Find Great Civil War Fiction
Discover the best Civil War fiction books with our curated list. Explore gripping historical novels, epic battles, and compelling stories from the Civil War era. Perfect for history buffs and book lovers!
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The Killer Angels
by Michael Shaara
PULITZER PRIZE WINNER • NEW YORK TIMES BESTSELLER • The “remarkable” (Ken Burns), “utterly absorbing” (Forbes) Civil War classic that inspired the film Gettysburg, with more than three million copies in print—now in a 50th anniversary edition featuring a new introduction by Jeff Shaara “My favorite historical novel . . . a superb re-creation of the Battle of Gettysburg, but its real importance is its insight into what the war was about, and what it meant.”—James M. McPherson In the four most bloody and courageous days of our nation’s history, two armies fought for two conflicting dreams. One dreamed of freedom, the other of a way of life. Far more than rifles and bullets were carried into battle. There were memories. There were promises. There was love. And far more than men fell on those Pennsylvania fields. Bright futures, untested innocence, and pristine beauty were also the casualties of war. Michael Shaara’s Pulitzer Prize–winning masterpiece is unique, sweeping, unforgettable—the dramatic story of the battleground for America’s destiny.
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The Unfinished Work
by Frank Meredith
After the Civil War's opening battle in Manassa, VA, young Jake Becker escorted teens Eliza and Kathleen Bigler to stay with their relatives in his hometown of Hanover, PA. Now, two years later, more than 100,000 Confederate troops invade Pennsylvania, intent on winning their second War of Independence. Jake must decide which call to duty he must answer: fight for his belief in Southern freedom and earn Eliza's love, or fight to end slavery - and win the heart of her sister? Incorporating many eye-witness accounts of the battles of Gettysburg, Hanover, and Hunterstown, "The Unfinished Work" features the cavalry duels between Jeb Staurt and George Armstrong Custer, culminating in the last great cavalry battle in world history.
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The Year of Jubilo
by Howard Bahr
A confederate soldier returns home to find that life and love will never be the same.
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Hear the Wind Blow
by Mary Downing Hahn
With their mother dead and their home burned, a thirteen-year-old boy and his little sister set out across Virginia in search of relatives during the final days of the Civil War.
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1863: A House Divided
by Elizabeth Massie
Sixteen-year-old twins Susanne and Stephen leave their sleepy town to help the Union army, but they are unaware of the impending battle that will occur between Union and Confederate forces in a small town called Gettysburg.
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Fields of Fury
by James M. McPherson
Examines the events and effects of the American Civil War.
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Sarah Morgan
by Sarah Morgan Dawson
Not quite twenty-years old, Sarah Morgan began her diary in January 1862, nine months after the start of the Civil War. She writes of her many brothers, the turmoil of the devasted South and events of the war. For the first time, the entire diary has been published unabridged.
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Behind Rebel Lines
by Seymour Reit
Recounts the story of the Canadian woman who disguised herself as a man and slipped behind Confederate lines to spy for the Union army.
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If The South Had Won The Civil War
by MacKinlay Kantor
The Past is a strange place indeed . . . everything could have been so different so easily. Just a touch here and a tweak there . . . . MacKinlay Kantor, Pulitzer Price-winning author and master storyteller, shows us how the South could have won the Civil War: how two small shifts in history (as we know it) in the summer of 1863 could have turned the tide for the Confederacy. What would have happened to the Union, to Abraham Lincoln, to the people of the North and South, to the world? If the South Had Won the Civil War originally appeared in Look magazine nearly half a century ago. It immediately inspired a deluge of letters and telegrams from astonished readers, and became an American Classic overnight. Published in book form soon after, Kantor's masterpiece has been unavailable for a decade. Now, this much requested classic is once again available for a new generation of readers, and features a stunning cover by acclaimed Civil War artist Don Troiani, a new introduction by award-winning alternate history author Harry Turtledove, and fifteen superb illustrations by the incomparable Dan Nance. It all begins on that fateful afternoon of Tuesday, May 12, 1863, when a deplorable equestrian accident claims the life of General Ulysses S. Grant . . . .
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Manassas
by James Reasoner
Manassas is the first book in a series of historical novels spanning the Civil War. The Brannon family of Culpeper County, Virginia - Abigail, a widow, and her four sons (Will, Mac, Titus, and Henry) and daughter (Cordelia) - work a good-sized, self-sufficient farm. The Brannons do not own slaves, but they are staunch supporters of the South in the conflict that is about to turn into war. Manassas centres around the lives of the Brannons in the winter and spring of 1861. As speculation grows that the North and South will soon be at war with each other, the Brannons have their own problems, not the least of which is the Fogarty clan, a large family of troublemakers in the area. Will Brannon is the county sheriff and kills one of the Fogartys while trying to arrest him for murder. Justifiable homicide or not, the Fogartys vow to avenge the loss of one of their own. While tensions mount in Culpeper County, news of Fort Sumter arrives. Will and two of his brothers join one of the Virginia militia units that quickly form. After a short period of training, the Brannons' unit is rushed to defend the village of Manassas, a strategic railroad junction.When Union and Confederate armies engage in battle among the hillsides surrounding small, meandering Bull Run Creek, Will is forced to defend himself not only from the Union troops but also from the Fogarty brothers, who decide that the chaos of battle provides ideal circumstances for settling their score with him.
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Fire Bell in the Night
by Geoffrey Edwards
Filled with historic details of the time, Fire Bell in the Night explores the explosive tension between North and South, black and white, that gripped Charleston, South Carolina, in the summer of 1850. Geoffrey S. Edwards's first novel tells the story of New York Tribune reporter John Sharp, sent to cover the capital trial of Darcy Calhoun, a farmer who stands accused of harboring a fugitive slave. As the trial begins, John quickly realizes that not everything is as it appears in the genteel city of Charleston. A series of mysterious fires in white establishments brings the state militia, a curfew for the black population, and rising tension at the courthouse. To unravel the city's secrets, Sharp must enter Charleston's plantation society, where he is befriended by Tyler Breckenridge, owner of the Willowby plantation, and his beautiful sister Clio. Set against the backdrop of a nation headed toward civil war, Fire Bell in the Night is a page-turning account of a trial and one young reporter's efforts to discover the truth.
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Unholy Fire
by Robert J. Mrazek
Father John Rafferty is plunged into a scandal when a young woman is murdered in his church.
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Shiloh
by Shelby Foote
This fictional re-creation of the battle of Shiloh in April 1862 is a stunning work of imaginative history, from Shelby Foote, beloved historian of the Civil War. Shiloh conveys not only the bloody choreography of Union and Confederate troops through the woods near Pittsburg Landing, Tennessee, but the inner movements of the combatants’ hearts and minds. Through the eyes of officers and illiterate foot soldiers, heroes and cowards, Shiloh creates a dramatic mosaic of a critical moment in the making of America, complete to the haze of gunsmoke and the stunned expression in the eyes of dying men. Shiloh, which was hailed by The New York Times as “imaginative, powerful, filled with precise visual details…a brilliant book” fulfills the standard set by Shelby Foote’s monumental three-part chronical of the Civil War.
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The Civil War Trilogy
by Michael Shaara
Presents a collection of three novels that present a fictionalized account of the battles of the Civil War.
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The Ghosts of Lone Jack
by Lance Lee Noel
Ten-year-old Jared Millhouse and his dad plan to spend an uneventful summer on his grandfather s farm in Lone Jack, Missouri. Then Jared runs into the ghost of a Civil War innkeeper and wonders if he s lost his mind. With the help of his grandfather--and some local characters--Jared and the Crossroads Gang uncover the truth about the Civil War battle that trapped so many bloodthirsty ghosts in Lone Jack. They even recruit a pair of eccentric ghost hunters to help. When it comes to facing down the local bully, dodging the power-crazy sheriff, or escaping convicts, Jared can count on his friends. Together, they face haunted baseball diamonds, embattled cornfields and abandoned mines. But when Confederate and Union ghouls line up on the battlefield, the entire town relives the gruesome Battle of Lone Jack, as it was fought in 1862. Then only Jared can save the town from its ghosts.
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Then Came Faith
by Louise M. Gouge
An edgy novel that runs many parallels with the current day tragedy of Katrina to the aftermath of the Civil War. Moreover, this gritty novel from a gifted writer addressees the greater healing that begins in life, when we are courageous enough to lay aside our preconceived notions and personal prejudices. The Civil War is over; Elizabeth wants to help the South heal and repent of its pastẢndre swears never to forgive the North for what they did to his family.
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A Distant Flame
by Philip Lee Williams
A literary novel of love, dedication, and growth, "A Distant Flame" takes readers from the Civil War's fields of fire to the slow steps of old age.
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Jacob's Ladder
by Donald McCaig
Lauded by the "Virginia Quarterly" as "the best Civil War novel ever written, " "Jacob's Ladder" resonates with all the bitter glory and deep human shame of America's greatest war.