Don't Hurry me down to Hades: The Civil War in the words of those who lived it, Susannah J. Ural.

A history of the American Civil War supported by a heavy use of contemporary sources and in particular letters, speeches and diaries - materials that were either intended for immediate reading or were private - rather than post-war memoirs, often distorted by the aims of their authors. The result is an immediacy and a freshness that takes us back to those dark years and helps us see the wider impact of the war.
 [read full review]