Civil War Fiction

In a startling departure, James Lee Burke has written an epic story of love, hate, and survival set against the tumultuous background of the Civil War and Reconstruction. Booklist calls White Doves "an epic filmed in tight focus, taking us from secession to Reconstruction at an intensely personal level."

Based on the extraordinary true story of America's first-ever female detective, this fast-paced adventure recounts feats of daring and danger...including saving the life of Abraham Lincoln! Eleven-year-old Nell Warne arrives on her aunt's doorstep lugging a heavy sack of sorrows. If her Aunt Kate rejects her, it's the miserable Home for the Friendless. Luckily, canny Nell makes herself indispensable to Aunt Kate...and not just by helping out with household chores. For Kate Warne is the first-ever female detective employed by the legendary Pinkerton Detective Agency.

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.

No one can talk to the dead...can they? Free man of color Benjamin January gets caught up in a strange, spiritual world that might lead to his own demise, as he hunts for a missing teenager in this gripping, atmospheric historical mystery. New Orleans, 1840. Freshly home from a dangerous journey, the last thing Benjamin January wants to do is leave his wife and young sons again. But when old friends Henri and Chloë Viellard ask for his help tracking down a missing girl in distant New York, he can’t say no.

The peace and beauty of the Ohio countryside became still when the real presence of the war came knocking. Thousands of young Ohio men eagerly enlisted and abandoned their families and everyday lives. There would be no contentment for a long time to come. Discover how one family struggled through hard times, love, and despair during the Civil War. Let not the passage of time erase their memories and may their footprints in the dust not fade away.

New York Times bestselling authors Newt Gingrich and William R. Forstchen conclude their inventive trilogy with Never Call Retreat, a remarkable answer to the great "what if" of the American Civil War: Could the South have indeed won?

When Grace Wheaton's former professor calls to warn her that there have been a rash of thefts at various historical sites, Grace isn't surprised, because Marshfield Manor has been targeted, too. She wonders if it has something to do with the film crew roaming the grounds, digitally immortalizing the manor, but then she gets distracted by an incident much more dire: the shooting of one guest and the murder of another.

Civil war reenactors have set up camp on the grounds of Marshfield Manor. The group is very believable, especially when the unrest spills out of the barracks and inside the sumptuous mansion. Grace Wheaton, the curator and manager of the manor, manages to settle a minor squabble but loses the war when actor Zachary Kincade is found stabbed to death.

A fast paced, gritty murder mystery through the wilds of territorial New Mexico's Rio Grande Valley with the feel of a Tony Hillerman novel and the complexity of a Ngaio Marsh mystery. Pueblos, Apache, former Mexican citizens and the US Army collide in a tale of greed and murder. A new civil war mystery series by best-selling author Phillip and Jennifer Bryant. Peter Thomas Smith's days on the post of Fort Craig, New Mexico territory, are spent fighting boredom, keeping cool, and giving the spiritual state of the fifth California Mounted Infantry volunteers a ready ear.

Lexington, Kentucky, 1859. After saving John Hunt Morgan from a puma attack, 15-year-old farm boy Will Crump joins Hunt’s militia, the Lexington Rifles. Morgan mentors Will and enrolls him in the local university, where he hopes to study law. As tensions rise between the North and South, Will is torn between his loyalty to Morgan and his love for his family. Will’s sister Albinia, friend of the Clay family, becomes increasingly aware of the plight of the slaves. Luther is one of the first slaves Albinia helps flee the South after his master cruelly abuses his mother and sister.

Follow John Henry and his friends of Holmes Brigade as they battle an invasion from outer space which has the energy to summon killer insects. Witness the might of the space orb as it is used by the Confederacy to power an underwater vessel of destruction. The Union will not be safe until the river is rid of the infernal device. Can John Henry and his pards defeat the evil from the heavens and the terror of the river?

A tale of Bravery, corrupt politicians, and civil war.

Matt Stone rode into Markleeville one hot dusk, with a wind at his back that promised summer thunder. He was tall and lean, with a narrow, clean-shaven face above the collar of his oilskin duster. His eyes were a hard pale blue, like chips of ice, and his black hair was long like an Apache's and held back with a strip of leather. The coat was open, revealing a buckskin vest and the pair of silver Colts at his hips. He rode a huge, sleek black horse with a bullet scar showing in white hairs across one flank. Its name was Lucky.

Former slave Pad Pennywell had hopes of starting a new life with his wife, daughter, and adopted family in Texas. Little did Pad know that his life was about to be torn apart when his family is brutalized by a band of thieves and murderers. On the Harrisonburg road, a stretch of trail that connects the Natchez Trace with the El Camino Real, Pad and his family are taken captive by John West, a psychopathic murderer whose charm and hypocrisy is only matched by his lust for blood and money. Pad's only hope for escape is a group of geriatrics, children, and a confederate veteran gunslinger.

The Red Badge of Courage remains America's greatest novel of the Civil War. It is a powerful portrayal of a youth's impressions of the reality and horrors of war, as well as the responsibilities and requirements of being a soldier. The text comes alive in this special recording.

The Separately Together series is a three-volume work looking into the relationships of its characters during the American Civil War. Written by Charles Heaton Allen, a historian, this series is exciting and challenging. It has been described as "the most uniquely plotted and warmly character-driven of the many Civil War novels I've ever read, which includes many of them" by Col. William C. Moore. It is worthy of the attention of anyone captivated by the Civil War era.

On a dark day in April 1865, a band of former Confederate guerrillas slaughtered more than 40 Comanches, most of them women and children. This began a six-month reign of terror along the Santa Fe Trail as Comanche chief, White Eagle, took his revenge. The US Cavalry was assigned the task of tracking White Eagle and his warriors down. Lieutenant Colonel Ignatius O'Sullivan's orders were to either bring them in or kill them.

July 1861. On Independence Day, the citizens of Washington, DC, are celebrating as if there isn't a war. But the city is teeming with green Union recruits while President Lincoln and his War Department are focused on military strategy to take Richmond in Secessionist Virginia in order to bring the conflict to a swift end. Manassas, Virginia, near Bull Run Creek, is in their sights. The very next morning, as Congress convenes once more, a dead body is found hanging from the crane beneath the unfinished dome of the Capitol.

With the Confederate Army firing on Fort Sumter, the Civil War has begun - and an invasion of Washington, DC, from Secessionist Virginia seems imminent. As the population evacuates, the president is in desperate need of men to defend the capital. Lincoln's trusted aide, Adam Speed Quinn, and Senator Jim Lane hastily assemble a motley crew and garrison them in the East Room at the White House. As dawn breaks with no Rebel strike, a single act of violence intrudes within the White House. One of the Frontier Guard lies dead in the oval library, throat slit ear to ear. There is a murderer among them.

Carrie and her little brother, Jay, find a wounded soldier on their land after a battle which later became known as "The Battle Above the Clouds." Adam, a Union soldier, has been shot twice in the arm. Though Carrie is reluctant to take Adam to their cave where her family hides their livestock from both armies, she cannot turn her back on him. But her Aunt Lavinia, bitter over what Yankees have done to their land, urges Carrie to allow Adam to die. Carrie refuses, but cannot remove the bullets.