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Home / Periods / United States History / American Civil War

War

American Civil War

1861–1865 CE

The American Civil War began in 1861 after Southern states seceded and formed the Confederacy. Union and Confederate armies fought across the eastern and western theatres, while naval blockade, industry, railways and manpower shaped the conflict. Enslaved people, free Black communities and abolitionists made emancipation central to the war’s meaning.

The war mattered because it remade the United States through destruction, emancipation and constitutional change. It also created enduring conflicts over memory, race and regional identity. Novels by Michael Shaara, Charles Frazier, E. L. Doctorow and many others use the war for soldiers, deserters, civilians, enslaved people and families divided by loyalty.

Related people for American Civil War

Abraham Lincoln1809–1865 André Cailloux1825–1863 Arthur Wellesley, 1st Duke of Wellington1769–1852 Benjamin Franklin Butler1818–1893 Bernard Montgomery1887–1976 Braxton Bragg1817–1876 Buffalo Hump1800–1870 Charles Goodnight1836–1929 Daniel Sickles1819–1914 Earl Van Dorn1820–1863 Edwin M. Stanton1814–1869 Elisha M. Pease1812–1883 Elizabeth Cloustonc. 1837–1870 Elizabeth Keckley1818–1907 Erwin Rommel1891–1944 Franz Joseph I of Austria1830–1916 Frederick Douglass1818–1895 Félicie Caillouxd. 1874 George Armstrong Custer1839–1876 George Henry Thomas1816–1870 Giuseppe Garibaldi1807–1882 Harriet Tubman1821–1913 J. E. B. Stuart1833–1864 James B. McPherson1828–1864 Jefferson Davis1808–1889 John C. Pemberton1814–1881 John Hay1838–1905 John Scobellfl. 1861–1862 John Surratt Jr.1844–1916 John Wilkes Booth1838–1865 Joseph Hooker1814–1879 Mary Surratt1823–1865 Mary Todd Lincoln1818–1882 Napoleon III1808–1873 Otto von Bismarck1815–1898 Patrick Cleburne1828–1864 Robert E. Lee1807–1870 Robert Todd Lincoln1843–1926 Roland Ward Jones1829–1890 Salmon P. Chase1808–1873 Samuel Curtis1805–1866 Stephen A. Douglas1813–1861 Thomas Cochrane, 10th Earl of Dundonald1775–1860 Thomas J. “Stonewall” Jackson1824–1863 Ulysses S. Grant1822–1885 Victoria1819–1901 William H. Seward1801–1872 William Holland Thomas1805–1893 William Quantrill1837–1865 William Rosecrans1819–1898 Wilmer McLean1814–1882

Series

Series about American Civil War (3 series)

Civil War Trilogy in Order

by various authors 3 books 4.3(164,675)

The Civil War Trilogy presents the eastern theatre of the American Civil War through three connected novels. Jeff Shaara’s Gods and Generals follows the principal commanders from the approach of secession to Chancellorsville; Michael Shaara’s Pulitzer Prize-winning The Killer Angels reconstructs Gettysburg; and Jeff Shaara’s The Last Full…

The Civil War in the West in Order

by Jeff Shaara 4 books 4.3(22,684)

The Civil War in the West is a four-volume sequence following the principal campaigns that decided control of the Mississippi Valley and the Deep South. A Blaze of Glory reconstructs Shiloh; A Chain of Thunder follows Grant’s Vicksburg campaign; The Smoke at Dawn moves through Chickamauga and Chattanooga;…

Lucky Jack’s Civil War in Order

by Griff Hosker 3 books 4.2(3,880)

Lucky Jack’s Civil War follows cavalry and raiding in the American Civil War from the Confederate side. The books use irregular operations, scouting, raids and the road to Gettysburg to show a mobile war of risk, divided loyalties and battlefield escalation.

Books

30 Best Novels About the American Civil War

Non-Fiction

30 Best Non-Fiction Books About the American Civil War

Histories, biographies and reference works are listed separately from the historical novels above.