27 Books Like The Civil War Volume III

No artist exists in a vacuum. Certainly, Vigée Le Brun had little interest in politics, but political events shaped her life and the world she inhabited. It is, therefore, essential to understand the times in which Vigée Le Brun lived.  

History and art history professor, documentarian, and cultural essayist, award-winning author Simon Schama’s Citizens: A Chronicle of the French Revolution presents Louis XVI’s France as vibrant, dynamic, and innovative, its people fascinated by novelty and technology. Schama’s gripping style combines entertainment and scholarship to make this book a convincing social, cultural, and narrative account of the French Revolution.

This is the second book in Tom Holland's trilogy on ancient Rome. Like the others, it is a riveting read. 'Dynasty' takes us from Augustus to Nero - and a wilder set of rulers it is hard to imagine. Augustus - ruthless, then with the wiles to keep the form of the republic while in fact ruling as the first emperor. Tiberius, with his predilection for sexual titillation. Caligula, whose dark name rings through history, Claudius, and of course Nero, who murdered his brother, his wife, his mother, and so many more. A narrative like this is a study in power and its corruption, and there are few more striking examples than the house of Caesar - where no one trusts anyone..

This book offers a monumental three-volume account of America’s defining conflict.

Combining meticulous research with a novelist’s flair, Foote vividly portrays battles, political struggles, and personal experiences on both sides. His narrative balances strategy, leadership, and human cost, giving readers a deep sense of the era’s complexity.

While Foote’s Southern sympathies can be seen, such as his portrayal of Confederate General Nathan Bedford Forrest, downplaying his subsequent leadership of the Ku Klux Klan, his prose remains compelling and accessible. Reading it provided invaluable context for understanding the Civil War and its enduring impact.

This one isn’t fantasy at all. In fact, it’s probably the most accurate fictional retelling of the battle of Gettysburg out there. But I love it so much I had to list it here.

Furthermore, the characters involved—such as Lee, Longstreet, and Chamberlain—are deeply spiritual men, meaning that many pages meditate on the meaning of all this blood and loss. These meditations evoke a sense fantasy often can: that the visible world contains a mystery deeper than our limited minds can grasp. 

Yet the text remains deeply human. The Civil War pits brother against brother, friend against friend. In it, there is a great speech by Col. Chamberlain addressing his men which captures a theme of the book.

“This is a different kind of army,” he says. “If you look back through history you will see men fighting for pay, for women, for some other kind of loot. They fight… show more.

An American Civil War novel that follows Inman, a deserter from the Confederate Army, and Ada, a minister’s daughter who he knew briefly before going to war.

Historical fiction is one of my least favourite genres, but this really blew me away. Perfect prose, descriptions of the wilderness, and character depth. Frazier details the transformative brutality and pointlessness of war, and the desperate longing of love denied.

The final few chapters are both inevitable and breathtaking.

Crafted like a well-told story, Sears’ now classic volume was my first foray into the Battle of Antietam lo these many years ago. It offers readers an engaging, generally accurate overview of the background, events, and results of America’s costliest day, September 17, 1862. Although its three-phase, framing approach to the battle has been surpassed by new interpretations, it remains a useful starting point for those wishing to learn the basics and if readers seek only one work to read on Antietam, this is the book to choose. Every student of the battle—casual, serious, or scholarly--will want to have read and be familiar with Sears' work.     

Bruce Catton wrote extensively about the noble but ill-starred Army of the Potomac and is widely known for his wonderful trilogy recounting that army’s path through the American Civil War. With Grant Takes Command, Catton looks west for a time toward General Ulysses S. Grant and how he came east to lead all the Union armies toward eventual victory. Recounting Grant’s (and the country’s) journey from the opening of the cracker line in Chattanooga in 1863, through the Battle of the Wilderness (a subject that captured my imagination!) and the Overland Campaign and on to Appomattox Courthouse and the surrender of the Confederacy, Catton’s book moves through its narrative with a style and verve to match any piece of gripping fiction. 

Shiloh is an early novel by writer and historian, Shelby Foote, that recounts the story of this bloody battle through multiple perspectives—both Union and Confederate. Foote does a masterful job of portraying how the lives of the various narrators are interrelated, especially the lives of those in each of the armies. In addition, he illuminates just how crazed and violent the experience of the battle itself was—in contrast to the often quite rational, even humane men who fought it. The success of Shiloh also led to Foote writing his monumental three-volume The Civil War: A Narrative and playing a starring role in Ken Burns’ documentary on the war. 

Part of the enduring popularity of the Battle of Gettysburg studies, is that the battle offers a true microcosm of the American Civil War—from politics to personalities. A meeting engagement, a desperate struggle, a turning point, and human tragedy on a scale the continent had never seen before, the events of those three days in July still resonant down the years. Guelzo’s book, besides being one of the most recent, offers wonderful descriptions of every facet of the battle with finely-crafted prose and a pacing that will keep readers invested from start to finish.

One of the finest officers in the history of the United States Army, Winfield Scott Hancock was considered by many to have been perhaps the most important figure in the Union victory at Gettysburg. Called “Hancock the Superb” by some of his fellow officers, he served as the Union commander of the 2nd Corps during the Gettysburg battle. He was an inspiring and consequential figure throughout the entirety of the three days of the conflict. In one of the war’s great ironies, Hancock was seriously wounded on the day of Pickett’s charge only yards from where his dear friend, Confederate General Lewis Armistead, had been felled by a rifle bullet as he led his Virginia brigade toward the Union position held by Hancock. General Winfield Scott Hancock was a natural leader whose courage was unquestioned and whose leadership was trusted by both his superior officers and the men under his… show more.