Alcott,
Louisa May. Little Women, or Meg, Jo, Beth and Amy.
The
trials and adventures of the four March girls, who are growing up during the
Civil War.
Allen,
Merritt. Johnny Reb.
The
cavalry riding under Wade Hampton and Jeb Stuart see bitter action, starve,
freeze, hate war more than anything, but see it through to the end.
Bahr,
Howard. The Black Flower.
Confederate
rifleman Bushrod Carter, the novel's protagonist, is wounded during the battle
and taken to a nearby house. In this makeshift hospital, he and two childhood
friends huddle together, "shivering with cold and exhaustion, ignoring the
ghostly shapes still shuffling through the coiling smoke around them, calling
the names of men who would never answer." Bahr has poured 20 years of
research into his novel, but this haunting portrayal of suffering and death is
the product not merely of historical diligence but also an impressive literary
imagination. (Amazon).
Bass,
Cynthia. Sherman's March.
The
aftermath of Sherman's infamous 1864 march is presented from the fictional
perspectives of three characters including army captain Nicholas J. Whiteman,
looting victim Anne Saunders Baker, and General Sherman himself. Reprint. PW.
The aftermath of Sherman's infamous 1864 march is presented from the fictional
perspectives of three characters including army captain Nicholas J. Whiteman,
looting victim Anne Saunders Baker, and General Sherman himself. Reprint. (Publisher’s
Weekly).
Brown,
Rita Mae. High Hearts.
In
her most recent New York Times bestseller, Rita Mae Brown tells the story of
Geneva Chatfield and Nash Hart, who are married just five days before the South
secedes from the Union. To stay with her husband, spirited Geneva cuts her hair,
dons a uniform and joins the cavalry. High Hearts is Rita Mae Brown's
breakthrough novel, rich in adventures and memorable characters. (Amazon).
Cantor,
McKinlay. Andersonville.
Collier,
James Lincoln. With Every Drop of Blood.
While
trying to transport food to Richmond, Virginia, during the Civil War,
14-year-old Johnny is captured by a black Union soldier.
Dallas,
Sandra. Alice's Tulips.
Alice
is a young bride whose husband, a Union soldier, leaves her on his Iowa farm
with his formidable mother. Equally talented at quilting and gossip, Alice fills
her letters to her sister with accounts of local quilting bees, the rigors of
farm life, and the customs of small-town America. But no town is too small for
intrigue and treachery, and when Alice finds herself accused of murder, she must
rely on support from unlikely sources. (Amazon.com).
Dyja,
Tom. Play for a Kingdom.
At
first glance, the storyline of Thomas Dyja's Play for a Kingdom story
sounds corny: a Union company from Brooklyn encounters an Alabama company while
on picket duty after the Battle of the Wilderness (May, 1864) and proceeds to
challenge them to a series of baseball games before all hell breaks loose in
Spottsylvania. The first-time novelist, however, has surprises up his sleeve,
and the vividly described sporting matches set up a series of betrayals and
double crosses which test the camaraderie of the Union soldiers, calling their
commitment to the war effort into question. (Amazon).
Fleischman,
Paul. Bull Run.
Northerners,
Southerners, generals, couriers, dreaming boys, and worried sisters describe the
horror, thrill, and glory of the first battle of the Civil War in this novel
told from varying perspecitives.
Fleming,
Thomas. When This Cruel War is Over.
Published
in March 2001. Review/summary not
yet available
Foote,
Shelby. Shiloh.
In
the novel Shiloh, historian and Civil War expert Shelby Foote delivers a
spare, unflinching account of the battle of Shiloh, which was fought over the
course of two days in April 1862. By mirroring the troops' movements through the
woods of Tennessee with the activity of each soldier's mind, Foote offers the
reader a broad perspective of the battle and a detailed view of the issues
behind it. The battle becomes tangible as Foote interweaves the observations of
Union and Confederate officers, simple foot soldiers, brave men, and cowards and
describes the roar of the muskets and the haze of the gun smoke. The author's
vivid storytelling creates a rich chronicle of a pivotal battle in American
history. (Amazon).
Frazier,
Charles. Cold Mountain.
In
the waning months of the Civil War, a wounded Confederate veteran named Inman
gets up from his hospital bed and begins the long journey back to his home in
the remote hills of North Carolina. Along the way he meets rogues and outlaws,
Good Samaritans and vigilantes, people who help and others who hinder, but
through it all Inman's aim is true: his one goal is to return to Cold Mountain
and to Ada, the woman he left behind. (Amazon.com).
Gear,
Kathleen O'Neal. Thin Moon
and Cold Mist.
After
completing a near fatal spy mission for the Confederacy, Robin Heatherton flees
with her five-year-old son into the untamed reaches of Colorado Territory, where
she tries to work a gold-mining claim--helped only by Union veteran Garrison
Parkerwho has no respect for women. She'll teach him some, unless Corey, a man
set on revenge against her, finds her first. (Amazon.com)
Gibbons,
Kaye. On the Occasion of My Last Afternoon.
Our
heroine, Emma, quakes under the tyranny of her plantation daddy, Samuel P. Tate,
who slits the throat of a slave who talks back to him and just might do the same
to his half-dozen children. There is no enormity of which he is incapable, this
bellowing Simon Legree with an autodidact's education and a self-made man's
bottomless urge to rise above his raising. He is, as he might have thunderingly
put it, "a pluperfect son of Satan." Only Clarice, the matriarchal
slave and true ruler of the household, can fight Samuel Tate to a verbal draw
and prevent slave uprisings on the eve of war. Clarice helps save Emma, as does
her impeccable swain Dr. Quincy Lowell. The war, alas, brings a tsunami of
blood, forcing Dr. Lowell to make Emma a de facto battlefield surgeon.
Hunt,
Irene. Across Five Aprils.
Young
Jethro Craighton grows from a boy to a man when he is left to take care of the
family farm during the Civil War.
Jakes,
John. On Secret Service.
(To be published in April 2001).
On
Secret Service chronicles the lives and times of four young Americans, from
the war's early tremors in January 1861, through its bloody conclusion,
Lincoln's assassination, and John Wilkes Booth's murder in May 1865. (Amazon)
Keith,
Harold. Rifles for Watie.
In
1861, in Linn County, Kansas, the struggles of Jeff Bussey on his 300 mile
escape route during the Civil War are chronicled.
Lent,
Jeffery. In the Fall.
When
17-year-old Norman Pelham departs his father's Vermont farm to join the Union
army, he can little anticipate the incredulity and scorn that his
return--accompanied by his former-slave bride--will elicit. The newlyweds make a
go of country life, Leah's industry wins the locals' begrudging respect, and the
two transact a fidelity that only rarely acknowledges their racial
dissimilarities. Leah, however, who fled her native North Carolina after lashing
out violently against a lifetime of abuse, believes an inescapable retribution
stalks her. And so she briefly leaves Norman and their three children, throwing
all five lives into disarray.
Leslie,
Joan. Shiloh Renewal.
When
a girl falls into a coma after an auto accident that kills her sister, she meets
people from another century--doctors, nurses, and soldiers, both Northern and
Southern, who are on their way Shiloh to fight a great battle. The girl's
doctors expect her to die, but she fools everybody, and by witnessing the deaths
of her Civil War era friends, she is able to come to terms with the loss of her
sister. (Amazon).
McMillan,
Ann. Dead March.
Narcissa
Power, a young Virginia widow consigned to a dismal existence in the country
home of her sister-in-law, receives an urgent summons from family friends of her
beloved brother, Charley. Shortly after she rushes to his side, he dies of a
disease that should have caused only a minor infection. The mystery of his death
is compounded when Narcissa finds a fragment of a half-burned letter from
Charley that someone has hidden in her Bible. Wanting to do right by her brother
and avoid returning to the doldrums of her country existence, Narcissa plunges
into the turmoil of Richmond in the days between Fort Sumter and the first great
battle of the Civil War. (Amazon).
McMillan,
Ann. Angel Trumpet.
Its
1861. Col. John Berton, master of the plantation at Goochland, returns home one
evening to find he's no longer master; his unresisting parents and wife have all
been murdered, their throats cut, apparently by the servants who now lie dead
around them. The Berton butler, in the hours before he himself dies, confesses
that he'd waited over 50 years to kill Berton's father but stoutly denies
murdering anyone else. Did the other slaves band together to execute the family
they'd lived with for years? What was the ``angel trumpet'' another surviving
slave spoke of as the signal for the slaughter? Is the massacre part of a larger
slave rebellion plotted by King, the outlaw slave whose network of Loyal
Brethren has so far been content to help slaves escape to the North? Or does it
have its roots in Gabriel Prosser's abortive rebellion a generation earlier at
nearby Henrico? While Berton's neighbor Dr. Cameron Archer skirmishes with his
Confederate superiors over how to run the investigation, Archer's friend
Narcissa Powers quietly takes control, overcoming her prejudice against James
Cantrell, Berton's cousin and heir, and his malevolent wife in time to link the
calamity to a legendary tale of ghosts at the Archer plantation. (Kirkus
Reviews).
Mitchell,
Margaret. Gone With the Wind.
It
was the sweeping story of tangled passions and the rare courage of a group of
people in Atlanta during the time of Civil War that brought those cinematic
scenes to life. The reason the movie became so popular was the strength of its
characters--Scarlett O'Hara, Rhett Butler, and Ashley Wilkes. (Amazon).
Mrazek,
Robert. Stonewall’s Gold.
In
the last few months of the Civil War, 15 year old Jamie finds a map to some
stolen Confederate gold. He vows to
deliver it to Robert E. Lee in person and is hindered on
Paulsen,
Gary. Soldier’s Heart.
In
spare, almost biblical prose, Gary Paulsen writes of the horrors of combat of
Charley Goddard, who lies his way into the Union Army at the age of 15. Charley
has never been anyplace beyond Winona, Minnesota, and thinks war would be a
great adventure. And it is--at first--as his regiment marches off through
cheering crowds and pretty, flag-waving girls. But then comes the battle.
Charley screams, "Make it stop now!" disbelieving that anything so
horrible could be real. (Amazon)
Reed,
John. A Still Small Voice.
The
year is 1859. As this breathtaking novel opens, seven-year-old Alma Flynt
arrives in the small Kentucky town of Cotterpin Creek to begin a new life in her
aunt's home. There, a whole new world opens up before her eyes-a world of
impossible grace and comfort, of lush pastures and billowing bluegrass. And
there, Alma will meet a family who will shape the course of her life. The
Clevelands, with their sprawling mansion and gleaming thoroughbred horses, are
magnificent. But from the beginning, one Cleveland draws all her attention-the
youngest son, John Warren. Of their childhood bond, Alma later recalls:
"The stubborn fact was, without the slightest hint of imagination, that it
was clear to him, and to me, and to everyone, that we were meant to be
together." But like a swift storm cloud, the Civil War descends on
Cotterpin Creek, taking men from the land and husbands from wives, never to
return. Swept into the chaos are the Clevelands, and John Warren himself,
leaving their fading mansion and sprawling horse farm behind. Against this
turbulent backdrop, Alma will come of age. And when the fighting is over, the
story of a brave young man riding off to battle becomes a haunting journey of
vengeance, loss, and redemption. But for Alma, yet another journey begins on the
day a strange, battered, starved, and tormented young soldier staggers back into
her life.
Rinaldi,
Ann. An Acquaintance with Darkness.
When
her mother dies and her best friend’s family is implicated in the
assassination of President Lincoln, 14-year-old Emily Pigbush must go live with
an uncle she suspects of stealing bodies for medical research.
Ripley,
Alexandra. From Fields of Gold.
Reduced
to destitution by the Civil War, Francesca ""Chess""
Standish struggles to win the love of her younger husband, whom she married in
order to capitalize on her only remaining asset, a tobacco-machine patent.
(Amazon).
Ripley,
Alexandra. Scarlett: The Sequel to
Margaret Mitchell’s Gone With the Wind.
The
most popular and beloved American historical novel ever written, Margaret
Mitchell's Gone With the Wind is unparalleled in its portrayal of men and
women at once larger than life but as real as ourselves. Now bestselling writer
Alexandra Ripley brings us back to Tara and reintroduces us to the characters we
remember so well: Rhett, Ashley, Mammy, Suellen, Aunt Pittypat, and, of course,
Scarlett. (Amazon).
Shaara,
Michael. The Killer Angels.
This
novel reveals more about the Battle of Gettysburg than any piece of learned
nonfiction on the same subject. Michael Shaara's account of the three most
important days of the Civil War features deft characterizations of all of the
main actors, including Lee, Longstreet, Pickett, Buford, and Hancock. The most
inspiring figure in the book, however, is Col. Joshua Lawrence Chamberlain,
whose 20th Maine regiment of volunteers held the Union's left flank on the
second day of the battle. This unit's bravery at Little Round Top helped turned
the tide of the war against the rebels. There are also plenty of maps, which
convey a complete sense of what happened July 1-3, 1863. (Amazon)
Stone,
I. Love is Eternal.
A
fictional portrayal of Mary Todd Lincoln.
Walker,
Margaret. Jubliee.
Here
is the classic--and true--story of Vyry, the child of a white plantation owner
and his black mistress, a Southern Civil War heroine to rival Scarlett O'Hara.
Vyry bears witness to the South's prewar opulence and its brutality, to its
wartime ruin and the subsequent promise of Reconstruction. It is a story that
Margaret Walker heard as a child from her grandmother, the real Vyry's daughter.
The author spent thirty years researching the novel so that the world might know
the intelligent, strong, and brave black woman called Vyry.(Amazon).