TOCWOC – A Civil War Blog

Author: Fred Ray

  • Review: Lee’s Lost Dispatch and Other Civil War Controversies by Philip Leigh

    Lee’s Lost Dispatch and Other Civil War Controversies By Phillip Leigh Illustrated, photos, maps, notes, bibliography, index, 224 pp. softcover $18.95 Westholme Publishing 2015 www.westholmepublishing.com Phillip Leigh, whose last book, Trading With the Enemy, I reviewed a while back, has produced another volume for the Civil War reader. This one is a series of essays […]

  • Civil War News goes away…but maybe not

    I had received a backchannel warning in December, but the latest issue of Civil War News made it official—January is the last one. Got those unfamiliar with it, CWN comes out monthly in newspaper format and features articles on current CW issues like re-enactments, historical issues and celebrations, and other current issues. As such it […]

  • A Look at Some Period Guns

    Just a quick look at some period firearms. Cap and Ball, whom we have met before, shoots an original .58 cal. Springfield rifle-musket. He shows it can shoot quite accurately at a distance, but OTOH he’s an experienced shot and has fiddled with it a bit. Then, a look at the Needham postwar conversion to […]

  • Indian Sharpshooters in Florida

    Some time ago I put up a post about a letter I have from a Union soldier who mentions Indian sharpshooters at the battle of Olustee, and also mentions them as bushwhackers. The most desperate enemy that we have to contend with here is the Florida Indians, who have organized themselves into roving bands of […]

  • The End of the War in Western North Carolina

    Rob Neufeld, a writer for the Asheville Citizen-Times, pens an excellent article about the closing days of the war here in Western NC. I have already linked to a previous article about the last Confederate victory here, but this time he takes up the sack of Asheville and the treatment of civilians in the area […]

  • Steam Trains and the Last Confederate Victory

    Sorry to be missing in action but several projects have left little time for blogging. However I did want to pass on a few items of interest. One is a lengthy look at the effect that steam trains had on warfare in the 19th Century. They were unknown to Napoleon and only began to be […]

  • Springfield Breech Loading Conversions

    An interesting item is currently up for auction on Gunbroker – a Springfield rifle musket converted to a breech loader with a rolling block action. For those not familiar with the action, the Remington Rolling Block rifle was one of the best – I think the best – of the late 19thC crop of breech […]