I should probably have mentioned that I found these books stunk. Also please don't recommend Bernard Cornwall. His original Sharpe books were ok in a popcorn reading kind of way, as was his Arthur trilogy; everything else stinks
wrong, wrong, wrong. The arthur trilogy wasn't his best - though some seem to think it is - but his Starbuck series - the American civil war books - are GREAT. You may not like the 19th century historical books, but you shouldn't go around saying all his work is crap because these are very, very good. Great descriptions of just what so many people in the period felt like and a great understanding of how the war early on was conducted. I can't recommend them enough.