NF Best Civil War books

Non-Fiction

jtroberts

Cadet
Joined
Nov 10, 2017
What biographies are considered the best (your opinion or those of scholars), either in-print and not in-print? Thanks for a reply.
 
Assuming you're including autobiographies and memoirs, IMO one of the best is Charles Wainwright's A Diary of Battle. (It deserved a better editor, as Nevins made several egregious factual errors and whose analysis of some of the events is highly questionable.)
 
Assuming you're including autobiographies and memoirs, IMO one of the best is Charles Wainwright's A Diary of Battle. (It deserved a better editor, as Nevins made several egregious factual errors and whose analysis of some of the events is highly questionable.)
Thx
 
Assuming you're including autobiographies and memoirs, IMO one of the best is Charles Wainwright's A Diary of Battle. (It deserved a better editor, as Nevins made several egregious factual errors and whose analysis of some of the events is highly questionable.)

This sounds more like a memoir than a bio, and have read lots of memoirs and never heard of this, but I looked it up and immediatly ordered a 6.95 copy : )
 
I liked Fighting Prophet, a bio of Gen. William Sherman. It's kind of old, and might be guilty of being too sympathetic to Sherman, but is fully detailed and professionally written.
 
This sounds more like a memoir than a bio, and have read lots of memoirs and never heard of this, but I looked it up and immediately ordered a 6.95 copy : )

Since you like memoirs, you might also be interested in Theodore A. Dodge's On Campaign with the Army of the Potomac. (Too bad Stephen Sears was the editor, as IMO his book on Chancellorsville is awful.)
 
Personally, I consider these books to be some of the best WBTS biographies ever written:

- R.E. Lee: A Biography, by Douglas S. Freeman
- Jubal: The Life and Times of General Jubal A. Early, C S A, Defender of the Lost Cause, by Charles C. Osborne
- Stonewall Jackson: The Man, The Solider, The Legend, by James I. Robertson, Jr.
- John Bell Hood and the War for Southern Independence, by Richard M. McMurry
- Richard S. Ewell: A Soldier's Life, by Donald C. Pfanz
- Richard Taylor: Soldier Prince of Dixie, by T. Michael Parrish
- Braxton Bragg: The Most Hated Man of the Confederacy, Earl J. Hess
- P. G. T. Beauregard: Napoleon in Gray, by T. Harry Williams
- General Jo Shelby: Undefeated Rebel, by Daniel O'Flaherty
- General James Longstreet: The Confederacy's Most Controversial Soldier, by Jeffry D. Wert.

I am afraid this “best of” list can be way too long, as there's no shortage of well-written and meticulously researched biographies in today's book market.
 
Personally, I consider these books to be some of the best WBTS biographies ever written:

- R.E. Lee: A Biography, by Douglas S. Freeman
- Jubal: The Life and Times of General Jubal A. Early, C S A, Defender of the Lost Cause, by Charles C. Osborne
- Stonewall Jackson: The Man, The Solider, The Legend, by James I. Robertson, Jr.
- John Bell Hood and the War for Southern Independence, by Richard M. McMurry
- Richard S. Ewell: A Soldier's Life, by Donald C. Pfanz
- Richard Taylor: Soldier Prince of Dixie, by T. Michael Parrish
- Braxton Bragg: The Most Hated Man of the Confederacy, Earl J. Hess
- P. G. T. Beauregard: Napoleon in Gray, by T. Harry Williams
- General Jo Shelby: Undefeated Rebel, by Daniel O'Flaherty
- General James Longstreet: The Confederacy's Most Controversial Soldier, by Jeffry D. Wert.

I am afraid this “best of” list can be way too long, as there's no shortage of well-written and meticulously researched biographies in today's book market.
Thank you I was looking for something on Jubal. Just placed an order for it on Amazon.
 
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