100 Books Like The Little Bugler

I like this book because it is an outstanding collection of images and biographical information about real boys who served in the Union Army during the American Civil War. 

I wanted to learn their stories so I could share them with others, in particular, my students–to teach them history through the lives of their peers. I found Keesee’s research extraordinary, a fascinating dive into the lives of real boys who were a part of America’s history yet are generally forgotten today. 

As a retired teacher, I continue to share what I’ve learned through my writings and presentations to library patrons and civic and historical organizations.

I love that Jay’s book focused on the youngest to serve, not just in the Union Army but also in the Confederate service. He also delved into a group not mentioned by other researchers, the Home Guard–kids usually 6-12 years of age, most prevalent in the South.  I also had the honor of several years of friendship with Jay Hoar by way of correspondence and phone calls.

I treasure his work as it allowed me to journey with these kids in their life stories and, when possible, to see who they were through their images, though many were from later in life. We exchanged our work, his nonfiction research for my historical fiction.

I loved how this book blended the experience of Cadet William Hugh McDowell, a cadet from the Virginia Military Institute who fought in the Battle of New Market during the Civil War, with fictional modern-day Benjy, a 20th-century boy who is visiting his grandmother in New Market during his summer vacation. This book blends Benjy’s fictional story with Hugh’s historic and nonfiction life experience.

As a teaching tool, I was able to clarify the difference between fact and fiction for my students in our study of the Civil War. I was later amazed to learn that an element of the story that Elaine had created to tie the two boys together turned out to really exist–the boy’s watch.

I found this book a fascinating look into the life of a boy who survived years in the most notorious prison of the Civil War, Andersonville, through his own writings. Not only did he survive imprisonment, but he also survived the explosion of the Sultana, the riverboat that carried thousands of prisoners north after their release following the war.

I lived Michael’s experiences through his words, saw the half-naked men and boys, their hair matted by the pitch smoke from their fires as they tried to keep warm, their bodies reduced to skin and bones through starvation diet, their numbers reduced as mortal wounds and illness cut lives short. Once released, I felt the heat of the burning water when the Sultana exploded and heard the cries of the dying consumed by the flames.  

I loved how fresh and lively it was to hear an outsider’s take on an American icon. A British travel writer travels through “Lincoln Country” to figure out how a guy with such humble origins became such a revered figure.

There have been literally thousands of books about Lincoln over the past 150 years. Still, few have been this breezy, and I was especially drawn in by the book's travelogue elements, comparing the small towns of his youth to their modern surroundings.

A heartfelt and poignant tale of faith and perseverance with authentic details sure to resonate with historical fiction fans, this tale of grace and forgiveness is both tender and endearing. In many ways, reading this book was like going home. I was delighted to see the historical details during the search for Booth (something I spent months researching as I dug through the trial records for my own series). It's a beautiful story of grace and forgiveness.

When civil war threatened to destroy the American form of government and the liberty and freedom it represented, Alexander Herritage Newton rallied to the cause. “My bosom burst with the fire of patriotism for the salvation of my country and my people.” His people were millions of enslaved Black families who had toiled for generations in service of the white majority population. Early in the war, Newton was not allowed to serve because of the color of his skin. But as the laws changed, he joined the 29th Connecticut Infantry. He tells the story of his journey in a vivid autobiography, Out of the Briars.

A Prayer for the Dying is the only full-length novel I’ve ever read entirely in second-person perspective—which makes for a white-knuckle-grip adventure as the narrator drags the reader along a dark, haunted path, which is also a little bit on fire.

This ghost story full of living people (at first) follows a hard-working and dedicated protagonist who tries to protect his little town of Friendship as it faces disaster after horrible disaster. The narrative of the story unfurls like a tidal wave—terrifying, yet impossible to look away from as it sweeps away everything in its path. This scary story is definitely not for the faint of heart.

John Matteson is a deft prose stylist who once more delivers in this engrossing narrative of the Civil War as seen through the eyes of five key protagonists—including the poet Walt Whitman and a young Louisa May Alcott. The characters wind up on the murderous battlefields and teeming hospital wards of Fredericksburg, Virginia. The title is admittedly deceptive; readers expecting an operational or tactical history of Ambrose Burnside’s rout on the Rappahannock won’t find it here. On the other hand, those interested in a searing meditation on all that the war did to individual human bodies and minds—and the collective American soul—will savor this haunting, smart, and elegant book.  

Before the Civil War broke out, tens of thousands of freedom seekers fled enslavement in the South, trying to reach British Canada. Only there could they be truly free, and even today, Canadians pride themselves on being on the “good side” of the Civil War. But the real story is much more complicated.

Some Canadian businessmen, politicians, and financiers supported the Confederacy. Montreal became a hub for rebel spies and mercenaries. In fact, when John Wilkes Booth was apprehended after assassinating Abraham Lincoln, a banknote from a branch in Montreal was found on his person.

The New York Times proclaimed many of those involved in the plot to kill the president had been “harbored in Canada.”