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The Civil War is the most written about event in United States history. There are an extraordinary number of books covering all aspects of the war from large overviews like James McPherson's <i>[https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/019516895X/ref=as_li_tl?ie=UTF8&camp=1789&creative=9325&creativeASIN=019516895X&linkCode=as2&tag=dailyh0c-20&linkId=e33f3bb02b609b5b80ce0c3755444af0 Battle Cry Freedom]</i>, Gary Gallagher's books on <i>[https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/0674066081/ref=as_li_tl?ie=UTF8&camp=1789&creative=9325&creativeASIN=0674066081&linkCode=as2&tag=dailyh0c-20&linkId=de7ad6c37a2cdfff0cc474c341f422c9 The Union War]</i> and <i>[https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/0674160568/ref=as_li_tl?ie=UTF8&camp=1789&creative=9325&creativeASIN=0674160568&linkCode=as2&tag=dailyh0c-20&linkId=781edeb3e16fe4ea8cd7f34e566f954c The Confederate War]</i>, Allan Nevins 8 volume set on the conflict, and Shelby Foote's [https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/0394749138/ref=as_li_tl?ie=UTF8&camp=1789&creative=9325&creativeASIN=0394749138&linkCode=as2&tag=dailyh0c-20&linkId=34c399c569f5af2adb9dba9a17652804 three volume set of books] on the war. Like a lot of people, I started with Shelby Foote's books, but over the years I have drifted towards more academic works. Unsurprisingly, all kinds of different authors have written non-fiction books on the topic. Some of these authors are academic historians such as James McPherson and Gary Gallagher, more literary authors such as Winston Groom (author of fiction works such as Forest Gump and Civil War nonfiction works Shiloh, 1862 and Vicksburg, 1863) and Shelby Foote, and an extraordinary number of independent scholars. I would not be surprised to learn that there are more self-published books on the American Civil War than any other American historical topic.

Creating this list has been both very easy and extraordinarily difficult. It is easy to find great books on Civil War Battles, but it is almost impossible to pick only ten. If you are a stickler and count the books listed, you will notice that the final is little bit higher than 10. Therefore, this list is not comprehensive. That would be impossible. Additionally, it only focuses on specific battles or campaigns of the war. Even when you intentionally restrict the number of total books on the war, you are still left with thousands of book titles. There are over 1,000 books available on Amazon discussing some aspect of the battle of Gettysburg. At the very least, these books are a great place to start an exploration of the Civil War.

Here is our list.

<i>[https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/0618344195/ref=as_li_tl?ie=UTF8&camp=1789&creative=9325&creativeASIN=0618344195&linkCode=as2&tag=dailyh0c-20&linkId=edb1d6a640423279a1d72001664a0a91 Landscape Turned Red: The Battle of Antietam]</i>, (Mariner Books) Stephen W. Sears - Stephen Sears'<i>Landscape Turned Red</i> is considered to be the preeminent book on the Battle of Antietam. When it was published in 1983, Sears book received near universal acclaim and it still holds up extremely well. Sears book not only walks the reader through the battle, but clearly explains why the stakes were so high for both sides of this battle.