TOCWOC – A Civil War Blog

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 […]

[Read more →]

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 […]

[Read more →]

I see that Brett is offering a free copy of Earl Hess’s book on the rifle musket, so it might be a good time to revisit a controversy raised therein, namely did the ANV’s sharpshooter battalions punch above their weight in Virginia? I would say they did, and base this as much as anything on […]

[Read more →]

Long time History Channel forum poster sfcdan has done quite a few multi-post campaign sketches on the History Channel forum.  These posts are a nice change of pace from the constant quarrels over slavery that appear there endlessly, day after day. I thought it might be a nice idea to collect sfcdan’s posts at one […]

[Read more →]

Eric J. Wittenberg, J. David Petruzzi, and Michael F. Nugent. One Continuous Fight: The Retreat from Gettysburg and the Pursuit of Lee’s Army of Northern Virginia, July 4-14, 1863. New York: Savas Beatie LLC (June 2008). 576 pages, notes, bibliography, index, 16 maps. ISBN: 978-1932714432 $34.95 (Hardcover w/DJ). Who knows anything about Lee’s retreat from […]

[Read more →]

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 […]

[Read more →]

I’ve been reading Matthew Spring’s new book on the British Army in the Revolutionary War, With Zeal and Bayonets Only. It’s an excellent look at how the British actually fought during that conflict, and I may do a full review in the future. One thing that Spring does very well is to analyze how the […]

[Read more →]