My Old True Love by Sheila Kay Adams Hackley and Larkin are rivalrous cousins raised as brothers in the North Carolina mountains and bred on the songs of their ancestors. Predictably, they both fall for Mary, an Appalachian beauty. Hackley soon wins her affections and marries, only to be whisked away by the Confederate draft. Left in Larkin's care, Mary swoons for the other cousin, inviting tragedy into their country lives.
The Year of Jubilo by Howard Bahr
On a spring day in 1865 Gawain Harper returns home to Cumberland, Mississippi, where three years earlier he boarded a train carrying the enlistees in the Mississippi Infantry. Unmoved by the cause that motivated so many others, he joined up only when Morgan Rhea's father told Gawain that he would never wed his beloved Morgan unless he did his part in the war effort. Upon his return, he discovers post-war life is far from what he expected. Morgan has indeed waited for him, but before they can marry there are scores to be settled.
March by Geraldine Brooks
In Louisa May Alcott's Little Women, readers see a perfect, loving, close-knit family. In this novel Geraldine Brooks concentrates on the absent father. Referring to him as simply March, she creates a picture of his struggle with his not-so-perfect life during his tour of duty as a chaplain on the Civil War battlefields of Virginia. What emerges is the complex conflict of a man of principle who must adjust to fit the reality he encounters. March wrestles with hatred, violence, ignorance, lust, illness, and competing loyalties, from both outside himself and within.
Alice’s Tulips by Sandra DallasAlice Bullock is a young newlywed whose husband, Charlie, has just joined the Union Army, leaving her on his Iowa farm with only his formidable mother for company. Alice writes lively letters to her sister filled with accounts of local quilting bees, the rigors of farm life, and the customs of small-town America. But no town is too small for intrigue and treachery, and when Alice finds herself accused of murder, she discovers her own hidden strengths.
The March by E.L. Doctorow
Sherman's march through Georgia and the Carolinas produced hundreds of thousands of deaths and untold collateral damage. In this powerful novel, Doctorow gets deep inside the pillage, cruelty and destruction as well as the care and burgeoning love that sprung up in their wake. William Tecumseh Sherman is depicted as a man of complex moods and varying abilities, whose need for glory sometimes obscures his military acumen.
Nowhere Else on Earth by Josephine HumphreysIn the summer of 1864, sixteen-year-old Rhoda Strong lives in the Lumbee Indian settlement of Robeson County, North Carolina, which has become a pawn in the bloody struggle between the Union and Confederate armies. Daughter of a Scotsman and his formidable Lumbee wife, Rhoda is fiercely loyal to her family and desperately fears for their safety, but her love for the outlaw hero Henry Berry Lowrie forces her to cast her lot with danger. Her struggle becomes part of the community's in a powerful story of love and survival.
Charleston by John Jakes
The Bells, an aristocratic southern family, fight to keep dark secrets at bay to preserve their privilege and postion in high society. Spanning the years from the American Revolution to the Civil War, the complex and dynamic lives of this highbrow Charleston family are traced through decades of national tragedy, destruction, and change. Will the Bells remain united even as their beloved Carolina frontier divides?
Enemy Women by Paulette Jiles
For the Colleys of southeastern Missouri, the war is a plague that threatens devastation, despite the family’s avowed neutrality. For Adair Colley, it is a nightmare that tears apart her family and forces her and her sisters to flee. The treachery of a fellow traveler brings about her arrest, and she is caged with the criminal and deranged in a women’s prison. But young Adair finds that love can live even in a place of horror and despair. Her interrogator, a Union major, falls in love with her and vows to return for her when the fighting is over.
Ghost Riders by Sharon McCrumb
Tough, resilient Malinda Blalock is dismayed when her husband, Keith, leaves their Appalachian mountain farmstead to join up with the Confederate Army in hopes of earning money. Not content to wait out the war at home, Malinda cuts her hair and enlists herself as "Sam," Keith's younger brother. Their tour of duty is cut short by a deliberate scheme to get themselves discharged, and they move on to become do-gooder outlaws, known throughout the Appalachians.
Gods and Generals by Jeff Shaara
The Confederate Army of Northern Virginia is invading the North, and these warring forces will clash at Gettysburg, Pennsylvania. In the four most bloody and courageous days of our nation's history, two armies fight for two conflicting dreams. One dreams of freedom, the other of a way of life. More than rifles and bullets are carried into battle. The soldiers carry hope. Promises. Love. And more than men fall on those Pennsylvania fields. Bright futures, untested innocence, and pristine beauty are also the casualties of war.
The Sands of Pride by William Trotter
Told from the perspective of characters on both sides of the battle, including blockade-runner Matthew Sloane and Confederate spy Belle O'Neal, The Sands of Pride depicts life during the Civil War in Wilmington, North Carolina. Pivotal to the action is Fort Fisher, the formidable earthen fortress that provides cover for the daring blockade runners willing to risk everything for both personal profit and Confederate glory.