can anyone recommend some good fiction set int he civil war?...

can anyone recommend some good fiction set int he civil war? I would like the books to be historically accurate.

We recently had a thread on this very subject in The Library. Check it out for our take (quick answer: not much worthwhile out there).

I think the "historically accurate" part is going to be the tough part. The only one I know about personally that comes close is "Killer Angels", there are probably others I just don't know about. If I'm reading fiction, I'm not terribly concerned with accuracy, because it is fiction, so I'm more concerned with if it's just a good story.

Very good point blueshawk made about just enjoying the story if its a fiction. With that in mind, try an book called "Play for a Kingdom" or "To play for a kingdom" sorry but I cant recall the auther(its been a few yrs). Officers of two regiments~ one yankee & one reb are trading military info during the summer of 1864. These are educated men & speak together in Latin so the enlisted men dont know what's at stake. The men trade items & talk(as was often the case when officers called a truce). The squad from the14th Brooklyn then challenges the rebels from a Alabama reg. to a game of baseball! The officers alow this, & even take part....mere fraternization would a be far less serious charge then treason! The auther follows the 14th through combat in several battles. At intervals they follow their officer to these secret meets & play the rebs again. The #'s of both units are decreasing as every battle passes... but none realize it may be due to their Latin speaking officers....

The point about reading a work of fiction simply for the story is an excellent one. However, I find it personally very hard to read what I call Era Fiction (a story loosely set in a given historical era) or "what-if" fiction. I'm not wired to just take a story on its value as a story. No matter how good the story is, if I read something that's historically inaccurate, I'll think that's not the true, it didn't happen that way and the spell is broken. I'll waste my time looking for inaccuracies and forget the story. I cheat myself out of a relaxing experience, but I can't help it, it's the way I'm wired.

I haven't had much experience with CW fiction. IMHO, WWII produced the best historically accurate military fiction. "The Caine Mutiny", with impeccable contextual accuracy, is one of my all time favorite works of fiction, military or otherwise. If I could find a CW work of fiction that did such a masterful job of weaving a story with period accurate historical context, I'd gobble it up.

Of course, a lot of you of a Confederate bent think much of the CW non-fiction should really be classified as fiction Sorry, couldn't resist, it was too easy. If you want to rake me over the coals, I deserve it

Ajhall wrote:

Of course, a lot of you of a Confederate bent think much of the CW non-fiction should really be classified as fiction :evil: Sorry, couldn't resist, it was too easy. If you want to rake me over the coals, I deserve it :blush:

I don't have any coals, will a gas grill do?
8^)

There's a book I got recently, but haven't had a chance to read yet called;
"Jim Mundy: A Novel of the American Civil War"
by Robert Fowler
It's supposed to be historically accurate for the most part, one reviewer mentioned there were a few minor inaccuracies.
Here's a brief description of the book;
From Library Journal
"Jim Mundy is an interesting character, and his story is well told with plenty of action," said LJ's reviewer of this 1977 novel. Other critics shared the enthusiasm, putting it on a level with The Red Badge of Courage and other Civil War stories. Mundy is a Confederate volunteer and patriot but doesn't have much interest in slavery. He is a common man caught in a conflict he describes as a "rich man's war but a poor man's fight." This should still "appeal to Civil War buffs recommended for fiction collections"

letting me off easy, huh?

Got to for now, the vat for the tar and the bags of feathers got left behind in the last move. 8^D

Killer Angels and the other books in that saga(Last Full Measure and Gods and Generals) are a good read, however I personally disagree with his portrayal of Longstreet and Lee.

Other than that, the only really novel type Civil War fiction I've read is the Nathaniel Starbuck chronicles by Bernard Cornwell. The main character is in a unit that didn't exist but other than that, I believe the depictions of the battles are mostly accurate.