Many sources are used by your Learn Civil War History BlogMaster to create the various posts.

I have a personal library of Civil War books, magazines, CDs, and tapes. For each post I have used at least two sources and many times three, four, or five sources of information. I strive to make each post informative, somewhat entertaining, and (of course), accurate to history. Many of the books you see listed here are well-known by students of the Civil War, and some may be completely unheard of.

My method of writing posts is to have a topic catch my attention, begin to read and collect information about it, let the idea and heart of the post come to mind, let the whole post idea stew a bit in my head, then I pick up pencil and paper and outline the post. Finally, when I think I’m ready to write a post topic that will be of use to you, I sit down at my computer keyboard and begin to write. As I’m writing the post there will be Civil War books, magazines, and other sources of information piled up in stacks upon my desk and on the floor around my chair. I may go to my VCR and stick an old VHS tape into it to find information.

I attempt to boil down in the space of a blog posting something that will inform you about the particular topic of the blog post, and hopefully add to your enjoyment of learning about the Civil War. The posts vary in length, but are as long as I think they need to be to make reading them worthwhile. Often I will return to a posting and edit it some as time goes by. I like to tweak.

Below is the beginning of a list of my sources of information. The list is in no particular order, I started with the books or information items which were closest to my reach as I sit here at my computer’s keyboard, and then proceeded on to actually having to get up from my chair and walk over to my bookcases to locate the next source of Civil War information for my list. What work! Please note that this list is incomplete.

I am always adding to my Civil War library, and compiling this list will be an on-going chore as I fish out my Civil War books and other sources to use them for researching my blog topics. For these reasons, this list of sources will always be a work in progress. I also prefer to spend time reading, learning, researching, and writing about the Civil War rather than creating a list of books and other items in my Civil War library. Please consider this a partial listing until I say here that I’ve listed everything. Thank you.

Regards,

Jonathan R. Allen

Learn Civil War History BlogMaster

Sources of Information for the Learn Civil War History Blog

***An Incomplete List***

Shelby Foote, The Civil War: A Narrative, 3 vols
Vol I: Fort Sumter to Perryville
Vol II: Fredericksburg to Meridian
Vol III: Red River to Appomattox

Shelby Foote, Stars in Their Courses: The Gettysburg Campaign June-July 1863

Bruce Catton, The Army of the Potomac, 3 vols
Vol I: Mr. Lincoln’s Army
Vol II: Glory Road
Vol III: A Stillness at Appomattox

Bruce Catton, The Civil War

Bruce Catton, Grant Moves South

Bruce Catton, Grant Takes Command

Bruce Catton, The American Heritage Picture History of The Civil War

James M. McPherson, Battle Cry of Freedom

Mark M. Boatner III, The Civil War Dictionary

The Library of Congress Civil War Desk Reference

Ward/Burns/Burns The Civil War (PBS series and book)

Garry Willis, Lincoln at Gettysburg

E.B. Long with Barbara Long, The Civil War Day by Day

MacKinlay Cantor, Gettysburg

David Miller, editor, The Illustrated Directory of Uniforms, Weapons, and Equipment of the Civil War

Greene/Gallagher, National Geographic Guide to the Civil War National Battlefield Parks

Thomas and Debra Goodrich, The Day Dixie Died

Marc McCutcheon, Everyday Life in the 1800s

Webb Garrison, The Lincoln Nobody Knows

Robert E. Denney, The Civil War Years

Bruce Chadwick, Traveling the Underground Railroad

Ezra Hoyt Ripple, edited by Mark A. Snell, Dancing Along the Deadline

Kenneth C. Davis, Don’t Know Much About The Civil War

James D. Horan, Mathew Brady: Historian With a Camera

William C. Davis, The Commanders of the Civil War

William C. Davis, The Battlefields of the Civil War

Jacob Hoke, The Great Invasion

General Edward J. Stackpole, They Met at Gettysburg

Captain Robert E. Lee, Recollections and Letters of General Robert E. Lee
by Captain Robert E. Lee, His Son

Lee Kennett, Marching Through Georgia

Mary Chesnut, A Diary From Dixie

B.H. Liddell Hart, Sherman

Burke Davis, Sherman’s March

David Herbert Donald, Lincoln