Gordon Jones’ Top Ten Civil War Books

Originally published November 2020 · pp. 15–16

Gordon Jones’ Top Ten Civil War Books I consider these books favorites because they have exerted the greatest influence on the evolution of my understanding of the Civil War. I have arranged them in the order I first encountered them from childhood to present. 1. The Golden Book of the Civil War by Bruce Catton and Charles Flato. American Heritage Publishing Company, 1961. This is the one with the colorful “birdseye” battle maps populated with the little soldier figures. As a kid, this was the book that really fired up my imagination. Seems like it had the same effect on a lot of Civil Warriors who came along during the Centennial. 2. The Killer Angels by Michael Shaara. Mackay Publications, 1974. There is no other book, fact or fiction, that so perfectly captures the intense human drama of the Civil War with all its conflicting emotions and uncertainty. 3. “Co. Aytch:” Maury Grays, First Tennessee Regiment, or A Side Show of the Big Show by Sam R. Watkins. Cumberland Presbyterian Publishing House, 1882. When you go to the “Dead Angle” at Kennesaw Mountain, take this book and read aloud Watkins’s recollections of what he saw and did that day. You will feel it. You will weep. 4. The Life of Johnny Reb: The Common Soldier of the Confederacy and The Life of Billy Yank: The Common Soldier of the Union by Bell I. Wiley. Bobbs-Merrill Co.,

1943, 1952. Start your study of Civil War soldiers with Bell Wiley. Outdated in some respects, but the wealth of first-hand accounts and quotations never get old or cease to entertain. Corporal Si Klegg and His Pard: How They Lived and Talked, and What They Did and Suffered, While Fighting for the Flag by Wilbur F. Hinman. N.G. Hamilton and Co., 1889. Fiction, yes, and so funny—but also the quintessential American story of soldiering in the Civil War. Battle Cry of Freedom: The Civil War Era by James M. McPherson. Oxford University Books, 1988. Hands down, still the best single-volume synthesis of the war and its causes. Two Great Rebel Armies: An Essay in Confederate Military History by Richard H. McMurry. University of North Carolina Press, 1989. A concise and thought-provoking “big picture” essay on why Confederate armies did well in Virginia and but fared poorly everywhere else. If you’ve never read it, it’s a game-changer. Decision in the West: The Atlanta Campaign of 1864 by Albert Castel. University Press of Kansas, 1992. The classic military history interwoven with the political context that made Union victory at Atlanta decisive. A great read, written in the present tense. 9. What the Yankees Did to Us: Sherman’s Bombardment and Wrecking of Atlanta by Stephen Davis. Mercer University Press, 2012. Takes you back into the original sources to finally bust those romantic Gone With the Wind—era myths about “the burning” of Atlanta. The best-researched and most realistic assessment of Sherman yet written. 10. Remembering the Civil War: Reunion and the Limits of Reconciliation by Caroline E. Janney. University of North Carolina Press, 2014. Read this in conjunction with David W. Blight’s Race and Reunion (2001). Then ask yourself: has the United States ever fully reconciled? Dr. Gordon L. Jones is Senior Military Historian and Curator at the Atlanta History Center, where he has worked since 1991. Gordon is responsible for one of the largest collections of Civil War artifacts in the nation. He curated the permanent exhibition Turning Point: The American Civil War (1996) and is the author of Confederate

Odyssey: The George W. Wray Jr. Collection (2015.) Gordon recently completed a five-year project to research, restore, and exhibit The Battle of Atlanta cyclorama painting and the locomotive Texas.