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Eye of the Storm: A Civil War Odyssey , by Robert Knox Sneden and Charles F. Bryan, Jr.
An unusual soldier's record of the Civil War has surfaced. Sneden was an ordinary volunteer in the Union army, but he could draft landscape views and maps, a talent gladly utilized by the Army of the Potomac. Sneden produced hundreds of maps and illustrations during the war, and afterward he tried to have them and his memoir published. No publishing house saw profit in it, until now, and the contemporary commercial confidence rests on the vivid impression made by the drawings and Sneden's personal story. He was attached to a headquarters staff during McClellan's failed peninsula campaign of 1862, and in surveying battlefields for his maps, Sneden records, without flourish, the gruesome sights of war. Although executed in a self-taught, naive style, Sneden's pictures are meticulously detailed and accurate--no wonder the brass valued him. Evidently, Sneden was given to describing matters rather than musing on them or himself. But what an extraordinary tale he has to tell: after the peninsula, he was captured and sent first to Richmond and thence to a place soon to become, and ever remain, infamous: Andersonville. In that Hobbesian hellhole, Sneden parlayed his drafting ability into various trading items (like forged passes) to keep himself alive, whilst also making context sketches of Andersonville and other Confederate prisons. There being nothing quite like Sneden's in the annals of Civil War memoir literature, most libraries should acquire this work for guaranteed goggle-eyed use by the Civil War buffs--and an exhibition touring big-city historical societies extends the exposure of this re-discovered treasure. 329 pages. Hardcover. Amazon.com

2,000 Questions and Answers About the Civil War: Unusual and Unique Facts About the War Between the States, by Webb B. Garrison
Featuring a thorough Index, "2,000 Questions and Answers About the Civil War" provides a valuable resource for students, researchers, and Civil War buffs. 288 pages. Hardcover. Amazon.com

Battle Cry of Freedom: The Civil War Era (Oxford History of the United States) , by James M. McPherson
Published in 1988 to universal acclaim, this single-volume treatment of the Civil War quickly became recognized as the new standard in its field. James M. McPherson, who won the Pulitzer Prize for this book, impressively combines a brisk writing style with an admirable thoroughness. He covers the military aspects of the war in all of the necessary detail, and also provides a helpful framework describing the complex economic, political, and social forces behind the conflict. Perhaps more than any other book, this one belongs on the bookshelf of every Civil War buff. 904 pages. Hardcover. Amazon.com

Grant, by Jean Edward Smith
Hiram Ulysses Grant--mistakenly enrolled in the United States Military Academy as Ulysses Simpson Grant, and so known ever since--was a failure in many of the things to which he turned his hand. An indifferent, somewhat undisciplined cadet who showed talent for mathematics and painting, he served with unexpected distinction in the U.S. war against Mexico, then repeatedly went broke as a real-estate speculator, freighter, and farmer. His reputation was restored in the Civil War, in which he fulfilled a homespun philosophy of battle: "Find out where your enemy is. Get at him as soon as you can. Strike him as hard as you can and as often as you can, and keep moving on." Given to dark moods and the solace of the bottle (although far less so than his political foes made him out to be), Grant was ferocious in war, but chivalrous in peace, and offered generous terms to the defeated armies of Robert E. Lee. His enemies on the battlefield of politics showed him little honor, and they had a point: Grant's presidency was marked by a legion of corrupt lieutenants and hangers-on who built their fortunes on the back of a suffering people, and for whose actions Grant's reputation long has suffered. 781 pages. Hardcover. Amazon.com

Last Chance for Victory: Robert E. Lee and the Gettysburg Campaign , by Scott Bowden and Bill Ward
Generations after nearly 50,000 soldiers shed their blood there, serious misunderstandings persist about Robert E. Lee's generalship at Gettysburg. What were Lee's choices before, during, and after the battle? What did he know that caused to act as he did? What did he know and not act upon? Readers will never view the epic 1863 battle in the same light again. 640 pages. Hardcover. Amazon.com

Sherman's Civil War: Selected Correspondence of William T. Sherman, 1860-1865 (Civil War America), by William Tecumseh Sherman
Arranged chronologically, this volume features the more than 400 letters written between the year of Abraham Lincoln's election and the day Sherman bade farewell to his troops in 1865. 12 illustrations. 6 maps. 976 pages. Hardcover. Amazon.com

Battles and Leaders of the Civil War, by Ned Bradford
First-hand testimonials from officers, soldiers, and civilians involved in America's bloodiest conflict, accompanied by black and white line drawings, etchings, and maps. Covers battles from Bull Run and Gettysburg to the surrender at Appomattox, with words from Lee, Grant, Sherman as well as lesser known participants such as medics and nurses. 626 pages. Hardcover. Amazon.com

The Devil's Dictionary, by Ambrose Gwinnett Bierce
These caustic aphorisms, collected in The Devil's Dictionary, helped earn Ambrose Bierce the epithets Bitter Bierce, the Devil's Lexicographer, and the Wickedest Man in San Francisco. First published as The Cynic's Word Book (1906) and later reissued under its preferred name in 1911, Bierce's notorious collection of barbed definitions forcibly contradicts Samuel Johnson's earlier definition of a lexicographer as a harmless drudge. There was nothing harmless about Ambrose Bierce, and the words he shaped into verbal pitchforks a century ago--with or without the devil's help--can still draw blood today. 256 pages. Hardcover. Amazon.com

Ulysses S. Grant : Memoirs and Selected Letters : Personal Memoirs of U.S. Grant / Selected Letters, 1839-1865 (Library of America), by Ulysses S. Grant
Ulysses S. Grant wrote his Personal Memoirs as he was dying of throat cancer in order to secure his family's financial future. In doing so, the Civil War's greatest general, and who went on to become President of the United States, won himself a unique place in American letters. His character, sense of purpose, and simple compassion are evident through this deeply moving account, as well as in the letters to his wife, Julia, included here. Ulysses S. Grant: Memoirs and Selected Letters is published on acid free paper to insure longevity and is a wonderful addition to any academic, personal or public library collection. 1,196 pages. Hardcover. Amazon.com

The Debate on the Constitution, by Bernard Bailyn
The Debate on the Constitution charts the course of the bloodless revolution that created the government of the United States and the world's oldest working national charter. In speeches, newspaper articles, pamphlets, and letters, this unique collection captures firsthand the energy and eloquence of the stormy ratification struggle. Franklin, Madison, Jefferson, Washington, Patrick Henry, and many less well known voices speak with passion and articulateness about issues of personal liberty and public order that continue to resonate in today's headlines. Along with a detailed chronology and notes, each volume also includes the full texts of the Declaration in Independence, Articles of Confederation, and Constitution. 1,214 pages. Hardcover. Amazon.com

From Hardtack to Home Fries: An Uncommon History of American Cooks and Meals , by Barbara Haber
Barbara Haber, one of America's most respected authorities on the history of food, has spent years excavating fascinating stories of the ways in which meals cooked and served by women have shaped American history. As any cook knows, every meal, and every diet, has a story -- whether it relates to presidents and first ladies or to the poorest of urban immigrants. From Hardtack to Home Fries brings together the best and most inspiring of those stories, from the 1840s to the present, focusing on a remarkable assembly of little-known or forgotten Americans who determined what our country ate during some of its most trying periods. 244 pages. Hardcover. Amazon.com

Raw Pork and Hardtack: A Civil War Memoir from Manassas to Appomattox (Civil War Heritage Series, V. 10), by Walbrook D. Swank
104 pages. Paperback. Amazon.com