Reading history is second nature to me. Outside of the office, I read it to the exclusion of practically everything else.

I especially enjoy American history and much of my reading centers around three wars: The American Revolution, the War of 1812 and the Civil War. But it would be incorrect to assume I read only about the wars. Using those wars as the basis of my reading patterns, it takes me to several eras.

One pattern I have developed is reading about one person or an event and finding individuals in the book who are equally fascinating and make me want to read more about them.

A typical route goes something like this. I've read several biographies of George Washington and Thomas Jefferson. In turn, it triggered an interest in Benjamin Franklin and John Adams. That led me to, among others, Alexander Hamilton, Aaron Burr, Napoleon, John Quincy Adams, Andrew Jackson and James K. Polk.

My current reading pattern has landed me in the middle of the Civil War on the Confederate side. I've done a lot of reading on the Civil War, including Bruce Catton's epic series as well as several books about Gettysburg, Abraham Lincoln and Ulysses Grant.

In reading these works, I became acquainted with Union Gen. William Tecumseh Sherman. I wanted to know more about Sherman, so I read a biography of Sherman as well as a book on his infamous March to the Sea and the burning of Atlanta.

Reading about the friendship of Grant and Sherman made me curious about Union Gen. George McClellan, who always seemed to be on the outs with Grant and Lincoln. One comment Grant made about McClellan moved me directly toward the latter. When asked after the war to evaluate McClellan as a general, Grant said, "McClellan is to me one of the mysteries of the war."

Another common thread through Civil War books are mentions of Confederate generals including Robert E. Lee and Thomas "Stonewall" Jackson. But a couple of other names from the South kept on creeping into my reading.

Whenever I read about the eastern theater of the Civil War, the names of Gens. A.P. Hill and James Longstreet keep showing up. After reading, "General A.P. Hill: The Story of a Confederate Warrior," by James Robertson, I figured out why.

Ambrose Powell Hill was a Virginian who distinguished himself as a Confederate commander. He rose from colonel to major general in three months, eventually taking command of one of Lee's three corps in 1863. Next to Longstreet and Jackson, Lee considered Hill to be among his best officers, saying, "He fights his troops well and takes care of them."

Hill also curiously shows up at the end of the lives of Lee and Jackson. On his deathbed, Jackson deliriously called for A.P. Hill to "prepare for action." Robertson writes that when Lee was dying, he called out, "Tell Hill he must come up."

It's been fascinating reading history from a different point of view and it leave a lifelong Northerner understanding the strong affection Southerners have to their home states.

Hill served in the U.S. Army until the start of the Civil War. It appears he had no stake in the political ideas being fought for - his family owned no slaves, for instance - but his allegiance was to the commonwealth of Virginia. Once Virginia seceded from the Union, Hill was gone.

I am in the middle of reading about Longstreet now. After that, Confederate Gen. Joe Johnston is next on my agenda.

Managing Editor Dave Dawson can be reached at ddawson@herald-review.com or 421-7980.