What are /r/USCivilWar's favorite Products & Services?

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The book, The War of Confederate Captain Henry T. Owen, follows the exploits of my relative, Captain Owen, through Pickett's Charge and beyond. Here's the Amazon link:

The War of Confederate Captain Henry T. Owen https://www.amazon.com/dp/1585499692/ref=cm_sw_r_cp_tai_uhMsybX41MF11

I get zero royalties, btw. I just think it's cool to have an ancestor who fought in, and survived, Pickett's Charge.

Academic Earth offers a Yale course taught by David Blight. Please see Civil War and Reconstruction for the course content.

Prof. Blight's bio:

"David W. Blight is the Class of 1954 Professor of American History and Director of the Gilder Lehrman Center for the Study of Slavery, Resistance and Abolition at Yale University. He is the author of numerous books, including A Slave No More: Two Men Who Escaped to Freedom, Race and Reunion: The Civil War in American Memory (for which he received the Bancroft, Abraham Lincoln, and Frederick Douglass prizes), and Beyond the Battlefield: Race, Memory, and the American Civil War. He is also the co-author of the bestselling American history textbook, A People and a Nation."

I was meaning to figure out where your state's FWP collection is. I have a book in my office I can look at tomorrow, but it looks like UNC-Chapel Hill has the papers: http://www.worldcat.org/title/federal-writers-project-papers-1936-1940/oclc/25507475&referer=brief_results

If you're close to Virginia, I know the Library of Virginia has theirs.

Those papers will definitely have a folder or three specifically on former slave interviews.

Sales going very well; book in second printing. Available on Amazon at https://www.amazon.com/Memory-Self-Comrades-Recollections-Virginia/dp/162190430X/ref=sr_1_fkmrnull_1?keywords=In+Memory+of+Self+and+Comrades&qid=1555870786&s=gateway&sr=8-1-fkmrnull

<em>A Woman of Valor: Clara Barton and the Civil War</em> is a fairly exhaustive chronicle of her Civil War experience by Stephen Oates. It's a bit dry, but still recommendable.

There are two main theatres, the Eastern (around DC and Richmond) and the Western which was a vast region. I think the Western theatre would be much more interesting. A unit would start in Ohio, move into Kentucky, then Tennessee then Missouri then Mississippi, Tennessee, Georgia, South Carolina then finally end up in North Carolina. In contrast, most of the action in the east stayed within a 100 mile radius of DC and much of it in the later years was basically trench ware fare which was quite grim for the Union forces.

The men would have fought under great men like Grant, Sherman, Sheridan and Thomas. These men were bigger than life and would be interesting interactions.

The battle for Atlanta, the March to the sea, then the final months moving north were pretty epic. You’d get a lot of interaction between the troops and the locals of all types.

To read up on this, I suggest read Sherman’s memoirs so you understand the direction from the top. Then as an example book of a foot solider who wrote memoirs of the campaign, you can look here: https://www.amazon.com/Army-Life-Illinois-Soldier-Including/dp/1519042728

Here’s another book about the subject:

https://www.amazon.com/Black-Confederates-Charles-Kelly-Barrow/dp/1565549376/ref=mp_s_a_1_4?crid=350RXRITD9LXF&amp;keywords=black+confederates+charles+kelly+barrow&amp;qid=1655199289&amp;sprefix=black+confederates+charles+kelly+barrow%2Caps%2C233&...

Oh yes. Check out Fellman's book but the stories are grim:

https://www.amazon.ca/Inside-War-Guerrilla-Conflict-Missouri/dp/0195064712

Here is an excellent book on the subject: https://www.amazon.ca/Montreal-City-Secrets-Confederate-Operations/dp/1771861231/ref=sr_1_1?crid=20NHL8UALMEH8&amp;keywords=Montreal+city+of+secrets&amp;qid=1651252812&amp;sprefix=montreal+city+of+secrets%2Caps%2C208&amp;sr=8-1

For those interested in the daily lives of those civilians suffering during the war this book does a FANTASTIC job of breaking it all down. Rebel Richmond: Life and Death in the Confederate Capital (Civil War America) https://www.amazon.com/dp/1469650983/ref=cm_sw_r_awdo_navT_a_15100Y3EC1FZNDFWXVY0

Basically yes, but only for a short while after the fall of Vicksburg. The US navy's control of the Mississippi and land along it made it unfeasible to move men and materials of any consequence either direction. I would suggest reading &quot;Kirby Smith's Confederacy: The Trans-Mississippi South 1863-1865&quot; for more on that.

I always prefer primary sources; i.e., written by the participants themselves. They may be biased but all historical writing is biased, and the potential bias of a primary source is easily discerned.

Grant, Sherman, Longstreet, Sheridan, Admiral Porter, Hood, Jefferson Davis, Mary Chesnut, John Beauchamp Jones, Sam Watkins, Elisha Hunt Rhodes all left excellent memoirs and most are free at the Gutenberg site, their copyrights having long since expired.

Another great primary source is the Official Records of the War of the Rebellion, but you can only find them in University libraries.

I have found dozens of free downloadable ebooks at

https://www.gutenberg.org/wiki/US_Civil_War_(Bookshelf)

I am currently reading the book by Kidd in this list and it is very in depth look at a union cavalryman but he was an officer. Look at the descriptions of each book and download the ones that interest you.

>And he was utterly unprepared to accept the war’s racial changes.

I have read otherwise.

I can't check now, but I believe it was in a book called <em>April 1865</em> by Jay Winik that I read the following story, paraphrased:

>In Spring, 1865, Gen. Lee was back in Arlington, VA. On a Sunday morning he went to Episcopal service, as usual. When it was time for Communion service, a freedman went forward and knelt down at the altar railing waiting. Everybody else froze. None of the whites got up to kneel with him. And then Gen. Lee got up, walked forward & knelt beside him to receive Communion with him. Everyone else followed Gen. Lee.

I read this for a class in college a while back. It’s called Mr. Polk’s Army: The American Experience in the Mexican-American War

It’s mostly about daily lives of soldiers and the events that led to war, some info on major battles, and political stuff. Overall I enjoyed it, but if you’re looking for a detailed breakdown of specific battles this likely won’t fit the bill. However, you will see some mention of future famous Civil War generals such as Grant and Lee, among others.

• A Blaze of Glory: A Novel of the Battle of Shiloh
• A Chain of Thunder: A Novel of the Siege of Vicksburg
  

I have signed copies of both as I met him at the 150th of Gettysburg back in 2013.

It's a bit broader in scope than just Confederate internal politics, but Look Away! - A History of the Confederate States of America is really good. It takes a broader look at Confederate politics, government, economy, society, etc

If you're interested in learning more about Confederate supply chain dynamics and the role your ancestor played in the war, I recommend, Confederate Supply by Richard Goff. I also recommend making a trip to a local museum if you are in the same area that your ancestor is from or getting in touch with your local chapter of the Daughters of the Confederacy. They are some of the best genealogy detectives you'll meet and might be able to help you find official documents from the period.

Team of Rivals: The Political Genius of Abraham Lincoln is a personal fav. Focuses on the politics of the war and Lincoln, both of which are a good lens on the war and what came before/after.

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).

If you're looking for something a little different or something a little humorous, I highly recommend Confederates in the Attic. This book is about the legacy of the war and how it is viewed by Southerners. It is very funny and one of my absolute favorite books. If you're looking for something conventional with primary sources, I recommend Reading the Man, which is a great book with Robert E. Lee's letters.

This is a good one:

https://www.amazon.com/Sergeant-Company-Sharpshooter-Regiment-1861-1865/dp/093552326X

The Civil War Diary of Wyman S. White: First Sergeant of Co. F, 2nd United States Sharpshooter Regiment, 1861 - 1865.

Earlier this week, I ordered the 2nd and 3rd and this one. I've read many, many positive reviews on the second book, so I figured it was something worth looking into.

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

What do you mean by an "educational version"of it?

EDIT: Wow, in trying to figure out what an 'educational' version of a film was I found this, the third link on google. here ya go!