War Like the Thunderbolt: Civil War Fiction

John Brown's TrialTried by WarLincoln and his AdmiralsThe American Civil WarRobert E. LeeDouble Death

Double death : the true story of Pryce Lewis, the Civil War's most daring spy
By Gavin Mortimer
New York : Walker & Co., 2010.
Emigrating to the United States in 1856, Pryce Lewis was soon employed as an operative by Allan Pinkerton in his newly established detective agency. Early in the Civil War Pinkerton offered the agency to President Lincoln as a secret service, spying on Southern forces and insurrectionists. Civilian spies proved crucial to both sides early on; indeed, intelligence gathered by Lewis helped give the Union army its first victory, three days after the defeat at Bull Run....

The complete Civil War road trip guide : ten weekend tours and more than 400 sites, from Antietam to Zagonyi's charge
By Michael Weeks
Woodstock, Vt. : Countryman Press ; Distributed by The Countryman Press, c2009.
This tour guide features ten different itineraries that lead visitors through every major campaign site, as well as 450 lesser-known venues in unlikely places such as Idaho and New Mexico.

War like the thunderbolt : the battle and burning of Atlanta
By Russell S. Bonds.
Yardley, Penn. : Westholme, c2009.
Draws on diaries, unpublished letters, and other archival sources to trace the events of the Civil War campaign that sealed the fate of the Confederacy and was instrumental in securing Abraham Lincoln's reelection

Robert E. Lee : lessons in leadership
By Noah Andre Trudeau ; foreword by Wesley K. Clark
New York : Palgrave Macmillan, 2009.
Here, for the first time, Noah Andre Trudeau follows the general's Civil War path with a special emphasis on Lee's changing set of personal values as the conflict wended through four bloody years and explores his famous skills as a crafty and daring tactician. An insightful new account, Robert E. Lee delivers a fresh perspective that leads to a greater understanding of one of the most studied and yet enigmatic military figures in American history.

Civil War wives : the lives and times of Angelina Grimke Weld, Varina Howell Davis, and Julia Dent Grant
By Carol Berkin
New York : Alfred A. Knopf, 2009.
In the life stories of three "accidental heroes"--women whose marriages provided them with position and perspective they would not otherwise have had--one of the nation's premier historians offers a unique understanding of the tumultuous social and political landscape of their time.

The American Civil War : a military history
By John Keegan
New York : Alfred A. Knopf, c2009.
Analyzes many puzzling aspects of the Civil War, from its mismatched sides to the absence of decisive outcomes for dozens of skirmishes, and offers insight into the war's psychology, ideology, and economics while discussing the pivotal roles of leadership and geography.

1864 : Lincoln at the gates of history
By Charles Bracelen Flood
New York : Simon & Schuster, 2009.
In 1864: Lincoln at the Gates of History, the reader is plunged into the heart of that crucial year as Lincoln faced enormous challenges. The Civil War was far from being won: as the year began, Lincoln had yet to appoint Ulysses S. Grant as the general-in-chief who would finally implement the bloody strategy and dramatic campaigns that would bring victory.

Lincoln and his admirals : Abraham Lincoln, the U.S. Navy, and the Civil War
By Craig L. Symonds
Oxford ; New York : Oxford University Press, 2008.
Reveals how Abraham Lincoln managed the men who ran the naval side of the Civil War and transformed himself into one of the greatest naval strategists of his age, in an account of the commander-in-chief during the Civil War.

Sherman
By Steven E. Woodworth ; foreword by Wesley K. Clark
New York : Palgrave Macmillan, 2008.
Explores the leadership strategies of William Tecumseh Sherman, a Union General in the American Civil War known for his unique maneuvering techniques, and discusses the impact that his actions had on history.

Tried by war : Abraham Lincoln as commander in chief
By James M. McPherson
New York : Penguin Press, 2008.
Evaluates Lincoln's talents as a commander in chief in spite of limited military experience, tracing the ways in which he worked with, or against, his senior commanders to defeat the Confederacy and reshape the presidential role.

John Washington's Civil War : a slave narrative
Edited, with an introduction and notes, by Crandall Shifflett
Baton Rouge : Louisiana State University Press, c2008.
In 1872, just seven years after his emancipation, a thirty-four-year-old former slave named John Washington penned the story of his life, calling it "Memorys of the Past." One hundred and twenty years later, in the early 1990s, historian Crandall Shifflett stumbled upon Washington's forgotten manuscript at the Library of Congress while researching Civil War Fredericksburg. Over the ensuing decade, Shifflett sought to learn more about this Virginia slave and the people and events he so vividly portrays. John Washington's Civil War presents this remarkable slave narrative in its entirety, together with Shifflett's detailed annotations on the life-changing events Washington records.

John Brown's trial
ByBrian McGinty
Cambridge, Mass. : Harvard University Press, 2009.
Historians have long credited the Harpers Ferry raid with rousing the country to a fever pitch of sectionalism and accelerating the onset of the Civil War. McGinty sees Brown’s trial, rather than his raid, as the real turning point in the struggle between North and South. If Brown had been killed in Harpers Ferry (as he nearly was), or condemned to death in a summary court-martial, his raid would have had little effect. Because he survived to stand trial before a Virginia judge and jury, and argue the case against slavery with an eloquence that reverberated around the world, he became a symbol of the struggle to abolish slavery and a martyr to the cause of freedom.

Oshkosh Public Library
September 2011