American Civil War Fiction

Susie King Taylor, born a slave in 1848, would learn to read at secret schools and go on to teach countless others to read and write. Follow the course of the Civil War in her own words as she remembers her work as a nurse and teacher with an Army troop of African-American soldiers.

Reed Morrow is happy making a living hunting buffalo on the Kansas plain. But he makes a change after he finds his best friend with a bullet in his neck. He’s turning his rifles away from the buffalo herd and training them on the ruthless outlaw that pulled the trigger – Bradshaw Devlin. Bradshaw failed as a buffalo hunter. But he’s starting to make a fortune from his new trade – cold murder. Following the buffalo herd closely, Reed finds bloody echoes of Bradshaw’s rampage along the trail. Reed thinks he’s alone in his hunt. Until he meets Celia Arnold. Celia’s family has ...

Praised by Alice Walker and many other best-selling writers, The Personal History of Rachel DuPree is an award-winning debut novel with incredible heart about life on the prairie as it's rarely been seen. Reminiscent of The Color Purple as well as the frontier novels of Laura Ingalls Wilder and Willa Cather, it opens a window on the little-known history of African American homesteaders and gives voice to an extraordinary heroine who embodies the spirit that built America.

Harriet Ann Jacob's autobiography documents her life as a slave and how she attained freedom for herself and her children. Harrowing in its descriptions of sexual abuse, Jacob's slave narrative is notable for the appeal it made to abolitionist women to open their eyes to the realities of slavery. Deemed too shocking for reading audiences at the time, the book was shelved before it was published in 1861 near the start of the Civil War.

Twelve-year-old Ann Maria Weems works from sunup to sundown, wraps rags around her feet in the winter, and must do whatever her master or mistress orders—but she has something that many plantation slaves don't have. She has her wonderful family around her. To Ann, her teasing brothers, her older sister, and her protective and loving parents are everything. And then one day, they are gone. Separated from her family by her master and shipped off as a housemaid, Ann learns something about independence and about love before the opportunity for escape arrives.

This classic collection of essays, edited by Booker T. Washington and with contributions from many of post-Civil War America's other prominent African-American thinkers, sought to redefine the role of Black persons in the new Jim Crow era and beat back white supremacy through racial uplift. Seven essays include Charles Chesnutt's "The Disfranchisement of the Negro", W. E. B. DuBois "The Talented Tenth", and Wilford Horace Smith's "The Negro and the Law" .

Few wars have been fought by each side with greater intensity of conviction in the rightness of its cause or with more abundant personal heroism than the War Between the States. The story begins with a great responsibility falling on Vincent Wingfield, the teenage son of a widowed Virginia plantation owner. Vincent must decide what course of action he should take when a problem arises on the plantation.

From the critically acclaimed author of Bloodroot, a gripping, wondrously evocative novel of a family in turmoil, set against the backdrop of real-life historical event—the story of three days in the summer of 1936, as a government-built dam is about to flood an Appalachian town, and a little girl goes missing.

Sam Turner is a retired lawman who has long hung up his badge and gun in favor of a peaceful life on his homestead. One day, this life is shattered by notorious outlaw Desmond Cutter. Known for his ruthless and cunning ways, Cutter has been wreaking havoc in the region of Colorado, leaving a trail of bloodshed in his wake. When Sam’s wife and daughter are killed in the crossfire, Sam knows he can’t succumb to despair. He chooses to pick up his gun and his badge again. The retired lawman has returned for vengeance. Sam’s teenage son, Jack, is also thirsty for revenge. He is desperate ...

Waking in the dirt to the smell of smoke, widower Ben Palmer finds his homestead razed, and his daughter gone. Ben is raising his daughter Iris as best he could, scratching a living out of the rocky New Mexico mountain soil. Life is hard – but it just gets a lot harder. Under the lead of the notorious Stitch Jacobs, six desperate men have just fouled relations between the Apache nation and a wealthy land baron. Caught in the crosshairs of their escape, Ben’s daughter is taken hostage as a peace offering to the tyrant who bankrolls the gang. Ben is desperate. Getting his daughter back ...

The Overland Campaign that pitted Robert E. Lee against Ulysses S. Grant is one of the most famous campaigns of the Civil War, and May 1864 witnessed the Civil War’s greatest chess match as Lee skillfully blocked Grant’s attempts to destroy the Army of Northern Virginia only to watch his tenacious opponent keep advancing south toward Richmond. Lee and Grant fought to a standstill in the Wilderness, Spotsylvania, and along the North Anna. By the time the two armies reached Cold Harbor near the end of May 1864, Grant incorrectly thought that Lee’s army was on the verge of collapse.

A deeply private man, shut off even to those who worked closely with him, Abraham Lincoln often captured “his best thoughts", as he called them, in short notes to himself. He would work out his personal stances on the biggest issues of the day, never expecting anyone to see these pieces of writing, which he’d then keep close at hand, in desk drawers and even in his top hat. The profound importance of these notes has been overlooked, because the originals are scattered across several different archives and have never before been brought together and examined as a coherent whole.

At 26, Bushrod Carter is already an old soldier, a veteran of all his regiment's campaigns since Shiloh. Now, on an Indian summer afternoon in 1864, Bushrod finds himself in the line of battle once again, on a plain below the obscure village of Franklin, Tennessee. The dark flower of his destiny is opening in the twilight, just as it has on other fields, and Bushrod must pass once again under its shadow if he is to see tomorrow.

Christmas comes but once a year... but will it be different this Christmas? Callie Mae Copeland is the only child of affluent landowner, Sullivan Copeland, and his wife, Faye. Because Callie has been doted on her entire life, she is pampered and outspoken. Although the Civil War is looming and is in its second year, it hasn't affected the Copelands or their neighbors in north Alabama too much ... yet. Once she turns sixteen, Callie realizes the influence she has over boys her age and uses her flirtatious graces to her advantage. She turns her sights on Christmas and is determined to do ...

U.S. Marshal Hunter Cole is called upon to restore peace and stop a gang from attacking a sacred site of the Apaches. The small town of Thunder Ridge is built near an ancient Apache ruins, where whispers of hidden treasure stir excitement. A notorious gang led by Lucas Crane rides into town, seeking gold and priceless artifacts rumored to be buried by Apache ancestors. The town’s peace crumbles when its residents start fearing the outlaws’ greed might provoke a war with the Apache tribe. The town’s mayor realizes he has no choice but to call in U.S. Marshal Hunter Cole to capture ...

Bethany Holmes had an ordinary life with her parents until the infamous outlaw, Jeremiah Blake, escaped from prison and decided to burn it to the ground. Haunted by the brutal murder of her family at the hands of the criminal, Bethany is driven by the burning desire of revenge. Years later, Bethany is finally ready to seek out the outlaw when she hears news of his recent robbery. She had spent a long time training under the watchful eye of a former Pinkerton agent, Theodore James, who guided her through the toughest time of her life. Bethany sets off on a journey to find her parents’ ...

In the tranquil town of Malachite, Ashton Hagen finds solace working in the general store, a stark contrast to the town’s dark underbelly of lawlessness and corruption. His father, the former sheriff, was slain by outlaws, leaving Ashton wary of following in his footsteps. Meanwhile, Jack Keller, once a respected rancher, descends into the vengeful Black Jack Keller. Fuelled by years of mistreatment by Malachite’s residents, he unleashes havoc upon the town, leaving destruction in his wake. Ashton’s uncle, the only family he has left, becomes another casualty of Keller’s rampage. ...

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."

“The bridge.” Sheriff Dean Coleman paused, then said, “The bridge? What about it?” “The bridge that the Texas Pacific rides on, over Bitter Gorge. That’s a drop of one hundred feet or more, down into the Pecos River.” Dean leaned in. “You don’t figure they’re blowing it up?” “I don’t know. It makes sense. Blow up the bridge, take the gold.” After finding a train schedule in the pocket of a dead outlaw, Sheriff Dean uncovers the most sinister plot yet of the deadly militia Los Bandidos Rojos. There’s a train car full of gold due to pass through Dean’s town. ...

On the North American continent, Native American tribes carried out abductions against the new European settlers from the time they first set foot on eastern shores. Some of the women taken in the colonial to early American period went on to become respected figures in their new environments, while others lived out their lives as slaves.