American Civil War Fiction

Mark was born on the third of July. He grew up believing his birthday had no meaning other than the day he was born. At the end of the school year in the fifth grade, his strict but fair teacher, Mr. Herzog, tells Mark about a great battle that happened on his birthday. His teacher called it, "The defining moment in American history." Mark celebrates his eleventh birthday followed by America's independence in none other than Independence, Missouri.

In 1861, 16-year-old Joe Roberts leads a mundane life as far as he's concerned. His world spins in the same circle each day: working at his family's store, taking his sisters on boyish escapades, and bickering with his rogue of a cousin, Lucas. Joe can't understand why his mother allows Lucas to live and work with them after all the pain he caused their family. When war is declared, Joe is quick to join up and become a soldier with the 11th Pennsylvania Volunteers, but war is nothing like he imagined.

From the onset of the war, Basil L. Gildersleeve, native of Charleston, South Carolina, a scholar, and professor of Greek at the University of Virginia left his students every Spring to return to the army until he was wounded during a skirmish in the Shenadoah Valley in 1864. Thirty years later he authored The Creed of the Old South, and A Southerner in the Peloponnesian War included in this audiobook.

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.

“In this brief sketch of our great Southern hero, I have endeavored to portray, amid the blaze of his matchless military genius, the unchanging rectitude of his conduct, the stern will-power by which he conquered all difficulties, his firm belief in an overruling Providence, and his entire submission to the Divine Will. These traits of character were the cornerstones upon which he reared the edifice of his greatness, and upon which the young people of our day will do well to build."

During the Civil War, the eyes of the nation usually stayed fixed to the Eastern theater, but one of the bright spots in the West for the Confederacy was Irish immigrant Patrick Cleburne, whose successes earned him the nickname "Stonewall of the West". Where so many Confederates were failing, Cleburne's strategic tactics and bold defensive fighting earned him fame and recognition throughout the South, even leading Lee to call him "a meteor shining from a clouded sky."

Hearing the hoofbeats of 20 horses entering the yard at the front of her house, Mattea pulled the lead rope, releasing the cow she was milking and ran into the house to find five Sioux braves wearing war paint sitting at her table, smoking her husband's tobacco from the humidor on the mantle.

Not many people have influenced the world we live in today in quite the same way as Abraham Lincoln. A visionary, scholar, and gentle soul. Simple qualities we all have within us, but few use these qualities to benefit mankind in quite the same way as Abe did. Centuries after his passing into spirit, we still remember his name, his work, and his legacy and will continue to do so for centuries to come. This short trilogy of verse I feel best capture his essence and the feeling of people who lived with and knew him.

An astonishing civil rights story from Newbery Honor winner and National Book Award finalist Steve Sheinkin. On July 17, 1944, a massive explosion rocked the segregated Navy base at Port Chicago, California, killing more than 300 sailors who were at the docks, critically injuring off-duty men in their bunks, and shattering windows up to a mile away. On August 9th, 244 men refused to go back to work until unsafe and unfair conditions at the docks were addressed. When the dust settled, fifty were charged with mutiny, facing decades in jail and even execution.

Septima Collis, a native of South Carolina, married Union general Charles H.T. Collis prior to the Civil War. She supported and accompanied her husband during the Civil War. This rendition is beautifully narrated by Suzi Woods.

Union General William Tecumseh Sherman came right through her yard on their march to the sea in 1864, just as they had other plantations. But the widow mistress of Georgia's Burge Plantation was no typical southern belle. She was a Maine-born transplant with 100 slaves. Here, in Dolly Sumner Lunt's own words, is a description of those days as she watched everything she had and believed in being threatened by an army she described as invaders.

John Brown, a maligned and condemned abolitionist, lived a great life. His heroic deeds to end slavery deserve our attention and praise.

In this missive Ambrose Bierce recounts two days in his life, April 6 and April 7, 1862, perhaps the two most significant days of his life. He and over 100,000 other combatants have gathered about a small church near the town of Corinth, "a wretched place--the capital of a swamp, two days' march west of the Tennessee River". The church is Shiloh, and it will lend its name to the great battle that took place there.

While the conflict over slavery was a factor in the Civil War, the abolition of slavery did not become a stated objective until Abraham Lincoln's Emancipation Proclamation, which went into effect on January 1, 1863. Now, to commemorate the 150th anniversary of the Proclamation, here is a new, unabridged audio recording of that historic document, freeing the slaves held in the still Confederate-controlled states. Heralded as one of America's most significant documents, this is a piece of history not to be missed.

While the conflict over slavery was a factor in the Civil War, the abolition of slavery did not become a stated objective until President Abraham Lincoln's Emancipation Proclamation, which went into effect on January 1, 1863. Freeing the slaves held in the still Confederate controlled states, it is heralded as one of America's most significant documents.

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.