Novels set in the American Civil War

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1864 Augusta Jane Evans Wilson: Macaria
1866 John Esten Cooke: Surry of Eagle’s Nest
1867 Rebecca Harding Davis: Waiting for the Verdict
1867 John William de Forest: Miss Ravenel’s Conversion from Secession to Loyalty
1869 John Esten Cooke: Hilt to Hilt
1869 John Esten Cooke: Mohun
1870 John Esten Cooke: Hammer and Rapier
1885 George Washington Cable: Dr. Sevier
1886 Virginius Dabney: The Story of Don Miff
1890 G A Henty: With Lee in Virginia
1891 Frederic A. Mitchel: Chattanooga
1892 Frances Harper: Iola Leroy
1893 Thomas Cooper DeLeon: The Copperhead
1893 Harold Frederic: John Holden, Unionist
1896 Stephen Crane: Red Badge of Courage
1897 Thomas Cooper DeLeon: Craig Nest
1900 Joseph A Altsheler: The Tree of Appomattox
1901 George Washington Cable: The Cavalier
1901 Winston Churchill: The Crisis
1902 Ellen Glasgow: The Battle-Ground
1904 Upton Sinclair: Manassas
1905 Sutton E. Griggs: The Hindered Hand
1908 George Washington Cable: Kincaid’s Battery
1911 Mary Johnston: The Long Roll
1912 Mary Johnston: Cease Firing
1915 James Lane Allen: The Sword of Youth
1917 Sheila Kaye-Smith: The Challenge to Sirius
1926 Hamlin Garland: Trail-Makers of the Middle Border
1927 James Boyd: Marching On
1927 Honoré Morrow: Forever Free
1929 Evelyn Scott; The Wave
1931 John Peale Bishop: Many Thousands Gone
1931 T S Stribling: The Forge
1932 DuBose Heyward: Peter Ashley
1934 MacKinlay Kantor: Long Remember
1934 Stark Young: So Red the Rose
1936 Andrew Lytle: The Long Night
1936 Margaret Mitchell: Gone With the Wind
1937 Clifford Dowdey: Bugles Blow No More
1937 Caroline Gordon: None Shall Look Back
1938 William Faulkner: The Unvanquished
1938 Allen Tate: The Fathers
1938 Hervey Allen: Action at Aquila
1941 Louis Bromfield: Wild is the River
1942 Phillip Van Doren Sterm: The Drums of Morning
1944 John Henry Bennett: So They Shall Reap
1944 Joseph Pennell: The History of Rome Hanks
1945 Clifford Dowdey: Where My Love Sleeps
1947 Ross Lockridge, Jr: Raintree County
1947 Ben Ames Williams: House Divided
1948 Harnett Kane: Bride of Fortune
1948 Bruce Lancaster: No Bugles Tonight
1950 John Brick: Troubled Spring
1951 F. Van Wyck Mason: Proud New Flags
1952 Shelby Foote: Shiloh
1952 Frances Parkinson Keyes: Steamboat Gothic
1955 Davis Grubb: A Dream of Kings
1955 MacKinlay Kantor: Andersonville
1955 Robert Penn Warren: Band of Angels
1956 John Brick: Jubilee
1956 Bruce Lancaster: Roll Shenandoah
1957 Jack Schaefer: Company of Cowards
1957 Janet Stevenson: Weep No More
1958 Bruce Lancaster: Night March
1959 Upton Sinclair: Theirs be the Guilt
1959 Hamilton Basso: Light Infantry Ball
1959 James A. Rhodes and Dean Jauchius: Johnny Shiloh
1960 Will Henry: Journey to Shiloh
1960 Don Robertson: By Antietam Creek
1960 Mary Lee Settle: Know Nothing
1961 Robert Penn Warren: Wilderness
1962 Wilma Dykeman: The Tall Woma
1963 John W. Corrington: And Wait for Night
1963 John Brick: The Richmond Raid
1964 Irene Hunt: Across Five Aprils
1969 Stephen Becker: When the War Is Over
1970 John Ehle: Time of Drum
1970 James Sherburne: The Way to Fort Pillow (
1973 Perry Lentz: It Must Be Now the Kingdom Coming
1974 Michael Shaara: The Killer Angels
1976 Marcy Heidish: Woman Called Moses
1976 Ishmael Reed: Flight to Canada
1976 Frank Slaughter: The Stonewall Brigade
1977 Robert H. Fowler: Jim Mundy
1978 Fred Mustard Stewart: A Rage Against Heaven
1979 Thomas Keneally: Confederates
1980 Douglas C. Jones: Elkhorn Tavern
1980 Richard Slotkin: The Crater
1981 Donald Bannister: Long Day at Shiloh
1982 Louis Auchincloss: Watchfires
1982 Douglas C. Jones: The Barefoot Brigade
1984 Belva Plain: Crescent City
1984 Gore Vidal: Lincoln
1984 Tom Wicker: Unto This Hour
1985 John Calvin Batchelor: American Falls
1985 Frank Yerby: McKenzie’s Hundred
1986 Rita Mae Brown: High Hearts
1986 Clara Rising: In the Season of the Wild Rose
1987 Julien Green: Dixie Trilogy
1987 Daniel Woodrell: Woe to Live on
1988 Richard Adams: Traveller
1988 David Robertson: Booth
1989 Richard Adicks: Court for Owls
1989 Allan Gurganus: Oldest Living Confederate Widow Tells All
1989 Don Robertson: Prisoners of Twilight
1992 M A Harper: For the Love of Robert E. Lee
1992 Ted Jones: Grant’s War
1992 Josef Skvorecky: Nevesta z Texasu (The Bride of Texas)
1993 Bernard Cornwell: Rebel
1993 Teresa Crane: Freedom’s Banner
1993 Mildred Barger Herschler: The Walk into Morning
1993 Ted Jones: Hard Road to Gettysburg
1993 Duane P. Schultz: Glory Enough for All
1994 Cynthia Bass: Sherman’s March
1994 Bernard Cornwell: Copperhead
1994 Kirk Mitchell: Shadow on the Valley
1994 Peter Quinn: Banished Children of Eve
1995 Bernard Cornwell: Battle Flag
1995 Harold Coyle: Look Away
1995 Janet Dailey: Legacies
1995 Kathleen O’Neal Gear: Thin Moon and Cold Mist
1995 Ted Jones: The Fifth Conspiracy
1995 Eugenia Price: Beauty from Ashes
1996 John Edward Ames: Soldier’s Heart
1996 Frederic Bean: Lorena
1996 Dee Alexander Brown: Conspiracy of Knaves
1996 Bernard Cornwell: The Bloody Ground
1996 Harold Coyle: Until the End
1996 Kathleen O’Neal Gear: Thin Moon and Cold Mist
1996 David Madden: Sharpshooter
1996 Kirk Mitchell: Fredericksburg
1996 Charles F. Price: Hiwassee
1996 Jeff Shaara: Gods and Generals
1996 Johnny Neil Smith: Hillcountry Warriors
1996 John Morris Wilson: “Oh, Yes, I Want to Go Home”
1997 Howard Bahr: Black Flower
1997 Thomas Dyja: Play for a Kingdom
1997 Charles Frazier: Cold Mountain
1998 Dee Alexander Brown: The Way to Bright Star
1998 Jack Dann: The Silent
1998 Kaye Gibbons: On the Occasion of My Last Afternoon
1998 Joanna Higgins: A Soldier’s Book
1998 Donald McCaig: Jacob’s Ladder, A Story Of Virginia During The War
1998 Jeff Shaara: The Last Full Measure
1999 Frederick Busch: The Night Inspector
1999 David Healey: Sharpshooter
1999 Robert J. Mrazek: Stonewall’s Gold
1999 P. G. Nagle: Glorieta Pass
1999 A. D. Thorp: Volunteers for Glory
2000 Chris Adrian: Gob’s Grief
2000 Allen B. Ballard: Where I’m Bound
2000 Sandra Dallas: Alice’s Tulips
2000 Everett M. Ehrlich: Grant Speaks
2000 Robert H. Fowler: Jim Mundy
2000 Josephine Humphreys: Nowhere Else on Earth
2000 Jeff Hutton: Perfect Silence
2000 Jeffrey Lent: In the Fall
2000 Kevin McColley: The Other Side
2000 C X Moreau: Promise of Glory: A Novel of Antietam
2000 Richard Parry: That Fateful Lightning
2000 John Reed: A Still Small Voice
2001 Chris Adrian: Gob’s Grief
2001 Howard Bahr: The Year of Jubilo
2001 James Carlos Blake: Wildwood Boys
2001 Bernard Cornwell: Battle Flag
2001 Thomas Fleming: When This Cruel War is Over
2001 William R. Forstchen: We Look Like Men of War
2001 Nora Hague: Letters From an Age of Reason
2001 Jack Maples: Reconstructed Yankee
2001 Anne Perry: Slaves of Obsession
2001 David Poyer: Fire on the Waters
2001 Alice Randall: The Wind Done Gone
2001 Harold Sinclair: The Horse Soldiers
2001 Victor H Thompson: The Trumpets of Jericho
2001 Marly Youmans: The Wolf Pit
2002 Lynn N. Austin: Candle in the Darkness
2002 Kevin Baker: Paradise Alley
2002 James Lee Burke: White Doves At Morning
2002 Maria Hummel: Wilderness Run
2002 Marie Jakober: Only Call Us Faithful
2002 Paulette Jiles: Enemy Women
2002 T.J. Johnston: The Boys from Kalamazoo
2002 Jim Lehrer: No Certain Rest
2002 William R. Trotter: The Sands of Pride
2003 Lynn N. Austin: Fire by Night
2003 Kevin Baker: Paradise Alley
2003 Adam Braver: Mr. Lincoln’s Wars
2003 Alden R. Carter: Bright Starry Banner
2003 John Dowling: Uncle Beebe
2003 Robert H. Fowler: The Battle of Milroy Station
2003 Sharyn McCrumb: Ghost Riders
2003 Kirk Mitchell: Fredericksburg
2003 Robert J. Mrazek: Unholy Fire
2003 Owen Parry: Bold Sons of Erin
2003 David Poyer: A Country of Our Own
2003 Charles F. Price: Hiwassee
2003 William R. Trotter: The Fires of Pride
2003 Richard S. Wheeler: The Exile
2004 Lynn N. Austin: A Light To My Path
2004 Geraldine Brooks: March
2004 Alden R. Carter: Bright Starry Banner
2004 Richard Croker: To Make Men Free
2004 Thomas M. Eishen: Courage on Little Round Top
2004 Michael Fitzpatrick: The Letters From Fiddler’s Green
2004 Randy Guthrie: Rain: The Civil War Years
2004 John Jakes: Savannah or A Gift For Mr Lincoln
2004 Wyatt Kingseed: Fredericksburg
2004 Patricia O’Brien: The Glory Cloak
2004 William Reynolds: Li’l Bud
2004 Tommie Thompson: A Taste Of Freedom
2004 Dale E. Vaughn: The Chance
2004 Philip Lee Williams: A Distant Flame
2005 Harry Barton: Drummer Boy
2005 Claude Brown: Confederate Devil John
2005 Geraldine Brooks: March
2005 E.L. Doctorow: The March
2005 Robert Hicks: The Widow of the South
2005 Jeffery J Nicholas: The Inn Keeper’s Daughters
2005 Michael Phillips: A Perilous Proposal
2005 John Wray: Canaan’s Tongue
2006 Howard Bahr: The Judas Field
2006 Richard Croker: No Greater Courage
2006 S.C. Gylanders: The Better Angels of Our Nature
2006 Joanna Catherine Scott: The Road from Chapel Hill
2006 Lee Smith: On Agate Hill
2006 Jeffrey Wicklund: Roar of the Lion
2006 Stephen Wright: The Amalgamation Polka
2006 Barry D. Yelton: Scarecrow in Gray
2007 Pat Carr: The Death of a Confederate Colonel
2007 John Ferry: Servants of the Wind
2007 Richard Guida: The Winds of Change
2007 Mary Mackey: The Notorious Mrs. Winston
2007 Robert Olmstead: Coal Black Horse
2008 David Fuller: Sweetsmoke
2008 Terrell T Garren: The Fifth Skull
2008 Gene Hackman and Daniel Lenihan: Escape from Andersonville
2008 Cliff Hudder: The Fifth Skull
2008 Jessica James: Shades of Gray
2008 David H. Jones: Splinterville
2008 Bob O’Connor: Catesby, Eyewitness to the Civil War
2010 Randall Peffer: The Southern Seahawk
2008 Jack Shakely: The Confederate War Bonnet
2008 Andrew B. Suhrer: The Flying Dutchmen
2009 Elizabeth Cobbs Hoffman: In the Lion’s Den (later: Broken Promises
2009 Wayne E. Torbert: The Young Cadet
2010 Richard Barlow Adams: The Parting
2010 Ann DeWitt and Kevin M. Weeks: Entangled in Freedom
2010 Robin Oliveira: My Name Is Mary Sutter
2010 Randall Peffer: Seahawk Hunting
2010 C D Webb: Copperhead Wales
2011 Blythe Forcey Toussaint: Year of Disunion
2013 Shelley Fraser Mickle: The Occupation of Eliza Goode
2015 Kent Wascom: Secessia
2016 Jim Stempel: Windmill Point
2017 Sebastian Barry: Days Without End

James Reasoner and John Jakes have both written lengthy sagas set in the Civil War, while Owen Parry’s Abel Jones Mysteries, Robert N. Macomber’s Honor series, Ann McMillan’s Narcissa Powers and Judah Daniel Mysteries and Michael Kilian’s Harrison Grenville Raines Mysteries are set in the Civil War.

Alternat(iv)e history

Alternative history or, for morphologically challenged Americans, alternate history (now aka counterfactual history) is the form of science fiction that takes as its premise a historical event that has turned out differently from actual history and constructs its story from there. The American Civil War is one of the three most popular themes (the other two are World War II and the Kennedy assassinations). The basic premise, of course, is that the South has won the war and most of these stories are either about how this happens or the consequences of the Southern victory. There is a excellent website on the topic of alternat (iv)e history. These are the few of the more interesting American Civil War ones:

Allen Appel: In Time of War
Terry Bisson: Fire on the Mountain
Thomas Fleming: The Secret Trial of Robert E. Lee
Douglas Lee Gibboney: Stonewall Jackson at Gettysburg
MacKinlay Kantor: If the South Had Won the Civil War
Benjamin King: A Bullet For Stonewall
Frank McSherry (ed): The Fantastic Civil War (a collection of short stories/novellas, including the full text of Ward Moore’s Bring the Jubilee)
Ward Moore: Bring the Jubilee
David Poyer: The Shiloh Project
Kevin Randle and Robert Cornett: Remember Gettysburg!
R W Richards: A Southern Yarn; Brothers in Gray; Gray Visions (a trilogy)
William Sanders: The Wild Blue and the Gray
Robert Skimin: Gray Victory
J C Squire: If It Had Happened Otherwise (a collection of stories on various periods of history but the one on the Civil War is Winston Churchill’s If Lee Had Not Won the Battle of Gettysburg)
Stapp, Robert: A More Perfect Union
Mark Sumner: Devil’s Tower
Peter G. Tsouras: Gettysburg: An Alternate History
Wilson Tucker: The Lincoln Hunters
Harry Turtledove: The Guns of the South (Turtledove has written several alternat (iv)e history books; this one is about how the Confederacy won the War. Later ones, such as How Few Remain, American Front and Walk in Hell deal with the consequences of that victory.)
Connie Willis: Lincoln’s Dreams

Books about fiction and the Civil War

Daniel Aaron: The Unwritten War: American Writers and the Civil War
Jim Cullen: The Civil War in Popular Culture: A Reusable Past
Kathleen Difley (ed.): To Live and Die (Collected stories of the Civil War)
Alice Fahs: The Imagined Civil War
Robert Lively: Fiction Fights the Civil War
David Madden and Peggy Bach: Classics of Civil War Fiction
Roy Morris; David B Sachsman; S Kittrell Rushing: Memory and Myth: The Civil War In Fiction And Film From Uncle Tom’s Cabin To Cold Mountain
Albert Menendez: Civil War Novels: An Annotated Bibliography
Craig A Warren: Scars to Prove It: the Civil War soldier and American Fiction
Edmund Wilson: Patriotic Gore

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