I will echo the Bruce Catton suggestion. He's perfect for an intro. He covers it all and has a really good literary style that is both moving and easy to read. He's one of the few who is really passionate about his subject, yet remains totally objective. His description of the Wilderness battle was one of the most moving passages I think I've ever read. I had to put the book down and take a walk and try to get the imagery out of my head.
After reading him for starters, you'll probably want to let the subject matter guide you. Personally, I like reading the memoirs and letters. They really knew how to turn a phrase back then. Sullivan Balloo's last letter to his wife before he got hisself killed at First Manassas could make a stone weep.
Avoid anything that looks like it has a point to make; those are usually crap and totally biased.
Quote:
Dear Sarah,
The indications are very strong that we shall move in a few days, perhaps tomorrow, and lest I should not be able to write you again I feel impelled to write a few lines that may fall under your eye when I am no more. I have no misgivings about, or lack of confidence in, the cause in which I am engaged, and my courage does not halt or falter. I know how American civilization now leans upon the triumph of the government and how great a debt we owe to those who went before us through the blood and suffering of The Revolution, and I am willing, perfectly willing, to lay down all my joys in this life to help maintain this government and to pay that debt.
Sarah, my love for you is deathless, it seems to bind me with mighty cables that nothing but Omnipotence can break. And yet my love of country comes over me like a strong wind and bears me irresistible with all those chains to the battlefield. The memory of all the blissful moments I have enjoyed with you come crowding over me and I feel most deeply grateful to God and you that I have enjoyed them for so long. And how hard it is for me to give them up and burn to ashes the hopes and future years when, God willing, we might still have lived and loved together and see our boys grown up to honorable manhood around us.
If I do not return, my dear Sarah, never forget how much I loved you, nor that when my last breath escapes me in the battle field, it will whisper your name. Forgive my many faults and the many pains I have caused you. How houghtless, how foolish I have sometimes been! But, oh, Sarah - if the dead can come back to this earth and flit unseen around those they love, I shall always be with you in the brightest day and the darkest night - always, always. And when the soft breeze fans your cheek, it shall be my breath - with the cool air your throbbing temple, it shall be my spirit passing by. Sarah, do not mourn me dead, think I am gone and wait for me, for we shall meet again.
(One week later, Major Sullivan Balloo was killed in the first battle of Bull Run)
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Wish I could write a letter like that...