The best U.S. Civil War Regimental Histories books: Reddit reviews

From 3.5 billion Reddit comments

The doomerism and self pity on this sub sometimes rivals a Sanders sub. If you think stuff sucks now you really have to read your history or talk to your grandparents/parents. There are problems that need to be addressed but they are all manageable. If you ever want a dose of reality I suggest this book.

https://www.amazon.com/Last-Full-Measure-Minnesota-Volunteers/dp/0873514068

Of course! How inconsiderate of me. I don't really know how to do reddit links, so here's Amazon:

https://www.amazon.com/Last-Full-Measure-Minnesota-Volunteers/dp/0873514068/ref=mp_s_a_1_1?dchild=1&keywords=the+last+full+measure+richard+moe&qid=1600127949&sr=8-1

You should check out Robert Siegler's four books on South Carolina units, it's very comprehensive (down to individual company commanders in many cases) and breaks SC down regionally. Here's a link to one of them. It might also do you some good to contact the Relic Room in Columbia.

If I can point out any more SC specific Civil War resources let me know.

Bruce Catton's works introduced me to the ACW. His writing isn't always very thorough from an academic perspective (fewer citations, etc) but his florid prose is a great way to get hooked into the broader Homeric narrative of the conflict and how it plays on the American consciousness. He wrote a few general histories, including the classic 1960 American Heritage Picture History of the Civil War (if you want to go the pictorial route). But the best thing of his, to my recollection, is the beautifully-written Army of the Potomac trilogy (Mr. Lincoln's Army, Glory Road, and A Stillness at Appomattox), which you can now get in a single volume (https://www.amazon.com/Bruce-Cattons-Lincolns-Stillness-Appomattox/dp/0517447711). Its focus, however, is on the Union's Army of the Potomac, so you only see the war through one side and theater (the Eastern campaigns).

Not really but I'm really interested in it, both in the military side of it (battles etc) but also the impact that it had on society. Civil Wars have the added horror of society fighting itself.

I have a colleague in the USA who had a Colonel in the Civil War and he sent me a book written about the unit he commanded that I'm reading at the moment. Very interesting and the bad feeling persists to this day.

I wrote a paper for my undergrad Civil War history course, using that collection. I got the book from my university library. Here is an amazon link to it:

http://www.amazon.com/Civil-letters-George-Washington-Whitman/dp/0822303310