The Civil War: The First Year Told by Those Who Lived It

I was interested in The Library of America’s The Civil War: The First Year Told by Those Who Lived It, but I ended up waiting until 6 April to buy it. After getting and starting to read it I decided to read it 'as it happened' and to read the entries for each date on that date. As I started 'behind', I've been reading several entries a day to catch up and at this point I’m still a month. I hope to be caught up by the end of the month at which time I will continue reading it a day at a time. I've also decided that I will read Lincoln’s speeches and writing for the war years date-for-date as well. I’m hoping that by doing this I may get more of the pace of the war as the events and battles did not occur at regular intervals, but came in spurts, with periods of little activity between them. Is anyone else who owns this book or Lincoln's speeches and writings reading them this way? What about other well known civil war diaries or writings?