TOCWOC – A Civil War Blog

Category: Best of TOCWOC – A Civil War Blog

  • Review: Caution and Cooperation: The American Civil War in British-American Relations

    Phillip E. Myers. Caution and Cooperation: The American Civil War in British-American Relations (New Studies in U.S. Foreign Relations). Kent, OH: The Kent State University Press (March 28, 2008). 332 pages, notes, bibliography, index. ISBN: 978-0873389457 $55.00 (Hardcover w/DJ). How close did Great Britain and the North come to blows while the American Civil War […]

  • A Guide to Civil War Books for Beginners, Part 1: Civil War Overviews

    This is the first of hopefully many blog entries for beginning Civil War readers about Civil War books they might like to read.  This is not a post aimed at children or young adults, though I do hope to target those audiences in the future as well.  Instead, I hope to provide a nice guide […]

  • Should Ewell have taken “That Hill”?

    Last weekend was my second trip to Gettysburg. Living in the deep south, some 13 hours away by car, it is sometimes difficult to get to places that we really want to go. That being said, it was my very FIRST time to Culp’s Hill. The first time I went (three years ago), I went […]

  • How To Read Three Gettysburg Books At Once

    Sometimes books just go together well, doing in tandem what each individually is incapable of alone. This definitely applies to the three books I’ll be discussing today. Bradley Gottfried’s books The Maps of Gettysburg and Brigades of Gettysburg obviously can be used together. Throw in Larry Tagg’s The Generals of Gettysburg and you have a […]

  • Dark Command: John Wayne, Roy Rogers, and the Butchering of Civil War History

    Dark Command, a John Wayne and Claire Trevor vehicle, is loosely based on the Civil War career of William Clarke Quantrill, the Confederate guerrilla operating mostly in Missouri and Kansas during the Civil War. When I write loosely, I should probably capitalize, bold, and underline that word. While the movie is entertaining if you like […]

  • Traditional Views of the Civil War

    Traditional Views of the American Civil War by James Durney We do not know what happened during the Civil War. The participants were homesick, tired, hungry, frightened and/or bored much of the time. People usually have little knowledge of events outside of their immediate area and what they thought true was often wrong. After action […]

  • Review in Brief: Field Armies and Fortifications in the Civil War by Earl J. Hess

    Earl J. Hess. Field Armies and Fortifications in the Civil War: The Eastern Campaigns, 1861-1864. Chapel Hill, NC: The University of North Carolina Press (April 6, 2005). 464 pp., 23 maps, appendices, notes, index. ISBN: 0-8078-2931-5 $45.00 (Hardcover w/DJ). Earl Hess sets out to chronicle the use of fortifications during the Eastern Campaigns of the […]