Writers have used the Civil War as a backdrop for their literary writings about American characters. Read The Red Badge of Courage, and other works.
1. Patriotic Gore: Studies in the Literature of the American Civil War
by Edmund Wilson. W.W. Norton and Company. From the publisher: "Patriotic Gore more than proves the point, brilliantly portraying the vast political, spiritual, and material crisis of the Civil War as reflected in the lives and writings of some thirty representative Americans."
2. The Imagined Civil War: Popular Literature of the North and South
by Alice Fahs. University of North Carolina Press. From the publisher: "From 1861 to 1865, authors and publishers in both the North and the South produced a remarkable variety of war-related compositions, including poems, songs, children's stories, romances, novels, histories, and even humorous pieces."3. The Red Badge of Courage: A Norton Critical Edition
by Stephen Crane. W.W. Norton and Company. This book is the work of literature we usually think of when we talk about the Civil War and writing. It was Crane's greatest work, and it made him famous when he was 23. Harold Frederick once wrote that Crane's work would be "one of the deathless books which must be read by everybody."4. Just What War Is: The Civil War Writings of de Forest and Bierce
by Michael W. Schaefer. University of Tennessee Press. This book includes sections on "Under Fire: The Componets of Realism in Combat Writing," on "John W. De Forest," on "Ambrose Bierce," with a conclustion: "I Would Not Have Missed This For Any Consideration."5. Classics of Civil War Fiction
by David Madden (Editor) and Peggy Bach (Editor). University of Alabama Press. From the publisher: "This collection of essays, written by novelists and scholars of the Civil War, offers an examination of 14 works considered classics of Civil War fiction published before 1950."6. Disarming the Nation: Women's Writing and the American Civil War
by Elizabeth Young. University of Chicago Press. From the publisher: "Offering fascinating reassessments of works by white writers such as Harriet Beecher Stowe, Louisa May Alcott, and Margaret Mitchell and African-American writers including Elizabeth Keckley, Frances Harper, and Margaret Walker, Young also highlights crucial but lesser-known texts."7. Gone with the Wind: The Definitive Illustrated History of the Book
by Herb Bridges and Terryl C. Boodman. Simon & Schuster. "Gone with the Wind" was published in 1936, and has become an American classic with millions of copies sold. The Civil War places a part in the novel.8. Writing the Civil War: The Quest to Understand
by James M. McPherson (Editor), William J. Cooper (Editor). University of South Carolina Press. From the publisher: "Covering topics from battlefield operations to the impact of race and gender, this volume is an informative guide through the labyrinth of Civil War literature."9. Blood: Stories of Life and Death from the Civil War
by Peter Kadzis (Editor). Avalon Publishing Group. From the publisher: "The Civil War - the bloodiest, most dramatic moment in this nation's history - also produced some of the country's greatest literature. Blood reflects the violent hatred, love, patriotism, and heroism this conflict generated in a panoramic view of the war through the vivid stories of the men and women who were there."10. The Real War Will Never Get in the Books: Selections from Writers
by Louis P. Masur (Editor). Oxford University Press. From the publisher: "In this book Louis Masur has brought together fourteen of the most eloquent and articulate writers of the Civil War period, including such major literary figures as Nathaniel Hawthorne."