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American Civil War

Additional Reading > Personalities and campaigns
Sketches of all generals can be found in Ezra J. Warner, Generals in Gray: Lives of the Confederate Commanders (1959, reissued 1987), and Generals in Blue: Lives of the Union Commanders (1964, reissued 1993). Individual biographies of major personalities are numerous; some of the better include William C. Davis, Jefferson Davis: The Man and His Hour (1991, reissued 1996); Stephen B. Oates, With Malice Toward None: The Life of Abraham Lincoln (1977, reissued 1994); Douglas Southall Freemen, R.E. Lee: A Biography, 4 vol. (1934–35, reissued 1962), and Lee's Lieutenants: A Study in Command, 3 vol. (1942–44, reissued 1997); Craig L. Symonds, Joseph E. Johnston: A Civil War Biography (1992); John F. Marszalek, Sherman: A Soldier's Passion for Order (1993); James I. Robertson, Jr., Stonewall Jackson: The Man, the Soldier, the Legend (1997); and Gene Smith, Lee and Grant (1984, reissued 1991), which offers a dual look at the leading generals of the war.

Historians have chronicled all the war's campaigns and battles. Prominent works include Bruce Catton, The Army of the Potomac, 3 vol. (1951–53, reissued 1990); William C. Davis, Battle at Bull Run: A History of the First Major Campaign of the Civil War, 2nd ed. (1995); Wiley Sword, Shiloh: Bloody April, rev. ed. (1983); Robert G. Tanner, Stonewall in the Valley: Thomas J. “Stonewall” Jackson's Shenandoah Valley Campaign, Spring 1862, updated and rev. ed. (1996); James V. Murfin, The Gleam of Bayonets: The Battle of Antietam and the Maryland Campaign of 1862 (1965, reissued 1993); Alvin M. Josephy, Jr., The Civil War in the American West (1991); Albert Castel, Decision in the West: The Atlanta Campaign of 1864 (1992); and Joseph T. Glatthaar, The March to the Sea and Beyond: Sherman's Troops in the Savannah and Carolinas Campaigns (1985, reissued 1995). Archer Jones, Civil War Command and Strategy: The Process of Victory and Defeat (1992), examines how and why the North prevailed in the fight. Michael Shaara, The Killer Angels (1974, reissued 2001), is an outstanding fictionalized account of the Battle of Gettysburg.

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