And Sunset John, the original question was on understanding the Civil War.   It seems painfully obvious that the first step should be collecting facts--which you cannot do in reading fiction--since the author obviously has no obligation to provide them. Clearly, the more facts there are in a work of fiction, the more convincing the story.   But if your first goal is not entertainment but learning, it should be blazingly clear nonfiction is the way to start.

It's also clear just from this thread that many people have simplistic views of the Civil War--which could be in large part remedied by reading more history--not fiction.

I actually find history so riveting that I'm not even tempted to read fiction.   YMMV.