American Civil War Historical Fiction

From the critically acclaimed author of Bloodroot, a gripping, wondrously evocative novel of a family in turmoil, set against the backdrop of real-life historical event—the story of three days in the summer of 1936, as a government-built dam is about to flood an Appalachian town, and a little girl goes missing.

The soldiers did the fighting; the generals, the Infighting In the waning months of the American Civil War, a delusional Confederate commander makes a desperate attempt to change the course of the South’s dwindling hopes by invading middle Tennessee. The tragic result of Lt. Gen. John Bell Hood’s misplaced hubris devastates his Army of Tennessee and alters the lives of the citizens of Franklin, Tennessee. In a historical novel reminiscent of The Killer Angels, Too Much the Lion follows a handful of Confederate generals, infantrymen and local residents through the five days leading up to...

The Forgotten First Black Hero of the Civil War André and Felicie Cailloux find themselves in the center of a tempest when the Union army sweeps into the city of New Orleans in 1862. Based on real events and real people, The Dixie Devil tells the remarkable story of Captain Cailloux and his wife, Felicie, as they try to protect their family from the forces swirling all around them. Today, André and Felicie Cailloux are forgotten names, but André was the first black hero in the very first African-American regiment to see major action in the Civil War. Included in this volatile mix is a ...

Reed Morrow is happy making a living hunting buffalo on the Kansas plain. But he makes a change after he finds his best friend with a bullet in his neck. He’s turning his rifles away from the buffalo herd and training them on the ruthless outlaw that pulled the trigger – Bradshaw Devlin. Bradshaw failed as a buffalo hunter. But he’s starting to make a fortune from his new trade – cold murder. Following the buffalo herd closely, Reed finds bloody echoes of Bradshaw’s rampage along the trail. Reed thinks he’s alone in his hunt. Until he meets Celia Arnold. Celia’s family has ...

U.S. Marshal Frank Kennedy is on a relentless pursuit through 100 miles of harsh, lawless land. Each mile more dangerous than the last… In 1869, Frank’s quarry is the notorious outlaw Amos Pickett, whose brutal crime of murdering innocent men with dynamite has made him a wanted man across the West. Frank’s mission is fraught with peril as he ventures into the treacherous No Man’s Land – a dangerous expanse between Texas and Kansas where Pickett and his gang thrive. To capture Pickett, Frank enlists the aid of Fierce Warrior, a Comanche with a personal vendetta, and Ida Bishop, a ...

Josephine "Jojo" Best has it all figured out. Just 17, she's been to college, she has her own hairdressing shop, and nothing will distract her from her goals. That is, until handsome George Brooks begins to pursue her. Then the return of her childhood nemesis complicates her life even further. No girl is immune to Adam Morgan's charm. But when a wound brings him home from the War Between the States, it's a girl he used to call "Pest" who's turning the tables. All grown up, Jojo is being courted by another soldier, and Adam knows it would be foolish to play with her heart.

They survived America’s deadliest Indian war; winning a lasting peace proves even more dangerous for new mother Annabelle and Union sharpshooter Josey Angel. The couple are thriving as ranchers during Montana’s gold rush. With an end to fighting on the “Bloody Bozeman” trail, they can build a family home. But when a series of gruesome murders jeopardizes treaty negotiations, Annabelle and Josey must find and clear the name of the warrior who once held Annabelle captive: Crazy Horse. “He’s just as likely to kill me as listen to me,” Josey says of the man determined to drive off...

Ady, a curious, sharp-witted girl, and her fierce mother, Sanite, are inseparable. Enslaved to a businessman in the French Quarter of New Orleans, the pair spend their days reminiscing about their family’s rebellious and storied history and dreaming of a loving future. When mother and daughter are separated, Ady is left hopeless and directionless until she stumbles into the Mockingbird Inn and meets Lenore, a free Black woman with whom she becomes fast friends. Lenore invites Ady to join a clandestine society of spies called the Daughters.

Civil War veteran Clint Turner is a happy man working as a blacksmith in Macon, Texas. He loves to see his neighbors use the metals forged from his hands until all that changes dramatically when an outlaw gang kills his brother-in-law and his sister. From then on, he has only one thing on his mind – a mixture of justice and vengeance. To accomplish his mission, Clint campaigns to become sheriff of Macon County. The law enforcement job for Clint would see him put to good use his six shooter, his wits, and his sense of justice.

Heartbreak and hope—set against the backdrop of a war-torn country. War has taken everything from Russ Fields - his brother, half of his face, and now his sister. But when he receives a reply to his letter of sorrow, he never imagined it would lead to something more. Emmie Mason has also lost everything - her fiancé, her job, and her closest friend. But when she responds to a letter of condolence, she never expected it to bring a glimmer of hope. As their letters continue, a bond forms between Russ and Emmie, two souls who have suffered unimaginable losses. But can their words bridge the...

U.S. Marshal Hunter Cole is called upon to restore peace and stop a gang from attacking a sacred site of the Apaches. The small town of Thunder Ridge is built near an ancient Apache ruins, where whispers of hidden treasure stir excitement. A notorious gang led by Lucas Crane rides into town, seeking gold and priceless artifacts rumored to be buried by Apache ancestors. The town’s peace crumbles when its residents start fearing the outlaws’ greed might provoke a war with the Apache tribe. The town’s mayor realizes he has no choice but to call in U.S. Marshal Hunter Cole to capture ...

After an attempted theft of one of his ranch’s horses, Levi Clay finds himself with blood on his hands and renewed questions about his father’s mysterious death… As he searches for answers in the neighboring town of Masonville, he uncovers a world that’s been warped to serve a brutal gang of outlaws led by one man – Pete Ramsey. Murder. Raids. Corruption. Pete has done it all. But nobody dares to point out the injustices that they have suffered. Speaking up only puts their lives in danger, because… The sheriff and his deputies are on Ramsey’s payroll. As he probes deeper into ...

Few wars have been fought by each side with greater intensity of conviction in the rightness of its cause or with more abundant personal heroism than the War Between the States. The story begins with a great responsibility falling on Vincent Wingfield, the teenage son of a widowed Virginia plantation owner. Vincent must decide what course of action he should take when a problem arises on the plantation.

"Whirligig is a magnificent novel, epic in scale!"– Gill Thompson, Author of 'The Child on Platform One.' Shire leaves his home and his life in Victorian England for the sake of a childhood promise, a promise that pulls him into the bleeding heart of the American Civil War. Lost in the bloody battlefields of the West, he discovers a second home for his loyalty. Clara believes she has escaped from a predictable future of obligation and privilege, but her new life in the Appalachian Hills of Tennessee is decaying around her. In the mansion of Comrie, long hidden secrets are being slowly ...

Waking in the dirt to the smell of smoke, widower Ben Palmer finds his homestead razed, and his daughter gone. Ben is raising his daughter Iris as best he could, scratching a living out of the rocky New Mexico mountain soil. Life is hard – but it just gets a lot harder. Under the lead of the notorious Stitch Jacobs, six desperate men have just fouled relations between the Apache nation and a wealthy land baron. Caught in the crosshairs of their escape, Ben’s daughter is taken hostage as a peace offering to the tyrant who bankrolls the gang. Ben is desperate. Getting his daughter back ...

Before the Reckoning, there was the Rising. In the wake of the Civil War, the prairie town of Coldwater, Kansas is still finding its shape—restless, divided, and perched on the edge of change. For Will Mertens, a quiet German immigrant carving a life from the unforgiving soil, the war never reached his doorstep—but its consequences are everywhere. When Mary Harper, the defiant daughter of a local matriarch, falls into his life, their union will challenge every unspoken rule of Coldwater’s rigid social order. As the years pass, Will and Mary build something rare: a family, a farm, a ...

Jackson Chandler, a Union Army veteran, values Afton town’s calm and quiet as do most of the townsfolk. And Afton, in Kansas, wants no part of being a cattle town. Cattle, plentiful in Texas, have to be shipped back east to a hungry public, who couldn’t get enough beef. The closest railroad hubs are in Kansas. Texas drovers move massive herds through Indian Territory and into Kansas. Corrupt banker Morton Ludwig wants his share of the lucrative cattle trade and will do anything to make Afton a wide open yet violent cattle town. He has help from a vicious outlaw he employs, named Decker ...

Susie King Taylor, born a slave in 1848, would learn to read at secret schools and go on to teach countless others to read and write. Follow the course of the Civil War in her own words as she remembers her work as a nurse and teacher with an Army troop of African-American soldiers.

This is the story of a woman, while visiting a local antique store, purchases an old journal. It was written by a farmer's wife, living in Gettysburg, at the time of the battle. It reveals her experiences during and after the horrific event. The woman decides to read the unread journal on a local "Show and Share" radio program. Reading the journal exposes her to unique challenges and unexpected consequences that resulted from this purchase.

Ambrose Bierce brings to life the heart rendering stories of divided loyalties, splitting families, states, countries, and individuals. He writes of the glory in beginning and savagery in the doing. Here is a moving anti-war series of stories if ever there was one. A must read by all students of American History and Literature, though perhaps best understood by older adults.