TOCWOC – A Civil War Blog

Author: Fred Ray

  • Finding Fort Owen

    Believe it or not there are still “lost” Civil War forts that occasionally come to light. One such was Fort Owen, which played a brief but pivotal role in the events of April 2, 1865 at Petersburg. Named after Louisiana artillery officer Col. William Miller Owen, the fort had a short life, being constructed in […]

  • Whitworth Double Rifle

    Bill Adams sends along a link to a very nice Whitworth double rifle on Gunbroker. Many manufacturers made double rifles, primarily for hunting when a quick followup shot was often needed, particularly for dangerous game. As you’d expect that extra barrel made them rather heavy which limited their use in military applications. This particular example […]

  • Tom Dula and Zeb Vance

    Rob Neufeld has posted the third part of the series on the Tom Dula saga, detailing the role of his chief defense council, former NC governor Zebulon Vance. Neufeld begins by stating that Vance himself had run afoul of the Yankee government. On May 13, 1865, Federal General Hugh Judson Kilpatrick had Vance arrested at […]

  • Hang Down Your Head, Tom Dula

    Asheville newspaperman Rob Neufeld has a two part series on Tom Dula, better known (and pronounced) as Tom Dooley. If you’re from my generation you can remember the Kingston Trio singing the sad ballad, which became a huge national hit and is credited with launching the folk revival of the early 60s. Hang down your […]

  • Short Takes

    Civil War soldiers turn up all over the place, even in sunny California. When Gordon Bricken saw a Confederate flag at an Orange County cemetery he began looking. Bricken found 348 Union and Confederate veterans buried at Santa Ana Cemetery, then tried nearby Fairhaven and found 278 more. He kept going, walking alone through the […]

  • Short Takes

    Bryn at 67th Tigers has posted some trajectories based on calculations of the ballistic coefficient of a Burton Minie ball. More realistic than the ones usually used from Jack Coggins’ book (and Coggins was using them for illustration only). The figures confirm something that Joe Bilby has been saying for some time—that using a “center […]

  • Short Takes

    Relatives, friends and re-enactors re-dedicated a memorial to Col. George Wesley Clayton, who saved Asheville from the Yankee hordes in the Battle of Asheville on April 6, 1865. Historian Jeff Lovelace believes that without Clayton’s successful defense of the town of 1,200 in the Battle of Asheville, the consequences would have been dire. “The town […]