TOCWOC – A Civil War Blog

Author: Fred Ray

  • C-SPAN Alert: Washington Brotherhood

    Caught part of this last night but it will be broadcast again tonite at 10pm EST.  Shelden talks about the political culture of the time and some of the unlikely friendships formed such as that between Abe Lincoln and (future Confederate VP) Alexander Stephens; and Jeff Davis and William Seward. It’s a half hour and […]

  • Review: Stuart’s Finest Hour by John Fox

    Stuart’s Finest Hou: The Ride Around McClellan June 1862 by John Fox III ISBN 978-0-9711950-5-9 Copyright 2014 Format 6 x 9 hardback, 344 pages, 7 maps, 75 photos, appendices, bibliography and index. $31.95 James Ewell Brown Stuart was one of the many men vaulted into sudden prominence by the Civil War, and his ascent began […]

  • Gordon’s Assault on Ft. Stedman

    Brett recently posted an excerpt from an upcoming book section on Ft. Stedman, written by Bill Wyrick. It appears to be drawn from Wyrick’s article in Blue & Gray, which I had some comments about at the time. I had some problems with it then and still do. Interpretations are one thing, but there are […]

  • Origins of “Sharpshooter”

    Some time ago I did a post on the origin of the word “sharpshooter” – that it came into the English language by way of the German mercenary riflemen hired by the British crown in the late 18th Century. A couple of commenters, however, took issue with that analysis and insisted that it came from […]

  • From Around the Web

    Better late than, you know…. the Pennsylvania Patriot & Union retracts an 1863 editorial panning the Gettysburg Address. Most of us would love to own a real Civil War cannon, but it’s probably still ill-advised to fire it at your neighbor, even if it’s only loaded with wadding. Dr. Howard Markel at PBS takes a […]

  • ADAH Digital Collections On Line

    Rob Wynstra sends along a tip that the Alabama Department of Archives and History now has a lot of its collections available on the web, including quite a lot of Civil War info. This includes period photos and textual materials, and is well worth a look. The Confederate soldiers section, for example, has a wealth […]

  • You Can See the One That Gets You!

    So they said during  the Late Unpleasantness, meaning that if you could see a cannon or Minié ball you were in trouble because it was probably the one that would take you out. So why would that be? Normally a projectile travels too fast for the eye to see, but if it’s headed straight at […]