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21H.116

The Civil War and Reconstruction

Undergraduate · Historical course

Fall 2005

Topics

  • Introduction
  • Film: Ken Burns. The Civil War. Episode 1, “The Cause”
  • Lecture: Why the War Came; How Well Were the Sides Prepared?
  • Reading Period
  • Class Discussion of Donald’s Book (Discussion will be Framed Around Student Reflection Papers)
  • Film: The Civil War. Episode 2, “1862 - A Very Bloody Affair”
  • Lecture: Dr. Brendan Foley. “The Civil War at Sea”
  • Film: The Civil War. Episode 3, “Forever Free, 1862”
  • Discussion (Framed Around Reflection Papers)
  • Film: The Civil War. Episode 4, “Simply Murder, 1863”
  • Lecture: “The Impact of New Weapons Technologies”
  • Film: The Civil War. Episode 5, “The Universe of Battle, 1863”
  • Lecture: “Roads, Rails, and Waterways: Their Significance in the Civil War”
  • Reading Period (Sam Watkins. Company Aytch )
  • Discussion of Watkins and Life in the Ranks (Framed Around Reflection Papers)
  • Film: The Civil War. Episode 6, “The Valley of the Shadow of Death, 1864”
  • Film: The Civil War. Episode 7, “Most Hallowed Ground, 1864”
  • Lecture: “Was the Civil War America’s ‘Defining Moment’?”
  • Film: The Civil War. Episode 8, “War is All Hell, 1865”
  • Discussion: “Who Got it Right?”
  • Film: The Civil War. Episode 9, “The Better Angels of Our Nature, 1865”

Readings

  • McPherson, James. Battle Cry of Freedom. New York, NY: Oxford University Press, 1988, 2003. ISBN: 9780195168952.
    Required
  • Shaara, Michael. The Killer Angels. New York, NY: Ballantine, 1987, 1993. ISBN: 9780345348104.
    Required
  • Watkins, Sam R. Company Aytch: A Confederate’s Memoir of the Civil War, 1882. New York, NY: Touchstone, 1997, 2003. ISBN: 9780743255417.
    Required
  • Donald, David, ed. Why the North Won the Civil War. New York, NY: Collier, 1962.
    Required
  • In addition, we will be viewing Ken Burns’s renowned documentary The Civil War , a nine-part series that made television history when over 40 million viewers watched it in September 1990. Praised and criticized, The Civil War does one thing very well: it gives the viewer a vivid visual sense of what the times were like. And that’s why I’m using it – it puts a human face on the war. As you watch the series, think about how Burns’s presentation comports or departs with what James McPherson and other authors we’ll be reading have to say about the war. Differences in interpretation definitely exist. As the instructor, I am counting on you to pick up on these differences and bring them to the attention of the class during our discussions. The better your level of perception in these matters, the better will be your final grade! ↗
    Required
  • McPherson, James. Battle Cry of Freedom. New York, NY: Oxford University Press, 1988, 2003. ISBN: 9780195168952.
    Listed reading
  • Donald, David, ed. Why the North Won the Civil War. New York, NY: Collier, 1962.
    Listed reading
  • Lec #: 2 · TOPICS: Film: Ken Burns. The Civil War. Episode 1, “The Cause” · READINGS: McPherson, James. Battle Cry of Freedom. New York, NY: Oxford University Press, 1988, 2003, pp. 3-275. ISBN: 9780195168952. (Pay close attention to pp. 3-46.)
    Reading assignment
  • Lec #: 6 · TOPICS: Film: The Civil War. Episode 2, “1862 - A Very Bloody Affair” · READINGS: McPherson, James. Battle Cry of Freedom . New York, NY: Oxford University Press, 1988, 2003, pp. 276-427. ISBN: 9780195168952.
    Reading assignment
  • Lec #: 8 · TOPICS: Film: The Civil War. Episode 3, “Forever Free, 1862” · READINGS: McPherson, James. Battle Cry of Freedom . New York, NY: Oxford University Press, 1988, 2003, pp. 428-567. ISBN: 9780195168952.
    Reading assignment
  • McPherson, James. Battle Cry of Freedom . New York, NY: Oxford University Press, 1988, 2003, pp. 568-665. ISBN: 9780195168952.
    Listed reading
  • Shaara, Michael. The Killer Angels. New York, NY: Ballantine, 1987, 1993. ISBN: 9780345348104.
    Listed reading
  • Lec #: 14 · TOPICS: Lecture: “Roads, Rails, and Waterways: Their Significance in the Civil War” · READINGS: McPherson, James. Battle Cry of Freedom . New York, NY: Oxford University Press, 1988, 2003, pp. 666-717. ISBN: 9780195168952.
    Reading assignment
  • Lec #: 15 · TOPICS: Reading Period (Watkins, Sam. Company Aytch ) · READINGS: Watkins, Sam R. Company Aytch: A Confederate’s Memoir of the Civil War, 1882. New York, NY: Touchstone, 1997, 2003. ISBN: 9780743255417.
    Reading assignment
  • Lec #: 17 · TOPICS: Film: The Civil War. Episode 6, “The Valley of the Shadow of Death, 1864” · READINGS: McPherson, James. Battle Cry of Freedom . New York, NY: Oxford University Press, 1988, 2003, pp. 718-50. ISBN: 9780195168952.
    Reading assignment
  • Lec #: 18 · TOPICS: Film: The Civil War. Episode 7, “Most Hallowed Ground, 1864” · READINGS: McPherson, James. Battle Cry of Freedom . New York, NY: Oxford University Press, 1988, 2003, pp. 751-806. ISBN: 9780195168952.
    Reading assignment
  • Lec #: 20 · TOPICS: Film: The Civil War. Episode 8, “War is All Hell, 1865” · READINGS: McPherson, James. Battle Cry of Freedom . New York, NY: Oxford University Press, 1988, 2003, pp. 807-862. ISBN: 9780195168952.
    Reading assignment
  • Film: The Civil War. Episode 9, “The Better Angels of Our Nature, 1865”
    Listed reading
  • Donald, David H. Liberty and Union . Boston, MA: Little, Brown and Co., 1978.
    Listed reading
  • Donald, David H. et al. The Civil War and Reconstruction . New York, NY: Norton, 2001.
    Listed reading
  • Foote, Shelby. The Civil War: A Narrative . 3 vols. New York, NY: Random House, 1958-74.
    Listed reading
  • Hattaway, Herman. Shades of Blue and Gray: An Introductory Military History of the Civil War . Columbia, MS: University of Missouri Press, 1997.
    Listed reading
  • Nevins, Allan. The War for the Union . 5 vols. New York, NY: Scribner, 1959-71.
    Listed reading
  • *McPherson, James M. Battle Cry of Freedom . New York, NY: Oxford University Press, 1988. ISBN: 9780195038637.
    Listed reading
  • Paludan, Philip S. A People’s Contest: the Union and Civil War 1861-1865 . New York, NY: Harper and Row, 1988.
    Listed reading
  • Thomas, Emory M. The Confederate Nation 1861-1865 . New York, NY: Harper and Row, 1979.
    Listed reading
  • Ward, Geoffrey C., Ric, and Ken Burns. The Civil War: an illustrated history . New York, NY: Knopf, 1990.
    Listed reading
  • Weigley, Russell F. A Great Civil War . Bloomington, IN: Indiana University Press, 2000.
    Listed reading
  • Boritt, Gabor S., ed. Lincoln, The War President . New York, NY: Oxford University Press, 1992.
    Listed reading
  • Davis, William C. Jefferson Davis . New York, NY: Harper Collins, 1991.
    Listed reading
  • Donald, David H. Lincoln . New York, NY: Simon and Schuster, 1995.
    Listed reading
  • Freeman, Douglas S. R. E. Lee . 4 vols. New York, NY: Scribner’s Sons, 1934-35.
    Listed reading
  • ———. Lee’s Lieutenants. 3 vols. New York, NY: Scribner’s Sons, 1942-1944. (Also see the excellent one volume abridgement by Stephen Sears, 1998)
    Listed reading
  • Marszalek, John F. Sherman: A Soldier’s Passion for Order . New York, NY: Free Press, 1993.
    Listed reading
  • Piston, William G. Lee’s Tarnished Lieutenant: James Longstreet and His Place in Southern History . Athens, GA: University of Georgia Press, 1987.
    Listed reading
  • Robertson, James I. Stonewall Jackson . New York, NY: Macmillan Publishers, 1997.
    Listed reading
  • Simpson, Brooks D. Ulysses S. Grant . Boston, MA: Houghton Mifflin, 2000.
    Listed reading
  • Thomas, Benjamin P., and Harold M. Hyman. Stanton: the life and times of Lincoln’s Secretary of War . New York, NY: Knopf, 1962.
    Listed reading
  • Thomas, Emory M. Robert E. Lee . New York, NY: W.W. Norton, 1995. (Best one volume account.)
    Listed reading
  • Vandiver, Frank E. Ploughshares into Swords: Josiah Gorgas and Confederate Ordnance . Austin, TX: University of Texas Press, 1952.
    Listed reading
  • Waugh, John G. The Class of 1846: From West Point to Appomattox . New York, NY: Warner Books, 1994.
    Listed reading
  • Weigley, Russell F. Quartermaster General of the Union Army: A Biography of Montgomery C. Meigs . New York, NY: Columbia University Press, 1959.
    Listed reading
  • Hess, Earl J. The Union Soldier in Battle . Lawrence, KS: University Press of Kansas, 1997.
    Listed reading
  • Linderman, Gerald. Embattled Courage: The Experience of Combat in the American Civil War . New York, NY: Free Press, 1987.
    Listed reading
  • McPherson, James. For Cause and Comrade: Why Men Fought in the Civil War . New York, NY: Oxford University Press, 1997.
    Listed reading
  • Trudeau, Noah A. Like Men of War: Black Troops in the Civil War, 1862-1865 . Boston, MA: Little, Brown, 1998.
    Listed reading
  • Wiley, Bell I. The Life of Johnny Reb . Indianapolis, IN: Bobbs-Merrill, 1943.
    Listed reading
  • ———. The Life of Billy Yank . Indianapolis, IN: Bobbs-Merrill, 1952.
    Listed reading
  • Ballard, Michael B. Vicksburg . Chapel Hill, NC: University of North Carolina Press, 2004.
    Listed reading
  • Browning, Robert M. From Cape Charles to Cape Fear: The North Atlantic Blockading Squadron During the Civil War . Tuscaloosa, AL: University of Alabama Press, 1993.
    Listed reading
  • Castel, Albert. Decision in the West: The Atlanta Campaign of 1864 . Lawrence, KS: University Press of Kansas, 1992.
    Listed reading
  • Cooling, Benjamin F. Forts Henry and Donelson . Knoxville, TN: University of Tennessee Press, 1987.
    Listed reading
  • Coddington, Edwin B. The Gettysburg Campaign . New York, NY: Scribner’s, 1968.
    Listed reading
  • Connolly, Thomas L., and Archer Jones. The Politics of Command . Baton Rouge, LA: Louisiana State University Press, 1973.
    Listed reading
  • Fowler, William M., Jr. Under Two Flags: The American Navy in the Civil War . New York, NY: Norton, 1990.
    Listed reading
  • Gallagher, Gary W. Lee and His Army in Confederate History . Chapel Hill, NC: University of North Carolina, 2001.
    Listed reading
  • Glatthaar, Joseph T. The March to the Sea and Beyond . New York, NY: New York University Press, 1985.
    Listed reading
  • Hess, Earl J. Field Armies and Fortifications in the Civil War . Chapel Hill, NC: University of North Carolina, 2005.
    Listed reading
  • Jones, Archer. Confederate Strategy from Shiloh to Vicksburg . Baton Rouge, Louisiana State University, 1961.
    Listed reading
  • Luraghi, Raimondo. A History of the Confederate Navy . Annapolis, MD: Naval Institute Press, 1996.
    Listed reading
  • McMurray, Richard M. Two Great Rebel Armies . Chapel Hill, NC: University of North Carolina, 1989.
    Listed reading
  • Mindell, David A. War, Technology, and Experience Aboard the USS ‘Monitor’. Baltimore, MD: Johns Hopkins University Press, 2000.
    Listed reading
  • Nosworthy, Brent. The Bloody Crucible of War: Fighting Methods and Combat Experience of the Civil War . New York, NY: Carroll and Graf, 2003.
    Listed reading
  • Rable, George C. Fredericksburg! Fredericksburg! Chapel Hill, NC: University of North Carolina, 2002.
    Listed reading
  • Rafuse, Ethan S. A Single Grand Victory: The First Campaign and Battle of Manassas . Wilmington, DE: SR Books, 2002.
    Listed reading
  • Reardon, Carol. Pickett’s Charge in History and Memory . Chapel Hill, NC: University of North Carolina, 1997.
    Listed reading
  • Royster, Charles. The Destructive War . New York, NY: Knopf, 1991.
    Listed reading
  • Sears, Stephen W. Landscape Turned Red: The Battle of Antietam . New Haven, CT: Ticknor and Fields, 1983.
    Listed reading
  • ———. Gettysburg . Boston, MA: Houghton Mifflin, 2003.
    Listed reading
  • Williams, T. Harry. Lincoln and His Generals . New York, NY: Vintage Books, 1952.
    Listed reading
  • Woodworth, Steven E. Jefferson Davis and His Generals . Lawrence, KS: University Press of Kansas, 1985.
    Listed reading
  • ———. Nothing But Victory: The Army of the Tennessee, 1861-1865 . New York, NY: Alfred A. Knopf, 2005.
    Listed reading
  • Abdill, George B. Civil War Railroads . Seattle, WA: Superior Publishing Co., 1989.
    Listed reading
  • Black, Robert C. The Railroads of the Confederacy . Chapel Hill, NC: University of North Carolina, 1998.
    Listed reading
  • Bruce, Robert V. Lincoln and the Tools of War . Indianapolis, IN: Bobbs-Merrill, 1956.
    Listed reading
  • Clark, John C., Jr. Railroads in the Civil War . Baton Rouge, LA: Louisiana State University Press, 2001.
    Listed reading
  • Davis, Carl L. Arming the Union . Port Washington, NY: Kennikat Press, 1973.
    Listed reading
  • Hagerman, Edward. The American Civil War and the Origins of Modern Warfare . Bloomington, IN: Indiana University Press, 1988.
    Listed reading
  • Nosworthy, Brent. The Bloody Crucible of War . New York, NY: Carroll and Graf, 2003.
    Listed reading
  • ———. Rebel Brass Baton Rouge. LA: Louisiana State University Press, 1956.
    Listed reading
  • Weigley, Russell. Quartermaster General of the Union Army: A Biography Of Montgomery C. Meigs. New York, NY: Columbia University Press, 1959.
    Listed reading
  • Wise, Stephen R. Lifeline of the Confederacy: Blockade Running During The Civil War. Columbia, SC: University of South Carolina Press, 1988.
    Listed reading
  • Andreano, Ralph, ed. The Economic Impact of the American Civil War. Cambridge, MA: Schenkman Pub. Co., 1962.
    Listed reading
  • Bollet, Alfred J. Civil War Medicine. Tucson, AZ: Galen Press, 2002.
    Listed reading
  • Burgess, Lauren C. An Uncommon Soldier: The Civil War Letters of Sarah Rosetta Wakeman alias Pvt. Lyons Wakeman. New York, NY: Oxford University Press, 1994, 1995.
    Listed reading
  • Clinton, Catherine, and Nina Silber, eds. Divided Houses: Gender and the Civil War. New York, NY: Oxford University Press, 1992.
    Listed reading
  • Curry, Leonard P. Blueprint for Modern America. Nashville, TN: Vanderbilt University Press, 1968.
    Listed reading
  • Denney, Robert E. Civil War Medicine. New York, NY: Sterling Publications, 1994.
    Listed reading
  • Faust, Drew Gilpin. Mothers of Invention. Chapel Hill, NC: University of North Carolina Press, 1996.
    Listed reading
  • Fredrickson, George M. The Inner Civil War. New York, NY: Harper & Row, 1965.
    Listed reading
  • Freemon, Frank R. Gangrene and Glory: Medical Care during the Civil War. Madison, NJ: Fairleigh Dickinson University Press ; London, UK: Associated University Presses, 1998. 2001.
    Listed reading
  • Gilchrist, David T., and W. David Lewis, eds. Economic Change in the Civil War Era. Greenville, DE: Eleutherian Mills-Hagley Foundation, 1965.
    Listed reading
  • Leonard, Elizabeth D. Yankee Women. New York, NY: W.W. Norton 1994.
    Listed reading
  • ———. All the Daring of a Soldier: Women of the Civil War Armies. New York, NY: W.W. Norton & Co., 1999.
    Listed reading
  • Paludan, Philip S. A People’s Contest. New York, NY: Harper & Row, 1988.
    Listed reading
  • Richardson, Heather C. The Greatest Nation of the Earth: Republican Economic Policies During the Civil War. Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press, 1997.
    Listed reading
  • Rutkow, Ira M. Bleeding Blue and Gray: Civil War Surgery and the Evolution of American Medicine. New York, NY: Random House, 2005.
    Listed reading
  • Schultz, Jane E. Women at the Front: Hospital Workers in Civil War America. Chapel Hill, NC: University of North Carolina Press, 2004.
    Listed reading
  • Woodworth, Steven E. While God is Marching On: The Religious World of Civil War Soldiers. Lawrence, KS: University Press of Kansas, 2001.
    Listed reading
  • Berringer, Richard, et al. Why the South Lost the Civil War. Athens, GA: University of Georgia Press, 1986.
    Listed reading
  • Boritt, Gabor S., ed. Why the Confederacy Lost. New York, NY: Oxford University Press, 1992.
    Listed reading
  • *Donald, David H., ed. Why the North Won the Civil War. Baton Rouge, LA: Louisiana State University Press, 1960.
    Listed reading
  • Gallagher, Gary W. The Confederate War. Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press, 1997.
    Listed reading
  • Grimsley, Mark, and Brooks D. Simpson, eds. The Collapse of the Confederacy . Lincoln, NE: University of Nebraska Press, 2001.
    Listed reading
  • Wiley, Bell I. The Road to Appomattox. Memphis, TN: Memphis State College Press 1956.
    Listed reading
  • Benedict, Michael Les. A Compromise of Principle. New York, NY: Norton 1974.
    Listed reading
  • Blight, David W. Race and Reunion: The Civil War in American Memory. Cambridge, MA: Belknap Press of Harvard University Press, 2001.
    Listed reading
  • Foner, Eric. Reconstruction: America’s Unfinished Revolution 1863-1877 . New York, NY: Harper & Row, 1988.
    Listed reading
  • Keller, Morton. Affairs of State. Cambridge, MA: Belknap Press of Harvard University Press, 1977.
    Listed reading
  • Litwack, Leon F. Been in the Storm So Long: The Aftermath of Slavery. New York, NY: Vintage Books, 1980.
    Listed reading
  • Perman, Michael. Emancipation and Reconstruction, 1862-1879 . Arlington Heights, IL: Harlan Davidson, 1987.
    Listed reading
  • Richardson, Heather Coxe. The Death of Reconstruction. Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press, 2001.
    Listed reading
  • Stampp, Kenneth M. The Era of Reconstruction. New York, NY: Knopf, 1965.
    Listed reading
  • Grant, Ulysses S. Memoirs and Selected Letters McFeeley . Edited by Mary Drake, and William S. McFeely. New York, NY: Library of America, 1990.
    Listed reading
  • Jones, John B. A Rebel War Clerk’s Diary. 2 vols. New York, NY: Time-Life Books, 1982.
    Listed reading
  • Nevins, Allan, and Milton H. Thomas, eds. The Diary of George Templeton Strong. 4 vols. New York, NY: Octagon Books, 1974, 1952.
    Listed reading
  • Rhodes, Robert Hunt, ed. All for the Union: The Civil War Diary of Elisha Hunt Rhodes. New York, NY: Orion Books, 1991.
    Listed reading
  • *Watkins, Sam R. Co. Aytch. New York, NY: Touchstone, 1990, 1997. ISBN: 9780684833248.
    Listed reading
  • Woodward, C. Vann, ed. Mary Chestnut’s Civil War. New Haven, CT: Yale University Press, 1981.
    Listed reading
  • Crane, Stephen. The Red Badge of Courage . New York, NY: Penugin Books,1895, 2005. (A version of the Red Badge of Courage is available at Project Gutenberg.) ↗
    Listed reading
  • *Shaara, Michael. The Killer Angels. New York, NY: Ballantine Books, 1975, 1987. ISBN: 9780345322289.
    Listed reading
  • Griffith, D. W. Birth of a Nation . 1915. ↗
    Listed reading
  • * Burns, Ken. The Civil War . 1990. ↗
    Listed reading
  • Bruckma, Clyde, and Buster Keaton. The General . 1927. ↗
    Listed reading
  • Maxwell, Ronald F. Gettysburg . 1993. ↗
    Listed reading
  • Zwick, Edward. Glory . 1989. ↗
    Listed reading
  • Maxwell, Ronald F. Gods and Generals . 2003. ↗
    Listed reading
  • Eicher, David J. The Civil War in Books: An Analytical Bibliography . Urbana, IL: University Of Illinois Press, 1997.
    Listed reading
  • McPherson, James M., and William J. Cooper. Writing the Civil War: The Quest to Understand . Columbia, SC: University of South Carolina Press, 1998.
    Listed reading
  • Wilson, Edmund. Patriotic Gore: Studies in the Literature of the American Civil War . New York, NY: Oxford University Press, 1962.
    Listed reading
Sources