American Civil War Fiction

The American Civil War was caused by so many inequalities, one of which was the issue of slavery. In this US history book for fourth-graders, we're going to learn how slavery came to end. Who was the main figure who broke the norms in order to free the slaves? There are stories to appeal to young listeners.

SHILOH, 1862 - The Battle of Shiloh, fought in the wilderness of southern Tennessee in April 1862, marked a violent crossroads in the Civil War. What began as a surprise attack by Confederate troops on a Union stronghold to gain control of the Mississippi River Valley became a bloody two-day conflict that would eerily foretell the brutal reality of the next three years.

From the critically acclaimed author of Bloodroot, a gripping, wondrously evocative novel of a family in turmoil, set against the backdrop of real-life historical event—the story of three days in the summer of 1936, as a government-built dam is about to flood an Appalachian town, and a little girl goes missing.

Ever since the guns fell silent in July 1863, the Battle of Gettysburg has emerged as the defining conflict in our nation's history. American memory has established Gettysburg as the most important, most heroic, most savage battle this nation has ever fought. It has become our Waterloo, our battle of Marathon, our siege of Troy. In this riveting historical reappraisal, esteemed Civil War historian, Thomas A. Desjardin, sets out to examine the truth behind the myth by probing how this battle became legend in American hearts and minds.

Twelve-year-old Ann Maria Weems works from sunup to sundown, wraps rags around her feet in the winter, and must do whatever her master or mistress orders—but she has something that many plantation slaves don't have. She has her wonderful family around her. To Ann, her teasing brothers, her older sister, and her protective and loving parents are everything. And then one day, they are gone. Separated from her family by her master and shipped off as a housemaid, Ann learns something about independence and about love before the opportunity for escape arrives.

Jim spielt den Dummen. Es wäre zu gefährlich, wenn die Weißen wüssten, wie intelligent und gebildet er ist. Als man ihn nach New Orleans verkaufen will, flieht er mit Huck gen Norden in die Freiheit. Auf dem Mississippi jagt ein Abenteuer das nächste: Stürme, Überschwemmungen, Begegnungen mit Betrügern und Blackface-Sängern. Immer wieder muss Jim mit seiner Schwarzen Identität jonglieren, um sich und seinen jugendlichen Freund zu retten. Percival Everetts »James« ist einer der maßgeblichen Romane unserer Zeit, eine unerhörte Provokation, die an den Grundfesten des amerikanischen Mythos rüttelt.

For three long years, the American Civil War has raged across the nation, scorching the land, leaving thousands dead, and tearing families apart. The endless fighting has hardened the hearts of soldiers of both sides. But on a lonely field in mid-Tennessee, some of those soldiers will come face to face with one another in a series of ball games. Stalled in a stalemate, the soldiers start out with small bets on who is better at the game; but as the wagers increase, so do the risks.

Junior Thompson, son of a freed slave, and Webbie Henderson, son of a wealthy family, cross a forbidden boundary between their properties and forge an unlikely friendship in the years that culminate in the Civil War. Young as they are, both must become the men of their families when their fathers are called to battle. When the war comes to their hometown of Carlisle and nearby Gettysburg, will they survive?

The gold is not making it to the governments of the USA and the CSA. Why? Ambitious politicians point fingers with one hand while stealing from the till with the other. There is violence in the streets and folks are unsure and upset. Can a few good men sort this out? And can anyone tell the good guys from the bad guys? Pinkerton agent Rob Finn and his sidekick Lonnie Walters return to Bannack to get the gold supply flowing to the Union again.

They came by boat from a starving land, and by the Underground Railroad from Southern chains, seeking refuge in a crowded, filthy corner of hell at the bottom of a great metropolis. But in the terrible July of 1863, the poor and desperate of Paradise Alley would face a new catastrophe, as flames from the war that was tearing America in two reached out to set their city on fire.

1862 was the year that the US Civil War underwent a major ramping up. People on both sides of the fight were confused, angry, and hesitant. Most believed the 'war' would have already been over. Very few people realized to what extent the citizenry was being manipulated to participate in the country's most dividing event in its history. In Longshot in Missouri, we meet Rob Finn - an Irish immigrant farmer living in Wisconsin - and follow him through his introduction to the grueling realities of war within a nation.

From best-selling author Dennis McFarland comes an extraordinary Civil War novel: the journey of a nineteen-year-old private abandoned by his comrades in the Wilderness, struggling to regain his voice, his identity, and his place in a world - all utterly changed by what he has experienced on the battlefield. In the winter of 1864, young Summerfield Hayes, a pitcher for the famous Eckford Club, enlists in the Union army, leaving his sister, a schoolteacher, devastated and alone in their Brooklyn home.

Johnny Madigan is orphaned, penniless, and just 16 years old. He tells a Union Army recruiting sergeant he is 18 and old enough to fight. But is he - or indeed any man - ready to be thrown into the horrors of the American Civil War? On the bloody field of the Battle of Fredericksburg, as thousands of young men in both blue and grey are brutally cut down, the boy becomes a man. And he is thrown into a man's battle.

At the close of the Civil War, weary veteran Malcolm Hopeton returns to his home in Western New York State to find his wife and hired man missing and his farm in disrepair. A double murder ensues, the repercussions of which ripple through a community with spiritual roots in the Second Great Awakening. Hopeton has gone from the horrors of war to those far worse, and arrayed around him are a host of other people struggling to make sense of his crime.

While attempting to join up with her lover Matt Jorgensen as he joins Confederate Calvary, Ginny McBride is hit by a musketball from a Union rifle. She develops amnesia, losing all memory as to who and where she is. Matt spends his military time trying to find her. When she returns to herself, she in turn tries to find Matt. It is a story that also engulfs the Western folklore of Jesse James, Cole Younger and his brothers and Belle (Starr) Shirley as they became legends.

Trapped in what appears to be an endless bloodbath - vividly presented with Heffernan's meticulous historical research - three boys gradually begin to change until their close-knit childhood ties are little more than a fractured memory. By war's end, one boy is dead, one returns a physically crippled and emotionally compromised man, and the third comes home as an unfeeling psychopath. The novel turns on the subsequent murder of the psychopath, and the offer of redemption for the wounded young man.

Private Ike Lowery, a Union Infantryman from Illinois, wakes up in a strange place, short on memories, weak from hunger and blood loss from a head wound, and with a broken leg. He discovers that he is the "guest" of a Confederate widow in whose dooryard his squad was ambushed. Ike worries about his sanity due to his memory loss and the constant commentary in his head from a fallen comrade who finds Ike's situation amusing.

Twelve Years a Slave is the autobiographical account of Solomon Northup, an African American who was born free in New York in the early 1800s. In 1841, Solomon Northup was captured and forced into slavery for a period of twelve years. Northup's account is detailed in its account of life on a cotton and sugar plantation and the daily routine of slave life during the first part of the 19th century.

Abraham Lincoln delivered what is considered to be the most famous speech ever at the dedication of the cemetery at Gettysburg Pennsylvania on November 19, 1863. There are five known copies of this speech in Lincoln’s handwriting, each with a slightly different text. John W Michaels reads from the Bliss copy which appears on the Lincoln Memorial in Washington. In the background we hear the U.S. Army chorus performing the Battle hymn of the Republic.

George Ward Nichols was born in Tremont, Maine, on 21st June, 1831. He worked as a journalist until the outbreak of the American Civil War and then joined the Union Army. He served under General William Sherman and rose to the rank of lieutenant colonel. He published The Story of the Great March, essentially a journal he kept during that march in 1865 and it became an immediate best seller.