I don't know if you would consider fiction as a additional alternative to reading history, but here is a suggestion:

"Proud New Flags"
"Our Valiant Few"
"Blue Hurricane"

These books comprise a trilogy of the Civil War by master story tell, F. Van Wyck Mason. I read them over forty years ago, at least the first two. One gets a rousing story with a wonderful sense of time and place...they are well researched As I recall, they are told somewhat from a Southern viewpoint, but encompass most of the period.

The novels are semi-sequels to Mr. Mason's four volumes on the American Revolution written in the '30s and '40s, in that descendants of characters from those novels show up in the Civil War books.

Each book stands on its own, and I found each a pleasure all those years ago.