I've recently completed 24 of 27 hours of this Yale free online undergraduate course about the ACW.
I have found it to be quite fascinating although I am not reading the books or doing the assignments; just listening to the lectures.
Despite watching tons of stuff on the ACW on the History Channel, this goes much, much deeper. So, I thought I would post the link:
http://www.academicearth.org/courses/the-civil-war-and-reconstruction-era-1845-1877
Disclaimer: I am posting this of mine own accord. AGEOD neither endorses or refutes the perspective of this course.