Exploring the Civil War: Reading Maps: Kanawha County Public Library

Roots of Resistance: The Story of the Underground Railroad

973.7115 ROOTS

(DVD) At the time of the Civil War, one of every eight people living in the United States was considered the legal property of someone else. Men and women, black and white, risked their lives to carve an elaborate network of escape routes out of slavery that became known as the Underground Railroad, a loosely organized group of deeply committed individuals who employed everything from secret codes to false-bottom wagons to bring fugitives out of bondage to havens of freedom.

The Slaves' War: The Civil War in the Words of Former Slaves

by Andrew Ward 973.711 WARD

(Audiobook) Interweaving hundreds of interviews with excerpts from diaries, letters, and memoirs, a narrative history of the American Civil War captures the story of the conflict from the perspective of the African-American slaves who played a role.

Ride With the Devil

(DVD) Set during the Kansas-Missouri border war, this film follows Jake (Tobey Maguire) and Jack Bull (Skeet Ulrich), who join the Confederate-sympathizing Bushwhackers after Jack Bull's father is killed by abolitionist Jayhawkers, and find an unusual ally in Holt (Jeffrey Wright), who's fighting for the South despite being a former slave. A rumination on identity and loyalty, both political and personal, Ride with the Devil is a provocative challenge to preconceptions about America's bloodiest conflict.

Glory

(DVD) Two idealistic young Bostonians lead the 54th Massachusetts Volunteer Infantry, America's first Black regiment, in the Civil War.

Red Moon at Sharpsburg

by Rosemary Wells

(Audiobook) As the Civil War breaks out, India, a young Southern girl, summons her sharp intelligence and the courage she didn't know she had to survive the war that threatens to destroy her family, her Virginia home, and the only life she has ever known.

White Doves at Morning

by James Lee Burke

(Audiobook) Best known for his Louisiana-set detective fiction, James Lee Burke steps out of his usual genre to write this Civil War novel, which is also set in Louisiana. White Doves at Morning is a broad story centered on plantation owner Ira Jamison, his daughter, Flower, boarding house owner Willie Burke, abolitionist Abigail Downing, and Robert Perry, the son of a slave owner.

Cold Mountain

(DVD) Inman, a young Confederate soldier, who is injured during the explosive 1864 battle of Petersburg, Virginia, is struggling to make his way home to Cold Mountain, North Carolina, where his beloved Ada awaits him. In Inman's absence, Ada befriends Ruby, who helps her keep up her late father's farm. Meanwhile, in his travels, Inman encounters a menagerie of interesting and colorful characters.

Escape From Andersonville: A Novel Of The Civil War

by Gene Hackman

(Audiobook) Incarcerated within a murderous Confederate prison camp in 1864, Union officer Nathan Parker escapes and urges his superiors to intervene, but when his efforts are blocked by military higher-ups, he organizes a private rescue mission with a shady ex-soldier.

The General

(DVD) Rejected by the Confederate army, and taken for a coward by his beloved, young Johnny Gray (Buster Keaton) is given a chance to redeem himself when he wages a one-man war against Yankee spies who have stolen his locomotive. Loosely based on a real 1862 locomotive chase in northern Georgia.