Western Theater Book Recommendations

Below you will find our book recommendations on many Western Theater topics. This list is ever growing, with newer books added every few weeks. If the book is in print, we have linked the book title directly to the publisher's website for purchase, the battlefield association/park/friends group that sells it, or another option where it is readily available. We have chosen to link to these places in order to benefit battlefield preservation and help keep the publication of Western Theater titles moving into the future.

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The Army of Tennessee

Army of the Heartland: The Army of Tennessee 1861-1862

Thomas L. Connelly

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Autumn of Glory: The Army of Tennessee 1862-1865

Thomas L. Connelly

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Soldiering in the Army of Tennessee: A Portrait of Life in a Confederate Army

Larry Daniel

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Conquered: Why the Army of Tennessee Failed

Larry Daniel

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Cannoneers in Gray: The Field Artillery of the Army of Tennessee

Larry Daniel

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Jefferson Davis and His Generals: The Failure of Confederate Command in the West

Steven E. Woodworth

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Two Great Rebel Armies

Richard M. McMurry

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The Army of the Cumberland

Days of Glory: The Army of the Cumberland 1861-1865

Larry Daniel

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All for the Regiment: The Army of the Ohio 1861-1862

Gerald Prokopowicz

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The Army of the Tennessee

Nothing but Victory: The Army of the Tennessee 1861-1865

Steven E. Woodworth

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1861-1862 Kentucky Line

Divided Loyalties: Kentucky's Struggle for Armed Neutrality in the Civil War

James W. Finck

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The Battle of Belmont: Grant Strikes South

Nathaniel Cheairs Hughes, JR.

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The Battle of Mill Springs, Kentucky

Stuart Sanders

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The Battle of Wild Cat Mountain

Kenneth A. Hafendorfer

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The Most Brilliant Little Victory

Marlitta H. Perkins

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Forts Henry and Donelson

Grant Invades Tennessee: The 1862 Battles for Forts Henry and Donelson

Timothy B. Smith

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Where the South Lost the War: An Analysis of the Fort Henry-Fort Donelson Campaign, February 1862

Kendall D. Gott

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Forts Henry and Donelson: The Key to the Confederate Heartland

Benjamin Franklin Cooling

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Struggle for the Heartland: The Campaigns from Fort Henry to Corinth

Stephen Douglas Engle

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Shiloh

Shiloh: Conquer or Perish

Timothy B. Smith

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Shiloh and the Western Campaign of 1862

O. Edward Cunningham, Edited by Gary D. Joiner and Timothy B. Smith

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Shiloh: The Battle that Changed the Civil War

Larry Daniel

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Attack at Daylight and Whip Them: The Battle of Shiloh, April 6-7, 1862

Gregory A. Mertz

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Shiloh: In Hell before Night

James Lee McDonough

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Shiloh: Bloody April

Wiley Sword

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The Shiloh Campaign: March-April 1862

David G. Martin

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Shiloh: Confederate High Tide in the Heartland

Steven E. Woodworth

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The Generals of Shiloh: Character in Leadership, April 6-7, 1862

Larry Tagg

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Corinth

Corinth 1862: Siege, Battle, Occupation

Timothy B. Smith

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New Orleans

A Mortal Blow to the Confederacy: The Fall of New Orleans, 1862

Mark F. Bielski

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Kentucky Campaign

The Battle of Richmond, Kentucky: August 30, 1862

Kenneth A. Haffendorfer

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Perryville: This Grand Havoc of Battle

Kenneth W. Noe

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Maney's Confederate Brigade at the Battle of Perryville

Stuart Sanders

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Perryville Under Fire: The Aftermath of Kentucky's Largest Civil War Battle

Stuart Sanders

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Banners to the Breeze: The Kentucky Campaign, Corinth, and Stones River

Earl J. Hess

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Stones River

Battle of Stones River: The Forgotten Conflict between the Confederate Army of Tennessee and the Union Army of the Cumberland

Larry J. Daniel

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No Better Place to Die: The Battle of Stones River

Peter Cozzens

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Vicksburg

Triumph and Defeat: The Vicksburg Campaign Volume One

Terrence J. Winschel

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Triumph and Defeat: The Vicksburg Campaign Volume Two

Terrence J. Winschel

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Storming Vicksburg: Grant, Pemberton, and the Battles of May 19-22, 1863

Earl J. Hess

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The Union Assaults at Vicksburg: Grant Attacks Pemberton, May 17-22, 1863

Timothy B. Smith

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The Siege of Vicksburg: Climax of the Campaign to Open the Mississippi River, May 23-July 4, 1863

Timothy B. Smith

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Champion Hill: Decisive Battle for Vicksburg

Timothy B. Smith

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The Real Horse Soldiers: Benjamin Grearson's Epic 1863 Raid Through Mississippi

Timothy B. Smith

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Tullahoma

Tullahoma: The Forgotten Campaign that Changed the Civil War, June 23-July 4, 1863

David A. Powell and Eric J. Wittenberg

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Chickamauga

The Chickamauga Campaign-A Mad Irregular Battle: From the Crossing of the Tennessee River Through the Second Day, August 22, September 19, 1863

David A. Powell

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The Chickamauga Campaign-Glory to the Grave: The Breakthrough, Union Collapse, and the Retreat to Chattanooga, September 20-23, 1863

David A. Powell

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The Chickamauga Campaign-Barren Victory: The Retreat into Chattanooga, the Confederate Pursuit, and the Aftermath of the Battle, September 21-October 20, 1863

David A. Powell

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Bushwhacking on a Grand Scale: The Battle of Chickamauga, September 18-20, 1863

William Lee White

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Holding the Line on the River of Death: Union Mounted Forces at Chickamauga, September 18, 1863

Eric J. Wittenberg

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Failure in the Saddle: Nathan Bedford Forrest, Joe Wheeler, and the Confederate Cavalry in the Chickamauga Campaign

David A. Powell

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The Maps of Chickamauga: An Atlas of the Chickamauga Campaign, Including the Tullahoma Operations, June 22-September 23, 1863

David A. Powell, Cartography by David Friedrichs

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Chattanooga

All Hell Can't Stop Them: The Battles for Chattanooga--Missionary Ridge and Ringgold, November 24-27, 1863

David A. Powell

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Battle Above the Clouds: Lifting the Siege of Chattanooga and the Battle of Lookout Mountain, October 16-November 24, 1863

David A. Powell

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The Impulse of Victory: Ulysses S. Grant at Chattanooga

David A. Powell

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Atlanta Campaign

Atlanta 1864: Last Chance for the Confederacy

Richard McMurry

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Fighting for Atlanta: Tactics, Terrain, and Trenches in the Civil War

Earl J. Hess

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A Long Bloody Task: The Atlanta Campaign from Dalton through Kennesaw to the Chattahoochee, May 5-July 18, 1864 

Stephen Davis

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All the Fighting They Want: The Atlanta Campaign from Peachtree Creek to City's Surrender, July 18, September 2, 1864

Stephen Davis

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1864 Middle Tennessee

Let Us Die Like Men: The Battle of Franklin, November 30, 1864

William Lee White

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For Cause & for Country: A Study of the Affair At Spring Hill & the Battle of Franklin

Eric A. Jacobson

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Baptism of Fire

Eric A. Jacobson and Richard A. Rupp

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Sherman's March and Bennett Place

Hearts Torn Asunder: Trauma in the Civil War's Final Campaign in North Carolina

Ernest A. Dollar Jr.

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No Such Army Since the Days of Julius Caesar: Sherman's Carolinas Campaign Fayetteville to Averasboro, March 1865

Mark A. Smith and Wade Sokolosky

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To Prepare for Sherman's Coming: The Battle of Wise's Forks, March 1865

Wade Sokolosky and Mark A. Smith

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Calamity in Carolina: The Battles of Averasboro and Bentonville, March 1865

Daniel T. Davis and Phillip S. Greenwalt

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The Battle Of Bentonville: Last Stand In The Carolinas

Mark L. Bradley

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Western Navies

Defending the Arteries of Rebellion: Confederate Naval Operations in the Mississippi River Valley, 1861-1865

Neil P. Chatelain

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Mr. Lincoln's Brown Water Navy: The Mississippi Squadron

Gary D. Joiner

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Strategy and Logistics

Johnsonville: Union Supply Operations on the Tennessee River and the Battle of Johnsonville November 4-5, 1864

Jerry T. Wooten

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Confederate Strategy from Shiloh to Vicksburg

Archer Jones

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Trans-Mississippi

Wilson's Creek: The Second Battle of the Civil War and the Men Who Fought It

William Garrett Piston and Richard W. Hatcher III

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Cavalry Raids

Morgan's Great Raid: The Remarkable Expedition from Kentucky to Ohio

David L. Mowery

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Union Unit Histories

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Confederate Unit Histories

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Diaries, Correspondence, Memoirs, and Reminiscences 

A Civil War Captain and His Lady: Love, Courtship, and Combat from Fort Donelson through the Vicksburg Campaign

Gene Barr

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The War Outside My Window: The Civil War Diary of LeRoy Wiley Gresham, 1860-1865

Janet Elizabeth Croon and Kimberly Conrad

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People Studies

The Battles and Campaigns of Confederate General Nathan Bedford Forrest, 1861-1865

John R. Scales

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John Bell Hood: The Rise, Fall, and Resurrection of a Confederate General

Stephen M. Hood

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General Grant and the Rewriting of History: How the Destruction of William S. Rosecrans Influenced our Understanding of the Civil War

Frank P. Varney