people may seek convenient explanations which shield their favorites, there was assuredly Plenty of Blame to go Around.

The Slaves’ War by Andrew Ward

This book is a collection of interviews, letters, and diaries from the slaves of America themselves, telling their own stories of the Civil War. These stories showed the historical titans of Lincoln, Davis, and Lee as the lowest saw them, as well as firsthand accounts of battles from east to west. More importantly, it shows the lives and views of slaves as war and the events leading to it changed them. These lives fit into no convenient modern narrative. Some slaves had intimate relations with their masters, and willingly conspired to protect their property against the Union soldiers. Others were hanged for striking their rapists, or forced to breed as livestock. Amusement is found with one slave’s ingenious smuggling of his dead master home for burial, and with a contraband’s insults to her mistress from a departing Union ironclad. While the war itself oft takes a backdrop, slavery was inalienable from the war, and so these stories are worth reading. I know of no book that does what “The Slaves’ War” does in terms of gathering actual descriptions of slavery in the slaves’ own words. As such, it comes with a very high recommendation to anyone wishing to develop knowledge on the subject.