References
"Burnside's Web-Footed Warriors" by Noah Andre Trudeau. Military History Quarterly, Volume 12, Number 4, Summer 2000. An excellent article on Burnside's Naval Division and the North Carolina campaign.
Chancellorsville, by Stephen Sears. Copyright 1996, Mariner Books. Although it is focused on the Chancellorsville campaign, the book begins with a detailed description of the General's revolt and the Mud March. This is one of the best books I've seen on the Chancellorsville campaign. It makes use of a number of primary sources uncovered relatively recently.
The Civil War, A Narrative – Fort Sumter to Perryville by Shelby Foote. Copyright 1958, renewed in 1986, Vintage Books. The first volume of Foote's classic three-volume study of the Civil War. Although massive, it is an easy read. It does not go into any great detail on any one campaign, but it does make for a good introduction before diving into a deeper book. This book covers the movements and politics after the battle of Antietam.
The Civil War, A Narrative – Fredericksburg to Meridian by Shelby Foote. Copyright 1963, Vintage Books. The second volume of Foote's classic three-volume study of the Civil War. This book has more direct bearing on the Fredericksburg campaign.
The Civil War Battlefield Guide by The Conservation Fund (Frances H. Kennedy, editor). Copyright 1998. This is a guide to 384 principal battlefields and their campaigns. Short battle descriptions are given, many accompanied by maps showing troop placements with respect to modern day roads and terrain. A portion of the proceeds goes to the preservation of battlefields.
"The Crater" by John M. Taylor. Published in With My Face To The Enemy, edited by Robert Cowley, copyright 2001 and published by Putnam. A fascinating essay on the Battle of the Crater at Petersburg, focusing on the Union's preparations and subsequent bungling of the attack.
"Defending Marye's Heights" by Joseph H. Alexander. Published in With My Face To The Enemy, edited by Robert Cowley, copyright 2001 and published by Putnam. This is a good descriptive essay on the attack on Marye's Heights from the Southern perspective. It doesn't give a detailed description of the entire battle or even a detailed account of all the Union assaults on December 13. However, it gives a very good understanding of the Confederate defences in the sunken road.
Fredericksburg 1862 by Carl Smith. Part of Osprey Military's Campaign Series. Copyright 1999. This series has excellent colour 3D maps and the orders of battle are fairly complete and — for the most part — error free. The book isn't without some serious flaws. The commentary is sometimes confusing, and there are minor editing errors. Worse are the many factual errors. Alexander's quote about how a "chicken could not live on that field when we open on it," is credited to Longstreet. One of the generals who went to Washington is listed as Smith, not Cochrane. The dates of the Mud March are wrong. These are but three of the many errors found throughout. The maps, though, are invaluable. Otherwise, steer clear of Carl Smith's Osprey books.
The Fredericksburg Campaign, 2nd Edition by General Edward J. Stackpole with commentary by D. Scott Hartwig. Copyright 1991 (original copyright 1957), Stackpole Books. This book is a little out of date, though the commentary at the end does clear up the discrepancies due to current research. It is well written and easy to read, and makes for a good primer on the Fredericksburg campaign.
Fredericksburg National Military Park Map. Trailhead Graphics. Trailhead makes a series of maps (in paper or tearproof/waterproof coated paper) for several battlefields. These are invaluable as they give topographic information as well as the position of the battlefield markers and monuments, and the present (and historical) position of woods. I highly recommend them.
Rebels Resurgent: Fredericksburg to Chancellorsville by William K. Goolrick. Part of the Time-Life Books "The Civil War" series, copyright 1985.
The War of the Rebellion: A Compilation of the Official Records of the Union and Confederate Armies. Also known as the Army Official Records, or simply the Official Records (the latter is not exactly accurate, as it ignores the official records of the navies involved in the conflict, which were published separately). Originally published by the Government Printing Office in 1880. Available on The Civil War CD-Rom, produced by Guild Press of Indiana, copyright 1997, and also posted online. The CD-ROM from Guild Press has the advantages that you can cut and paste the text and you don't have to be connected to the Internet. Be aware that there are errors in the Guild Press edition where their Optical Character Recognition (OCR) software made a mistake translating scanned pages into text (the text doesn't appear to have been adequately proofread). The online archive scanned each page of the books and displays the pages as graphics. You can't cut and paste, but there are no OCR errors.
Who Was Who in the Union and Who Was Who in the Confederacy by Stewart Sifakis. Copyright 1988 by Facts On File. Quick histories of the major participants of the Civil War. Two volume set, making up Who Was Who in the Civil War.
