TOCWOC – A Civil War Blog

Author: Fred Ray

  • Minie vs. Buck and Ball

    I found this from a couple of years ago by Cap and Ball, who compares the relative effectiveness of the Minie ball against a single smoothbore ball and the buck and ball cartridge. No question that the rifle is more accurate but OTOH a brigade firing off a volley of buck & ball puts a […]

  • Paul Hutton on CSPAN

    If you have a chance do watch historian Paul Hutton on CSPAN deliver the keynote address for the conference at the Buffalo Bill Center of the West in Cody, Wyoming. Hutton is an exceptionally entertaining, witty, and knowledgeable speaker about the Old West. He touches on the Civil War and Bill Cody’s service in it, […]

  • Looking for Major Blackford

    Eugene Blackford is a fascinating character and it’s easy to get drawn into his life. I’m currently publishing his wartime letters, but I’m not the only one who’s interested in him. Here’s someone else, Jared Fuoss, who followed him also, with an emphasis on Gettysburg where he is a seasonal ranger. Studying at Gettysburg College […]

  • Did the Hunley’s Own Torpedo Kill Its Crew?

    Intriguing article by a biomedical researcher at Duke University, whose research suggests that the crew of the Confederate submarine H.L. Hunley died from the effects of their own torpedo. … after an exhaustive three-year Duke study that involved repeatedly setting blasts near a scale model, shooting authentic weapons at historically accurate iron plate and doing […]

  • Dispatches from the (Second) Civil War

    Which, let us pray, never actually comes to the shooting stage. Nevertheless the madness continues unabated, with statues and images that everyone has ignored for years suddenly becoming threatening. It’s beginning to look like some Banana Republic where people are disappeared in the middle of the night. Speaking of which, the University of Texas disappeared […]

  • The Volcanic Pistol

    Ian at Forgotten Weapons takes an in-depth look at the Volcanic pistol, or rather several of them. In the mid-1850s the company manufactured a ten shot pistol that was not a revolver (and thus had no patent worries from Colt). It also brought together three men who would become giants in the firearms field, whose […]

  • Happenings in the Land of the Tarheels

    I mentioned earlier that a group of vandals had pulled down a statue of a Confederate soldier in Durham. The good news is that the local sheriff has taken it seriously, arresting one woman a few days ago. Yesterday more people turned themselves in to face felony charges, bringing the total to eight. They of […]