Category: Arms & Armament
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Gun Auction
Rock Island Auction Company is having a big gun auction later this month. I always like to look but of course there’s no way I could buy any of them. Just as well, I suppose. There are a couple of Civil War era guns worth looking at. One is a nice 1860s era target rifle, […]
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War Without Violence (even pretended)
In a move sure to please pacifists everywhere, the Appleton, WI, schools have banned the mock battle from their day-long Civil War program. The battle segment was scratched after a group of parents raised concerns it conflicts with violence-prevention efforts and a district policy banning look-alike weapons at schools. If you don’t like history, just […]
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The Good, The Bad and the Ugly
I took a night off last night and watched Sergio Leone’s melodramatic western masterpiece The Good, The Bad, and the Ugly on my new wide screen TV. Even though it was released in 1966, and did not reach the US until a year later, it still holds up pretty well. It was the third of […]
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Buck & Ball
Most students of the Civil War are familiar with the term “buck & ball”—a load consisting of a single large ball and three buckshot fired from a .69 caliber smoothbore musket. Now it can be yours! Well, sort of. An Italian ammunition company now makes a 12 gauge shotshell for home defense that sports a […]
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Short Takes
In the mail today was a copy of James W. Parrish’s Wiregrass to Appomattox, a history of the 50th Georgia. I blurbed the book after looking at a draft and will see how it all comes together, then write a review. It’s published by Angle Valley Press, which also did a very well-received history of […]
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John West—Hero or Blowhard?
Every war produces heroes, but also a number of blowhards, who somehow always seem to outnumber the heroes. Sometimes it’s hard to tell who’s who. One such case is John West, who claimed to be a “noted sharpshooter” in Virginia armed with a Whitworth rifle. I first ran across West’s account in John Morrow’s The […]
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Review: The Rifle Musket in Civil War Combat
Update: Welcome to TOCWOC for those of you who have found this page through a Google Search! If you enjoy what you’re about to read below, feel free to Subscribe to TOCWOC’s RSS feed. Be sure to check out the Civil War Book Reviews which have been posted here and browse through TOCWOC founder Brett […]