American Civil War Historical Fiction

As the War for Independence wore on into the 1780s, unrest ruled the Carolinas. Settlers who had cleared the land after the Cherokees withdrew were being mustered for battle as British forces pillaged their hard-won farms. Robert Morgan's stunning novel tells a story of two people caught in the...

A riveting evocation of the Civil War, drawn from the true family history of "America's best novelist" (The Denver Post), JAMES LEE BURKE 1861. Two young Southerners, friends despite their differing political views and backgrounds, enlist in the 18th Louisiana regiment of the Confederate Army...

April 13, 1873. What happened that day in the small Southern town of Colfax, Louisiana, was called “the Colfax Riot.” But it was something far more devastating… Weaving together history and the story of her own family, Lalita Tademy, author of the acclaimed New York Times bestseller Cane...

From the New York Times bestselling author of The Women, a historical novel about three women’s lives on a California island On a tiny, desolate, windswept island off the coast of Southern California, two families, one in the 1880s and one in the 1930s, come to start new lives and pursue...

America is starkly divided between the haves and the have-nots. A Republican president seeks reelection in the afterglow of a war many view as unnecessary and imperialisttic. He is bankrolled by millionaires, with every step of his career orchestrated by a political mastermind. Religious...

The year is 1943 and World War II in the Pacific rages on, with Americans engaged in desperate battles against a cunning enemy. Coast Guard Captain Josh Thurlow is on hand at the invasion of Tarawa, as the U.S. Navy begins the grand strategy of throwing her marines at island after bloody island...

In Gone for Soldiers, Jeff Shaara carries us back 15 years before the momentous conflict he has so brilliantly chronicled, to a time when the Civil War's most familiar names are fighting for another cause, junior officers marching under the same flag in an unfamiliar land, experiencing combat...

This magnificent novel by one of America’s finest writers is the epic of one man’s remarkable journey, set in nineteenth-century America against the background of a vanishing people and a rich way of life. At the age of twelve, under the Wind moon, Will is given a horse, a key, and a map...

New York Times bestselling author Sally Jenkins and distinguished Harvard professor John Stauffer mine a nearly forgotten piece of Civil War history and strike gold in this surprising account of the only Southern county to secede from the Confederacy. The State of Jones is a true story about the...

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.

Three years have passed since General Robert E. Lee routed the Union army at Gettysburg and caused the Lincoln government to flee Washington, D.C. Now, as president of the Confederacy, Lee realizes the hollowness of his victory as he watches the South he loved and defended slowly crumble before his eyes. Lee must reach out to the only man he believes can help him save the South - the disgraced and out-of-office President Abraham Lincoln. Amidst intense opposition, the two men secretly devise a plan that, if successful, could reunite the country once again.

With the outbreak of Civil War, two slave brothers embark on a quest. Aided by the abolitionist underground movement, they escape the confines of the plantation to enlistment into the famed 54th Massachusetts colored infantry. Facing prejudice, their bravery under fire against the Confederate army, earning them respect from their white colleagues. The heroism of the 54th would forever go down in history.

Henry Marts was 19 years old when he defied his Quaker faith and answered the call from President Lincoln to defend the Union. Fully expecting to be home in a matter of months, Henry left behind his parents, his work as an oysterman, his sea captain brother Will, and his sweetheart Christiana. Henry, and his comrades in the 3rd Regiment New Jersey Volunteer Infantry, would experience some of the most compelling moments of the Eastern campaigns.

This is the story of 12-year-old Annie Jewel Bounds, taken from letters and publications of the time; the story of a girl who would have gone off to war with her father, but when he is lost in battle, she convinces her mother to allow her to dress as a Yankee drummer boy and march off with a unit that will be discharged in just six weeks. Her adventure places her in the thick of the fire and smoke at the Battle of Wilson's Creek, Missouri. Fought on August 10, 1861, it is the first battle of the Civil War.

From Vienna's barricades to bleeding Kansas to the Civil War, August Bondi was continuously engaged in the struggle for freedom for half of his young adult life. As an old man, he wrote down what he remembered, and author Aaron Barnhart closely followed Bondi's autobiography in writing Firebrand. Barnhart also drew upon the 1958 novel Border Hawk: August Bondi, by children's author Lloyd Alexander (winner of the Newbery Medal and National Book Award), to bring Bondi's story back to life.

My two great-grandfathers, Jasper Smith and Ellwood Janney, served in the 18th Michigan Infantry during the American Civil War. In 1864 the 18th found itself in Decatur, Alabama, way down south across the Tennessee River. There, along with newly organized Black Union soldiers, they had to stop Confederate forces under General Hood and the notorious Nathan Bedford Forrest. Had they failed, Nashville likely would have fallen into Confederate control and caused the defeat of President Lincoln in the looming election.

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.