TOCWOC – A Civil War Blog

Author: Fred Ray

  • Authentic Southern Cuisine—in Detroit

    Once the booming capital of the auto industry, Michigan in general and Detroit in particular have fallen on hard times. Michigan has lost half a million people since 2001 and continues to lose something like 20,000 a year to out-migration. Detroit, once a city of two million but now down to less than half that, […]

  • Blowin’ In The Wind at Petersburg

    As a followup to my previous post on Bob Dylan, the Times blog has posted some thoughts on what he might have been reading. They put in a quote from a Times correspondent comparing Northern and Southern forces in mid-1864 (not 1863 as stated). The rolls of company after company exhibit not a single name […]

  • Ghosts of the South, Blowin’ in the Wind

    Bob Dylan, who by this time should probably be classed as a cultural institution, weighs in on Barack Obama, Elvis, US Grant and the Civil War ghosts of the South in the venerable Times of London. Turns out he read Grant’s autobiography. Who knew? He begins by talking about Obama’s Kansas roots: You know, like […]

  • Bull of the West Wood

    Thanks to Brett for his pointer to Jim Buchanan’s Walking in the West Woods. And thanks to Jim for the pointer to Gen. Sumner’s papers at the Archives and for publishing his post-battle letter. Sumner’s letter would seem to support those of us who criticize his performance in the West Wood by showing pretty conclusively […]

  • Libel Primer

    One of the nice things about writing about the Late Unpleasantness is that most of the primary source material is long out of copyright and all of the participants are dead, which means you can’t libel them. Say what you will about US Grant, Phil Sheridan, George Pickett or anyone else, neither they or their […]

  • Modest Heroes

    Eric Wittenberg has a couple of posts on David F. Day, a brave man who won a Medal of Honor but who had an unfortunate habit of boasting about himself and shamelessly embellishing his deeds. The Southern equivalent would be Lamar Fontaine, who I will write about at some point, and of course Hiram Berdan. […]

  • Short Takes

    Footnote.com has added the Compiled Service Records of Union soldiers from Kentucky. Additional Union records for the following: * Civil War Soldiers – Union – AR * Civil War Soldiers – Union – Colored Troops 8th-13th Infantry * Civil War Soldiers – Union – MS * Civil War Soldiers – Union – UT * Civil […]