Biographies

David Herbert Donald. Lincoln was highly regarded and won a Pulitzer Prize.

Stephen B. Oates. With Malice Toward None is an excellent one-volume biography of Lincoln from boyhood to death.

James M. McPherson. Abraham Lincoln. Another fine work by the Civil War historian.

Douglas Southall Freeman is best known for Robert E. Lee (4 volumes) and Lee's Lieutenants (3 volumes.) Some historians believe the latter is more accurate than the former as it was written later and corrects some errors in the first work.

Robert E. Lee never got around to writing his memoirs, but historians compiled a collection of Lee's letters and papers under the title of Memoirs.

Emory M. Thomas. Robert E. Lee: A Biography.

Jean Edward Smith. Grant. Smith has also written excellent biographies of John Marshall and Franklin Roosevelt.

Ulysses S. Grant. The Personal Memoirs of U. S. Grant are considered by many to be the best ever written by any U. S. President.

William S. McFeely. Grant: A Biography presents a complete picture of the soldier-president in all his triumphs and flaws.

Horace Porter was one a General Grant's top aides and wrote about his experiences in Campaigning with Grant.

Gene Smith presents two contrasting lives side by side in Lee and Grant.

Stephen W. Sears. George B. McClellan: The Young Napoleon uses McClellan's own writings extensively and reveals McClellan's fatal flaws.

Earl Schenck Miers. The General Who Marched to Hell: Sherman and the Southern Campaign.

Alice Rains Trulock. In the Hands of Providence: Joshua L. Chamberlain and the Civil War is a biography of the general who accepted the surrender of Lee's Army of Northern Virginia.

T. Harry Williams. Lincoln and His Generals is an excellent one-volume account of the President's problems in finding a general who could lead the Union armies to victory.

Abraham Lincoln. Lincoln's letters, speeches and official documents provide great insight into the man. The Library of America collected his most important works in two volumes.

William Tecumseh Sherman. Sherman told his own story in his 2-volume Memoirs. Unlike his partner Grant, he does have a case to make and defends his actions vigorously.

James I. Robertson Jr. Robertson teaches the Civil War at Virginia Tech. His best known works include Robert E. Lee: Virginian Soldier, American Citizen; General A. P. Hill: The Story of a Confederate Warrior; and Standing Like a Stone Wall: The Life of General Thomas J. Jackson.

Jeffrey D. Wert. Cavalryman of the Lost Cause: A Biography of J. E. B. Stuart and General James Longstreet: The Confederacy's Most Controversial Soldier

Robert Gould Shaw. Blue-Eyed Child of Fortune: The Civil War Letters of Colonel Robert Gould Shaw. edited by Russell Duncan and William S. McFeely. Shaw commanded the 54th Massachusetts Regiment portrayed in the film Glory.

William C. Davis. Jefferson Davis: The Man and His Hour. Portrait of the Confederate President.