Aggie@state.gov said:

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Read any/all of Dr Vandiver's books. His book about Pershing is good also.

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Vandiver's "Their Tattered Flags" is an excellent, concise volume on the war. It's a good book to start your journey. He writes very eloquently. You can't help but expand your vocabulary if you are reading Dr. Frank.

I had a correspondence with Dr. Vandiver after I graduated. He was truly a scholar and a gentleman. He sent me a signed first edition of "Their Tattered Flags" before it was released. It and the accompanying letter are prized possessions.

Currently reading "Living Hell: The Dark Side is the Civil War"

I enjoy first hand accounts and unit histories.
"Rebel Private Front and Rear" - Flethcher
"Company Aythch" - Watkins
"the Bloody Fifth" - history of the 5th TX ( Schmutz)
"The Civil War in Hoods Texas Brigade" - Stevens
Grants Memoirs

The books by historians are great but they on the whole have to be about strategy and personal-

ities .

Books by survivors get down and dirty.

In one book I ran across a comment about the author running into my two GGpaws from Bastrop

doing some reconnoitering .

Stive said:

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If I start Shelby Foote's trilogy, can I get him to come back from the grave and read it to me?

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Probably not, but if you drive a lot, or otherwise find time for audiobooks as I do, each of the three volumes are available on Audible and Grover Gardner, the narrator, is absolutely phenomenal.

I've still not finished the first volume, but I've enjoyed it so much that I've purchased physical copies so I can go through things that may have gotten past me while driving.

I'll be going on down through some of the suggestions provided here after I do eventually finish this series. It's incredibly long.

For Texans who took part:
Unveiling and dedication of monument to Hood's Texas brigade
By F.B. Chilton