About Brett Schulte
My name is Brett Schulte and I’m the founder of and main blogger here at TOCWOC – A Civil War Blog. I am a lifelong Civil War buff approaching the age of 30 who enjoys reading about the Civil War, reviewing Civil War books, playing computer, board, and miniatures Civil War wargames, and tramping Civil War battlefields when I get a chance. As you can see by my photo, I’m also a lifelong St. Louis Cardinals fan. Other hobbies in addition to the Civil War include reading horror anthologies, watching horror movies, horror television shows, classic movies, classic cartoons (Looney Tunes & Merrie Melodies especially), the Three Stooges, dinosaurs, American History, European History, and military history.
My Civil War Beginnings
As I stated in a very early post back in the days when I was blogging at the now defunct American Civil War Gaming & Reading, my uncle and the local grade school library first got me interested in the Civil War. My Civil War books collection was started when I was in the fifth grade. I do not recall what book I first bought with 100% certainty, but I’m pretty sure it was Bruce Catton’s one volume history of the Civil War. After literally reading that book for lengthy periods of time resulting in headaches, I continued to add to the collection. Stephen Sears’ Landscape Turned Red soon found a spot on my shelf, as did Shelby Foote’s three-volume set The Civil War: A Narrative. By the time Ken Burns’ PBS miniseries on the Civil War came out, I was already past the point of becoming a lifelong student of the Civil War.
Why TOCWOC?
Do you mean the name or why am I doing this? I’ll give you an answer for both. TOCWOC stands for The Order of Civil War Obsessively Compulsed. Credit goes to Steve Meserve, an early blogger here at TOCWOC, for the title. It blew the other suggestions for a title out of the water.
I blog about the Civil War because it is a natural extension of my desire to write about the Civil War books I read and the Civil War games I play. My posts here at TOCWOC are often Civil War book reviews or game reviews. I try to tell you what I thought of a book and give you some detail about what it is about. I encourage others to comment on my book reviews and add your own opinions of the various books I’ve read. If I made a mistake in the review, point it out! I welcome constructive criticism. No one, especially me, knows even close to everything about the Civil War. I’m here to learn just like I presume you are.
I originally decided to blog alone in September 2005 under the blog title “American Civil War Gaming & Reading”. While this worked for several years, I found blogging by myself put too much pressure on me to always have posts ready to go. I stopped blogging for almost a year, knowing I wanted to get back to it but figuring there had to be a better way to do this for someone with as many interests as I have. The idea came to me late in 2007: Start a group blog, dummy!
Since that time, I have had many talented individuals join me here at TOCWOC – A Civil War Blog. Not only do I not feel constant pressure to always have that next post ready, but multiple bloggers means you get to read about the Civil War from multiple angles. Of all the bloggers I’ve had helping me here, none has been as helpful or prolific as Fred Ray. He has far more posts than the third most prolific blogger here. Thanks Fred and I hope you keep blogging here for a long time! James Durney, a top 500 Amazon.com reviewer, is doing great work as well.
For information on the other authors, check out (appropriately enough) the TOCWOC Authors page.
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I hope you enjoy reading about the Civil War here at TOCWOC – A Civil War Blog. If you want to get in touch with me, leave a comment below or use the Contact Us link at the top of the page.
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