These are my picks for the most significant books on the Civil War. Some are here because of the significance of their subjects, some because of the innovativeness of their approach, and others because they are simply very well-done books. Many fall into all three categories. This is not a list for the ages, but rather a list of what books I judge to be the most interesting right now. Over the years, some may fade in importance while others remain.

I've listed them in alphabetical order by the author's last name. Click on the book titles for brief explanations of why I selected each book.
 

Edmund C. Bearss, The Vicksburg Campaign (3 vols.)

Bruce Catton, Mr. Lincoln's Army/Glory Road/Stillness at Appomattox

Bruce Catton, The Coming Fury/Terrible Swift Sword/Never Call Retreat

Bruce Catton, Grant Moves South/Grant Takes Command

Thomas Lawrence Connelly, Army of the Heartland/Autumn of Glory

Stephen Davis, Atlanta Will Fall: Sherman, Joe Johnston, and the Yankee Heavy Battalions

William J. Cooper, Jefferson Davis: American

William C. Davis, Jefferson Davis: The Man and His Hour

David Herbert Donald, Lincoln

Shelby Foote, The Civil War: A Narrative (3 vols.)

Douglas Southall Freeman, Lee's Lieutenants: A Study in Command (3 vols)

Allen C. Guelzo, Redeemer President

Warren E. Grabau, Ninety-Eight Days: A Geographer's View of the Vicksburg Campaign

Mark Grimsley, The Hard Hand of War: Union Military Policy Toward Southern Civilians, 1861-1865

Herman Hattaway and Archer Jones, How the North Won: A Military History of the Civil War

Andrew Haughton, Training, Tactics and Leadership in the Confederate Army of Tennessee

Earl J. Hess, The Union Soldier in Battle: Enduring the Ordeal of Combat

Harry V. Jaffa, A New Birth of Freedom: Abraham Lincoln and the Coming of the Civil War

John F. Marszalek, Sherman: A Soldier's Passion for Order

Richard M. McMurry, Two Great Rebel Armies: An Essay in Confederate Military History

James M. McPherson, Battle Cry of Freedom: The Civil War Era

James M. McPherson, For Cause and Comrades: Why Men Fought in the Civil War

James M. McPherson, Drawn with the Sword: Reflections on the American Civil War

Grady McWhiney and Perry D. Jamieson, Attack and Die: Civil War Military Tactics and the Southern Heritage

Alan T. Nolan, Lee Considered: General Robert E. Lee and Civil War History

William Garrett Piston and Richard W. Hatcher III, Wilson's Creek: The Second Battle of the Civil War and the Men Who Fought It

J. Tracy Power, Lee's Miserables: Life in the Army of Northern Virginia from the Wilderness to Appomattox

Gerald J. Prokopowicz, All for the Regiment: The Army of the Ohio, 1861-1862

George C. Rable, The Confederate Republic: A Revolution against Politics

James I. Robertson, Stonewall Jackson

William L. Shea and Earl J. Hess, Pea Ridge: Civil War Campaign in the West

Brooks Simpson, Ulysses S. Grant: Triumph over Adversity

Robert G. Tanner, Stonewall in the Valley: Thomas J. "Stonewall" Jackson's Shenandoah Valley Campaign, Spring 1862

Robert G. Tanner, Retreat to Victory? Confederate Strategy Reconsidered

Emory M. Thomas, Robert E. Lee: A Biography

Ezra J. Warner, Generals in Gray/Generals in Blue

Mark A. Weitz, A Higher Duty: Desertion among Georgia Troops during the Civil War