Douglas Southall Freeman's Bookshelf

Recommended Reading #6

A CONFEDERATE BOOK SHELF 

by Douglas Southall Freeman

Originally printed in The South to Posterity: An Introduction to the Writing of Confederate History.

The appended brief Reading List of books on Confederate history is designed for those who do not aspire to become specialists but wish to have a moderate familiarity with the literature. Those who make their first adventure in the field will do well to start with Robert S. Henry’s Story of the Confederacy, and next to read Captain Lee’s Recollections and Letters of General Lee. After those two books might come A.T. Bledsoe’s Is Davis a Traitor? Subsequent study may be shaped by interest concerning particular books mentioned in the preceding chapters, or by the taste developed for works on some special phase of the subject. Needless to say, the Basic Reference Works are not recommended for other use than that heading suggests, though The Photographic History of the Civil War will hold the attention of any reader. It is superfluous to add, also, that the omission of any book from this list carries no implication that it lacks interest or historical value. This is merely a book shelf. One might list a library of excellent works. 

THE BASIC REFERENCE WORKS 

Clement A. Evans, ed. Confederate Military History; Atlanta (Conf. Publishing Co.), 1899, 12 v. and sup.

R.V. Johnson and C.C. Buel, eds. Battles and Leaders of the Civil War; New York (Century), 1887, 4 v.

Francis T. Miller. The Photographic History of the Civil War; New York (Review of Reviews), 1911, 10 v. 

Frank Moore, ed. The Rebellion Record; New York (Putnam), 1861-1865, 11 v. and sup. 

Southern Historical Society Papers; Richmond (The Society), 1876-continuing, 47 v.

War of the Rebellion Official Records of the Union and Confederate Armies; Washington (Gov. Printing Office), 1881-1900, 228 v.

THE CONSTITUTIONAL ISSUE 

Albert T. Bledsoe. Is Davis a Traitor? Baltimore (Innes), 1866.

Jefferson Davis. The Rise and Fall of the Confederate Government; New York (Appleton), 1881.

Alexander H. Stephens. Constitutional View of the Late War between the States; Philadelphia (National Publishing Co.), 1867, 2 v.

SOME NOTABLE BIOGRAPHIES 

(Arranged by subject) 

Alfred Roman. The Military Operations of General Beauregard; New York (Harper), 1883, 2 v.

John J. Craven. The Prison Life of Jefferson Davis; New York (Carleton), 1866.

Varina H. Davis, Jefferson Davis … A Memoir; New York (Belford), 1890, 2 v.

John W.A. Wyeth. Life of Nathan Bedford Forrest; New York (Harper), 1899. 

R.L. Dabney. Life and Campaigns of Lieut. Gen. Thomas J. Jackson; New York (Blalock), 1866.

G.F.R. Henderson. Stonewall Jackson and the American Civil War; New York (Longmans, Green), 1898, 2 v.

Mary Anna Jackson. Memoirs of Stonewall Jackson; Louisville, Ky. (Prentice Press), 1895.

William Preston Johnston. Life of Gen. Albert Sidney Johnston; New York (Appleton), 1878.

Charles Francis Adams. Lee’s Centennial; Boston (Houghton Mifflin), 1907.

Gamaliel Bradford. Lee the American; Boston (Houghton Mifflin), 1912. 

J. William Jones. Personal Reminiscences of General Robert E. Lee; New York (Appleton), 1874.

J. William Jones. Life and Letters of Robert E. Lee; New York (Neale), 1906.

R.E. Lee, Jr. Recollections and Letters of General Lee; New York (Doubleday, Page), 1904.

Armistead L. Long. Memoirs of Robert E. Lee; New York (Stoddart), 1886.

Walter H. Taylor. Four Years with General Lee; New York (Appleton), 1877.

H.J. Eckenrode and Bryan Conrad. James Longstreet; Chapel Hill, N.C. (Univ. of N.C.), 1936.

William M. Polk. Leonidas Polk: Bishop and General; New York (Longmans), 1893.

H.B. McClellan. The Life and Campaigns of J.E.B. Stuart; Boston (Houghton Mifflin), 1885.

John W. Thomason, Jr. Jeb Stuart; New York (Scribners), 1930.

DISTINGUISHED PERSONAL NARRATIVES 

E.P. Alexander. Military Memoirs of a Confederate; New York (Scribners), 1907.

Heros von Borcke. Memoirs of the Confederate War for Independence; London (Blackwood), 1866; reprinted, New York, 1938.

Louise Haskell Daly. Alexander Cheves Haskell, The Portrait of a Man; Norwood, Mass. (Plimpton Press), 1934. Privately printed and not available for general circulation.

Jubal A. Early. Autobiographical Sketch and Narrative of the War between the States; Philadelphia (Lippincott), 1912.

Arthur Lyon Fremantle. Three Months in the Southern States; New York (John Bradburn), 1864 and various other editions.

John B. Gordon. Reminiscences of the Civil War; New York (Scribners), 1903. 

John B. Hood. Advance and Retreat; New Orleans (Hood Orphan Memorial Fund), 1880.

Joseph E. Johnston. Narrative of Military Operations; New York (Appleton), 1874.

J.B. Jones. A Rebel War Clerk’s Diary; Philadelphia (Lippincott), 1866, 2 v.; reprinted 1935.

James Longstreet. From Manassas to Appomattox; Philadelphia (Lippincott), 1896.

Charles Marshall. An Aide-de-Camp of Lee ed. by Maj. Gen. Sir Frederick Maurice; Boston (Little, Brown), 1927.

G. Moxley Sorrel. Recollections of a Confederate Staff Officer; New York (Neale), 1905.

Robert Stiles. Four Years under Marse Robert; New York (Neale), 1903. 

Richard Taylor. Destruction and Reconstruction; New York (Appleton), 1878.

INTERESTING NARRATIVES BY WOMEN 

Eliza Frances Andrews. The War-time Journal of a Georgia Girl, 1864-1865; New York (Appleton), 1908.

Mary Boykin Chesnut. A Diary from Dixie; New York (Appleton), 1905.

Sarah Morgan Dawson. A Confederate Girl’s Diary; Boston (Houghton Mifflin), 1913.

Mrs. Burton Harrison. Recollections Grave and Gay; New York (Seribners), 1911.

Cornelia McDonald. A Diary with Reminiscences of the War and Refugee Life; Nashville (Cullom and Ghertner), 1934.

Judith B. McGuire. Diary of a Refugee; New York (Hale), 1867.

Phoebe Pember. A Southern Woman’s Story; New York (Carleton), 1879.

Kate Mason Rowland and Mrs. Morris L. Croxall, eds. The Journal of Julia LeGrand; Richmond (Waddey), 1911.

GENERAL AND MISCELLANEOUS 

John Esten Cooke. Wearing of the Gray; New York (Treat), 1867.

T.C. DeLeon. Four Years in Rebel Capitals; Mobile (The Gossip Printing Co.), 1890. 

T.C. DeLeon. Belles, Beaux and Brains of the 60's; New York (Dillingham), 1909. 

Thomas R. Hay. Hood’s Tennessee Campaign; New York (Neale), 1929.

Robert S. Henry. The Story of the Confederacy; Indianapolis (Bobbs, Merrill), 1931. 

J. William Jones. Christ in the Camp; Richmond (B. F. Johnson), 1888.

J. Thomas Scharf. History of the Confederate States Navy; New York (Rogers and Sherwood), 1887. 

Jennings C. Wise. The Long Arm of Lee; Lynchburg, Va. (Bell), 1915, 2 v.