Just got done reading another book, and just like my favorite WWII thread, I just wanted to see what some favorite fiction and non-fiction Civil War books are among the crowd here!!!

Thanks and Gig 'Em!

The Collected Short Stories of Ambrose Bierce. Bierce is best known now as the author of the Devil's Dictionary (samples: Lawyer--one who is skilled in the circumnavigation of the law; Conservative--one who is enamored of existing evils, as opposed to a Liberal, who would replace them with others) but in his day he was a noted writer of short stories which drew comparisons to Poe at the time but now look like pre-Kafka.

He was a war hero fighting for the north and settled into journalism afterwards, working for the Hearst chain. He once said that working for Hearst gave all the lasting pleasures of masturbation.

Particularly good are Occurrence at the Owl Creek Bridge, about a man at the end of a rope after being caught spying, and another, Parker Adderson, Philosopher, about a union spy who is to be shot and has a philosophical conversation with the Confederate officer who is going to have him shot.

He disappeared mysteriously as an old man while travelling with Pancho Villa's army near Chihuahua.

His stories of the war are very gritty and based on personal observation. He fought at Shiloh, among other places

Very impressive huisache.

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Killer Angels

Killer Angels

this is definitely at or near my top as well!!!^^^

Yeah, I have to say Killer Angels as well. It's a cliche, but it is probably one of the best-written historical novels ever.

Gods and Generals is written by the K.A. author's son, and is in a similar style. It is good but not great. Better book than a movie, but mostly because the movie followed the book TOO closely, and hence was long and ponderous.

The Red Badge of Courage is a fascinating book, but was written by a drunken, opium-addicted college punk 20 years after the last shot had been fired. So it's not really up there on authenticity. Still, considering his limitations, Crane didn't do a bad job.

Outside of those, I have to admit not having read too much Civil War nonfiction.

quote:

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Outside of those, I have to admit not having read too much Civil War nonfiction

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then you haven't lived yet!!!! hah jk

Shiloh by Shelby Foote

I thought it was a "history book" and not a novel when I bought it - but I liked it

a novelization of the battle with of course the historical figures in their prominent place but seen through the eyes and actions of others. It follows characters from both sides and the chapters hop back and forth and around the battlefield both days. Great soldier's eye view. Well worth the read.

Company H

Company H is not ficion but I'm sure Sam exaggerated a little.

Another vote for The Killer Angels from the non-fiction side.... this novel is what got me interested in the Civil War to begin with.... from the non-fiction side, I enjoyed Bruce Caton's trilogy and am currently reading Shelby Foote's trilogy.

My great-great-great-great grandfather, D.H. Hamilton, wrote a memoir entitled "History of Company M, First Texas Volunteer Infantry, Hood's Brigade, Longstreet's Corps, Army of the Confederate States of America" detailing his experiences marching out of East Texas ready to whip the Yankees, slogging his way through many of the major campaigns of the war, and eventually his company's surrender at Appomattox Courthouse and their straggling back home. IIRC, there were only six original members of the company who were still with it to surrender. It's a fascinating, and sometimes all too real first-hand account of what transpired during those ugly years.

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Wishbone?

Anybody else read RIFLES FOR WATIE as a kid? Fiction based on a the tales of an actual man who at one time was the oldest man to have fought on both sides.

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I liked Killer Angels.

Across Five Aprils is pretty good too

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I've heard great things about Jacob's Ladder, The Black Flower and The Widow of the South but have to admit I have too many non-fiction things to read before I read fiction.

"Confederates in the Attic" by Tony Horwitz is at the top of my Civil War novels list. Hilarious, informative, accurate--even includes an interview with Shelby Foote. And it inspired my sister and I to drive to Vicksburg one day and my mother and I are already planning our own "Civil Wargasm" for this summer.

"Mr. Lincoln's Wars" by Adam Braver is an interesting historical fiction-mock biography looking into Lincoln and those who surrounded him. Pretty cool.

Battle Cry of Freedom is the best overall history of the war that I've read. Really, anything by it's author, James MacPherson, is worth reading. Just read Tried By War, about Lincoln's "generalship" that was interesting.

Most of my Civil War reading is through Lincoln bios. I've read a bunch of those. Definitely an endless supply of options on this topic.

I'd like to tackle the Shelby Foote Civil War Magnum Opus. Maybe when I'm retired. Need lots of free time for that one.

Back to Ambrose Bierce, didn't Sam Clemons copy his style of oratory and helped him in his career.

Yeah, my favorite after reading it again, Occurrence at Owl Creek Bridge

Like the majority here I love Killer Angels and it is easily my favorite piece of historical fiction.

huisache is dead on about the Ambrose Bierce short stories. I have "An Occurrence at Owl Creek Bridge" in a collection of Civil War short stories edited by Shelby Foote titled Chickamauga which also includes stories written by F. Scott Fitzgerald, Thomas Wolfe, William Faulkner and Mark Twain.

I'm somewhat surprised that nobody has mentioned Cold Mountain by Charles Frazier. It is a wonderful novel that the movie did not do justice.

The Black Flower and The Year of Jubilo by Howard Bahr are both excellent.

A couple others worth a shot are Play For A Kingdowm by Thomas Dyja and Freedom by William Safire.

Across Five Aprils is nice piece of juvenile fiction.

My favorite nonfiction book concerning the Civil War is The Destructive War by Charles Royster. You also can not go wrong with those already suggested.

I have read the three volume set by Shelby Foote four times and am just about ready to start again.

I had forgotten all about Rifle for Watie, I read that a ton as a kid.

Why the Stephen Crane hate? A "drunken, opium-addicted college punk"????

Twain and Crane invented modern American literature. Joseph Conrad was a huge fan; Hemingway idolized his work.

"The Open Boat" is one of the greatest short stories ever written.

Crane's poetry anticipated Imagism by twenty years. It is amazingly "modern."

And numerous Union veterans of Chancellorsville wrote to Crane telling him they had served with him. (Crane was of course born after the war.)

Like Whitman, Crane was not afraid to work into his writings the seedier side of life, as in "Maggie: A Girl of the Streets."

He died of TB.

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I like Crane. Read "The Monster" it is very moving.

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Killer Angels

I read a fiction work called "Stonewall's Gold" and really enjoyed it.
It is obvious that the book is targeted towards young adults, but the writing was definately suspenseful and was a quick and fun read.

I've picked up "Confederates in the Attic" to skim through and read reviews on it. Did you find it to be extremely liberal and derogatory towards the South? The impression that I was left with from reviews was that it targeted Souther Civil War buffs and re-enactors as racist neo-nazi rednecks. I'd be interested to hear your judgement before I read it.
I read "A Voyage Long and Strange" by the same author (about early explorers of American and popular misconceptions) and really enjoyed it.

The Nathaneal Starbuck series by Bernard Cornwell is pretty good too.

Neches, I have skimmed "Attic" several times, but have not read it because I detect in it just exactly the accusations of modern "Southern racism" that you also picked up on.

History and life imagined are not the same. I realize mine to be an unpopular viewpoint, and one recognizes the power and potential and useful benefit of fiction, but the fictionalization of actual historical events should be questioned and in my opinion often rejected in the physche of a healthy society. The best movie I think I have watched was Oliver Stone's "Salvadore". But it could not have been historically true to the events how and when and in the sequence they happened, except for the sequences which never happened and were inserted at Stone's pleasure as though they were real and which he needed, as an artiste, to advance the story and his viewpoint; he co-opted history and presented it in the sequence he chose, and at the level he chose.
The mainest (as my Shelby County-educated mother used to say) thing is to not hurt one another. The next mainest is to don't get cowed by them that are full of bull****.

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Enjoyed "Killer Angels", but his son's (Jeff) "Gods and Generals" I enjoyed just as much. Much better then movie.

Killer Angels

Class of 78 - Aint it Great.