Books for all ages on or relating to the
American Civil War and Abraham Lincoln
Available at the Columbus-Lowndes Public Library
The following list of books was compiled by library staff and represent subjects relating to the American Civil War or Abraham Lincoln. They cover various age groups (younger kids, young adults, and adults) and each is available at the Columbus-Lowndes Public Library. The first line is the title followed by the author and call number which is shown in parenthesis.
If you have any questions or would like to check out one of the books please call 662-329-5300 or go to the library website at www.lowndes.lib.ms.us.
YOUNGER KIDS
1. Pink and Say
By: Patricia Polacco
(J Pol)
Say Curtis describes his meeting with Pinkus Aylee, an African American soldier, during the Civil War, and their capture by Southern troops. Based on a true story about the author’s great-great-grandfather.
2. Abraham Lincoln: The Boy Who Loved Books
By: Kay Winters
(J 973.7 Win)
A basic introduction to Lincoln for beginning readers.
3. The Story of Abraham Lincoln
By: Patricia Pingry
(E Pin)
Through simple words and illustrations a young child can meet Abraham Lincoln, the sixteenth president of the United States. The story introduces the most memorable events of Lincoln’s life; his childhood in Indiana, his leadership during the Civil War, and his writing of the Emancipation Proclamations. Bright watercolors illustrate the 200 word story, and the heavy pages of this board book provide durable construction.
4. Abraham Lincoln Comes Home
By: Robert Burleigh
(J 973 Bur)
The journey of Lincoln’s funeral train through the eyes of a young boy.
5. Henry’s Freedom Box
By: Ellen Levine
(E Lev)
A fictionalized account of how in 1849 a Virginia slave, Henry “Box” Brown, escapes to freedom by shipping himself in a wooden crate from Richmond to Philadelphia.
6. Almost to Freedom
By: Vaunda Micheaux Nelson
(J Nel)
Tells the story of a young girl’s dramatic escape from slavery via the Underground Railroad, from the perspective of her beloved rag doll.
YOUNG ADULTS
1. The Red Badge of Courage
By: Stephen Crane
(F Cra)
During his service in the Civil War a young Union soldier matures to manhood and finds peace of mind as he comes to grips with his conflicting emotions about war.
2. Under the Quilt of Night
By: Deborah Hopkinson
(J 811.54 HOP)
A young girl flees from the farm where she has been worked as a slave and uses the Underground Railroad to escape to freedom in the north.
3. The Story of Frederick Douglass, Voice of Freedom
By: Eric Weiner
(JB Dou)
A biography of the 19th-century human-rights champion for grades 3-6. Douglass’s birth as a slave in Maryland, his brutal childhood, and his attempts to be free are detailed in the first half of the book. Weiner then describes Douglass’s struggles as a runaway slave and his rise to prominence. Young readers will gain insight into the physical pain and spiritually crippling effect of slavery.
4. Lincoln: A Photobiography
By: Russell Freedman
(JB Lin)
Photographs and text trace the life of the Civil War President.
Newbery Medal Winner, 1988.
5. True North: A Novel of the Underground Railroad
By: Kathryn Lasky
(J Las)
Because of the strong influence which her grandfather, an abolitionist, has in her life, fourteen-year-old Lucy assists a fugitive slave girl in her escape.
6. When Will This Cruel War Be Over?: The Civil War Diary of Emma Simpson
By: Berry Denenberg
(J Den)
The diary of a fictional fourteen-year-old girl living in Virginia, in which she describes the hardships endured by her family and friends during one year of the Civil War.
7. Hear the Wind Blow
By: Mary Downing Hahn
(YA F Hah)
With their mother dead and their home burned, a thirteen-year-old boy and his little sister set out across Virginia in search of relatives during the final days of the Civil War.
8. Emma Eileen Grove: Mississippi 1865
By: Kathleen Duey
(J Due)
Twelve-year-old Emma receives unexpected friendship from a Black roustabout and a Union soldier during an explosion on the steamboat Sultana in 1865.
9. Harriet Tubman and the Underground Railroad
By: Dan Elish
(JB Tub)
A biography of the African American woman who escaped from slavery, led slaves to freedom on the Underground Railroad, aided Northern troops during the Civil War, and worked for women’s suffrage.
10. Let My People Go—African Americans, 1804-1860
By: Deborah G. White
(JR 973 You)
Discusses the lives of African Americans from the early years of the nineteenth century to the start of the Civil War.
11. Copper Sun
By: Sharon M. Draper
(YA F Dra)
Two girls–one a slave and the other an indentured servant–escape their Carolina plantation and try to make their way to Fort Moses, Florida, a Spanish colony that gives sanctuary to slaves.
ADULTS
Non-Fiction
1. Black Soldiers in Blue: African American in the Civil War Era
Edited by: John David Smith
(973.74 Bla)
Inspired and informed by the latest research in African American, military, and social history, the fourteen original essays in this book tell the stories of the African American soldiers who fought for the Union cause. Collectively, these essays probe the broad military, political, and social significance of black soldiers’ armed service, enriching our understanding of the Civil War and African American life during and after the conflict. The contributors are Anne J. Bailey, Arthur W. Bergeron, Jr., John Cimprich, Lawrence Lee Hewitt, Richard Lowe, Thomas D. Mays, Michael T. Meier, Edwin S. Redkey, Richard Reid, William Glenn Robertson, John David Smith, Noah Andre Trudeau, Keith Wilson, and Robert J. Zalimas, Jr.
Biography
1. “We Are Lincoln Men”: Abraham Lincoln and His Friends
By: David Herbert Donald
(B Lin 2003)
Two-time Pulitzer Prize winner Donald delivers a highly readable portrait of Lincoln’s closest friendships in a volume that nicely complements his preeminent biography of our 16th president. Donald’s focus is on six key players: Joshua Speed, William H. Herndon, Orville H. Browning, William H. Seward and the president’s private secretaries, John Nicolay and John Hay.
2. Tried by War: Abraham Lincoln as Commander in Chief
By: James M. McPherson
(TBA—on order)
James McPherson, a bestselling historian of the Civil War, illuminates how Lincoln worked with—and often against— his senior commanders to defeat the Confederacy and create the role of commander in chief as we know it.
3. Stealing Lincoln’s Body
By: Thomas J. Craughwell
(973.7 Cra 2007)
Craughwell exhumes a fascinating and bizarre Lincoln tale that you didn’t hear in school: The plot hatched by a group of Chicago counterfeiters to steal Honest Abe’s remains and ransom them for $200,000 and the release of an imprisoned cohort. Though ultimately unsuccessful, the brazen scheme launched The First Cadaver on a peripatetic 25-year journey to its final, concrete-encased resting place. Along the way, Stealing Lincoln’s Body detours into the story of rampant counterfeiting prior to and through the Civil War that nearly bankrupted the U.S. treasury, the scoundrelly origins of the Secret Service, and some of the stranger embalming techniques of 19th-century America.
4. Team of Rivals: The Political Genius of Abraham Lincoln
By: Doris Kearns Goodwin
(973.709 Goo)
Team of Rivals doesn’t just tell the story of Abraham Lincoln. It is a multiple biography of the entire team of personal and political competitors that he put together to lead the country through its greatest crisis. Here, Doris Kearns Goodwin profiles five of the key players in her book, four of whom contended for the 1860 Republican presidential nomination and all of whom later worked together in Lincoln’s cabinet.
5. Manhunt: The Twelve Day Chase for Lincoln’s Killer
By: James L. Swanson
(364.1524 Swa)
In Manhunt you are given the details of the twelve day chase of Lincoln’s assassin, John Wilkes Booth, American playboy and beloved actor by many a young ladies. The facts presented are given in the manner of a story and it is so vivid in detail that you could imagine yourself there following behind Booth and Davey Harold as they made their way from Washington D.C. all the way to the Garrett farm near Port Royal, Virginia.
6. Lincoln
By: David Herbert Donald
(B Lin)
Winner of two Pulitzer Prizes, most recently for Homeward: A Life of Thomas Wolfe, Donald proves himself the superb biographer of Lincoln. Donald’s profile of the 16th president focuses entirely on Lincoln, seldom straying from the subject. It looks primarily at what Lincoln “knew, when he knew it, and why he made his decisions.” Donald’s Lincoln emerges as ambitious, often defeated, tormented by his married life, but with a remarkable capacity for growth and the nation’s greatest president. Donald’s biography will appeal to all readers.
