Okay, so the US Civil War is a bit of a controversial topic, and as a result a lot of documentaries and books on it are biased in one way or the other. (And by that I mean biased in favor of the Confederacy, at least in my experience.) Anyway, I was wondering if y'all could recommend some works on the Civil War that cover the military history, but also don't go all "The civil war wasn't about slavery, it was about something else that they just forgot to mention in the cornerstone speech, the declarations of secession, etc."
Preferably these works would be not too dry, and would be understandable to someone whose knowledge of the period boils down to "Sherman was responsible for the amazing military innovation of stealing everything a plantation owner had before setting his plantation on fire instead of just setting the plantation on fire right away."
Do you want a military focus specifically, or a work that covers the military as well as other factors?
/u/Jmorgan22, I hadn't seen criticism of James McPherson, Battle Cry of Freedom: The Civil War Era. Can you please explain?
It is generally well-regarded. The AskHistorians book list (q.v.) has "Holds up extremely well as one of the best single-volume histories of the war." The shots are fired at Fort Sumter as late as page 273, because he went into the factors that, over decades, led up to the actual secession and fighting. For the war, he covers the military campaigns, but also the diplomatic sphere, production, trade, non-war legislation, dissent, et cetera.
Oh, about that AskHistorians book list. The book is named, and usually there's a sentence or paragraph of review. The part focused on the U. S. Civil War is at https://www.reddit.com/r/AskHistorians/wiki/books/americas#wiki_civil_war.2Freconstruction_era . Books in this section, or in previous sections, may focus on the lead-up to the war. But I don't see a specifically military book, so I hope it doesn't discourage you.
Edit: there's a separate page at https://www.reddit.com/r/AskHistorians/wiki/books/documentaries/americas But there's not much there, and there are disagreements about Ken Burns's series.