KDL Recommends

During the Civil War, Caroline Fletcher, the daughter of a wealthy slaveholding family, is drawn into the abolitionist movement, where she is confronted with the risks and sacrifices her beliefs entail.

In 1885, haunted by his devastating memories of the Civil War, Cass Wakefield journeys from his Mississippi hometown to Franklin, Tennessee, to recover the bodies of her brother and father, a quest that reawakens Cass’s vivid recollections.

In a story inspired by the father character in “Little Women” and drawn from the journals and letters of Louisa May Alcott’s father, a man leaves behind his family to serve in the Civil War and finds his beliefs challenged by his experiences.

Despite their misgivings about “the Cause,” Willie Burke and his best friends, three young men from New Iberia, Louisiana, enlist in the Confederate Army and head off to war, in a novel drawn from the author’s own family history.

An historical account of the final year of the Civil War and the surrender at Appomattox.

Facing radical changes in their roles and outlooks when the men in their lives join the Union forces, the women of Elm Creek Valley’s quilting bee begin an agonizing period of waiting that is shaped by their husbands’ military duties and their respective circumstances.

A perceptive account of a young man’s first experiences as a soldier during the Civil War.

Union General William Tecumsah Sherman’s devastating march through Georgia and the Carolinas during the final years of the Civil War has a profound impact on the outcome of the war.

Discusses the life of Abraham Lincoln and his personal and political journey to the abolition of slavery and the recognition of former slaves as American citizens.

Follows four years of military campaigns while viewing the personal objectives of both Union and Confederate leaders.

A fictionalized account of an alternate American Civil War, based on five years of research, considers how history might have transpired if General Robert E. Lee had won the Battle of Gettysburg in 1863.

Chronicles the revolution of ideas that preceded—and led to—the start of the Civil War, looking at a diverse cast of characters and the actions of citizens throughout the country in their efforts to move beyond compromise and end slavery.

An analysis of Abraham Lincoln’s political talents identifies the character strengths and abilities that enabled his successful election, in an account that also describes how he used the same abilities to rally former opponents in winning the Civil War.

Incarcerated within a murderous Confederate prison camp in 1864, Union officer Nathan Parker escapes and urges his superiors to intervene, but when his efforts are blocked by military higher-ups, he organizes a private rescue mission with a shady ex-soldier.

A story based on the true experiences of a Civil War heroine finds Carrie McGavock witnessing the bloodshed of the Battle of Franklin, falling in love with a wounded man, and dedicating her home as a burial site for fallen soldiers.

A journalist leads readers on a revealing journey through the Old South, tangling with the forces of white rage, rebel grit, and regional pride in places where the Civil War is more than a memory.

Follows Adair, the daughter of modest farmers in the Missouri Ozarks, who is wrongly accused of enemy collaboration by the Union militia, as she falls in love with her interrogator and embarks on a periloous journey to find her family.

Fleeing the horrors of the Civil War by deserting, Brendan Kane joins the crew of the Narthex, an oddly shaped vessel, unaware that the ship’s intended destination is a mythic temperate paradise in the heart of the Arctic ice.

Disguising herself as a boy to join the Union army alongside her husband, Malinda Blalock raids the farms of Confederate sympathizers and promotes the efforts of governor Zebulon Vance, who would protect Appalachian interests.

Focuses on the military campaigns, including strategy and logistics, military leaders, and common soldiers.

Spoiled Southern belle Scarlett O’Hara never stops loving the married Ashley Wilkes even as she faces the hardships of life during the Civil War and the changes brought about by Reconstruction.

Yancy Tremayne, son of an Amish man, joins General Stonewall Jackson’s troops, which leads to adventure and romance with a Southern belle.

When Robey Childs’s mother experiences a premonition about her husband, a Civil War soldier, she sends her only son to retrieve his father from the battlefield, accompanied by a horse that becomes his only companion as he makes his way through the destruction of war.

Will Brannon, the eldest son of a farming family in Culpeper County, Virginia, enlists in the Confederate army after Virginia secedes from the Union.

Penetrating portraits of Lee, Longstreet, and other Civil War leaders are interwoven with historical detail to provide a fictional recreation of the bloody battle at Gettysburg. Winner of the Pulitzer Prize.

A tale based on the events of the controversial 1864 Fort Pillow Massacre traces the Confederacy attack against the mixed-race Union garrison at Fort Pillow, a battle led by ruthless cavalry commander Nathan Bedford Forrest.

A Quaker’s fondness for fast horses is an amusing sidelight in this tale of Friends who dealt with the Civil War in their own way.