Books
New / Best Sellers / Most Recommended
Sacrifice All For The Union: The story of Captain John Valley Young personifies the body of rugged Union Army volunteers from West Virginia during the Civil War: highly resilient, stubbornly independent, and fiercely patriotic. Using Captain Young’s wartime letters to his wife, Paulina Franklin Young, and his daughters, Sarah and Emily Young, along with his diary and numerous other original soldier accounts, this book reveals the experiences of a Union soldier and his family who were truly willing to “Sacrifice All for the Union.”
Seceding from Secession: “West Virginia was the child of the storm,” concluded early Mountaineer historian and Civil War veteran, Maj. Theodore F. Lang. The northwestern third of the Commonwealth of Virginia finally broke away in 1863 to form the Union’s 35th state. In Seceding from Secession: The Civil War, Politics, and the Creation of West Virginia, authors Eric J. Wittenberg, Edmund A. Sargus, and Penny L. Barrick chronicle those events in an unprecedented study of the social, legal, military, and political factors that converged to bring about the birth of the West Virginia.
The Battle of Hurricane Bridge, March 28, 1863
by Philip Hatfield, PhD
The Battle at Hurricane Bridge is an often overlooked Civil War action occurring at the small and otherwise quiet western Virginia village. For five hours behind the limited protection of an unfinished earthen fort, the green Union troops of the 13th West Virginia Volunteer Infantry under the command of Captain James Johnson, fought to hold off the hardened Confederate veterans of the 8th and 16th Virginia Cavalry commanded by Brigadier General Albert Gallatin Jenkins.
Ultimately, the March 28, 1863, battle at Hurricane Bridge directly contributed to the Union army maintaining control of the James River & Kanawha Turnpike, a key supply line, and enabled Federal control of the Kanawha Valley for the remainder of the war.
The Seventh West Virginia Infantry: An Embattled Union Regiment from the Civil War’s Most Divided State
by David W. Mellott and Dr. Mark A. Snell
My Reminiscences of the Civil War with the Stonewall Brigade and the Immortal 600
by Captain Alfred Mallory Edgar, 27th Virginia Infantry CSA
General Topics
The Civil War in West Virginia: A Pictorial History, by Stan Cohen
Pictorial Guide to West Virginia’s Civil War Sites, by Stan Cohen
Images of the Civil War in West Virginia, by Terry Lowry and Stan Cohen
West Virginia in the Civil War (Images of America), by Richard A. Wolfe
West Virginia and the Civil War, by Dr. Mark A. Snell
The War Came by Train: The Baltimore & Ohio Railroad During the Civil War, by Daniel Carroll Toomey
Battles / Campaigns
The First Campaign: A Guide to Civil War in the Mountains of West Virginia, 1861, Three One-Day Driving Tours, by W. Hunter Lesser
The Battle of White Sulphur Springs, by Eric J. Wittenberg
September Blood: The Battle of Carnifex Ferry, by Terry Lowry
Campaign in Western Virginia, by George B. McClellan
Holding the Line: The Battle of Allegheny Mountain, by Joe Geiger
The Jones-Imboden Raid, by Darrell L. Collins
General William Averell’s Salem Raid, by Darrell L. Collins
The Coal River Valley in the Civil War, by Michael B. Graham
Last Sleep: The Battle of Droop Mountain, by Terry Lowry
The Battle of Scary Creek, by Terry Lowry
Unit Histories
History of the 5th West Virginia Cavalry, by Frank S. Reader
History of the 12th West Virginia Volunteer Infantry, by William Hewitt,
Includes: The Story of Andersonville and Florence by James N. Miller
Phantoms of the South Fork: Captain McNeill and His Rangers, by Steve French
Headquarters in the Brush: Blazer’s Independent Union Scouts, by Darl L. Stephenson
Biographies
Stonewall Jackson: The Man, The Soldier, The Legend, by James I. Robertson, Jr.
Rebel Yell: The Violence, Passion, and Redemption of Stonewall Jackson, by S.C. Gwynne
Major Thomas Maley Harris, by H.E. Matheny
Brigadier General John D. Imboden, by Spencer C. Tucker
The Other Feud: William Anderson “Devil Anse” Hatfield in the Civil War, by Dr. Philip Hatfield
Online Reading
A House Divided: Statehood Politics and the Copperhead Movement in West Virginia by Richard Orr Curry
University of Pittsburgh Press – Digital Editions
The Tarnished Thirty-fifth Star by C. Stuart McGehee
Virginia at War, 1861; edited by William C. Davis and James I. Robertson, Jr.
Virginia Center for Civil War Studies
Loyal West Virginia from 1861-1865 by Theodore F. Lang
The Deutsch Publishing Company, Baltimore, Maryland, 1895.
New Book Announcements and Reviews
New Stonewall Jackson title available September 30, 2014
From the author of the prizewinning New York Times bestseller Empire of the Summer Moon comes a thrilling account of how Civil War general Thomas "Stonewall" Jackson became a great and tragic American hero. Stonewall Jackson has long been a figure of legend and...
New book tells story of Confederate raid on Morgantown
Gray Days in Morgantown, by Clyde Cale, Jr. On April 27, 1863, Confederate raiders under the command of General William "Grumble" Jones came to Morgantown in search of supplies and livestock. The raiders were part of a larger force led by Jones and General John...
New book: West Virginia in the Civil War by Richard A. Wolfe
West Virginia in the Civil War, a new book by Richard A. Wolfe, has been released by Arcadia Publishing. West Virginia, "Child of the Storm," was the only state formed as a result of the Civil War. The struggle between eastern and western Virginia over voting rights,...
New Book on The Baltimore & Ohio Railroad during the Civil War
In 1939, Festus S. Summers wrote The Baltimore & Ohio Railroad in the Civil War. Primarily a corporate history of the B&O during the war years, it has remained the only title on the subject for over seven decades! Now there is The War Came by Train. Beginning...
Calamity at Chancellorsville: The Wounding and Death of Confederate General Stonewall Jackson
On May 2, 1863, Confederate General Thomas J. "Stonewall" Jackson led his Second Corps around the unsuspecting Army of the Potomac on one of the most daring flank marches in history. His surprise flank attack-launched with the five simple words "You can go forward,...
Back in print: West Virginia’s Civil War Sites
Quarrier Press has released a reprint of Stan Cohen's classic book, A Pictorial Guide to West Virginia's Civil War Sites. Over 400 photographs, maps, and drawings. Includes 230 sites connected to the Civil War such as battlefields, cemeteries, buildings, and houses....
Rebel Chronicles: Raiders, Scouts, and Train Robbers of the Upper Potomac
Author/historian Steve French has recently published his third book on Civil War action in the eastern panhandle and surrounding region. The new title, Rebel Chronicles: Raiders, Scouts, and Train Robbers of the Upper Potomac, is divided into three parts, and includes...
A History and Guide to Civil War Shepherdstown
An Interview with Nicholas Redding The Civil War Trust recently had the chance to sit down with Nicholas Redding, author of a new book, Civil War Shepherdstown: Victory and Defeat in West Virginia’s Oldest Town. This new book describes and analyzes the story of a...
New book on the Battle of Allegheny Mountain
Holding the Line: The Battle of Allegheny Mountain and Confederate Defense of the Staunton-Parkersburg Turnpike, 1861-62 By Joe Geiger, Jr. Now available from the West Virginia Book Company..... This book seeks to provide a detailed look at military activities along...
Book Review: The Battle of White Sulphur Springs
A book review written by Jonathan A. Noyalas on Eric J. Wittenberg's The Battle of White Sulphur Springs has been published bythe Civil War News. Read the review here.... Purchase the book here....