In preperation for the release of AACW, I have started to read this trilogy, Shelby Foote's Civil War, a narrative. I think I have read parts of this work in the past, but never the whole thing. I have an extensive Civil War library, but somehow never sat and read this whole thing.
For anyone who might not have much knowledge of the Civil War, but would like a comprehensive account, I couldn't recommend anything better. It is excellent. Foote's style practically drips with what I can only describe as 'Americana'. It's a work of, by, and for Americans. Foote is to American history what Livy was to the Roman Republic. If one volume on our civil war were to survive 2000 years from now for the sake of posterity and history, I would hope it would be Foote's trilogy.