Category: Civil War Individuals

  • Will the Real Winner of Iuka Come On Down!

    Brett’s post last month on the new book by Frank Varney inspired me to write this post. In my view, the standard conclusion about the Battle of Iuka is wrong, but not in the way Varney would like. I agree that the winner of the battle has been unjustly overlooked, but its not Rosecrans that […]

  • Auction News

    Auctions are always fun to poke around in, wishing you had the money to buy some of those cool things. For some reason there seems to be a lot of Civil War stuff on the block lately. [Full Disclosure: Other than having bought a few items from Heritage I have no connection with any of […]

  • Nancy Harts, Salmon Chase

    I was in LaGrange, GA, last weekend for a family get-together and checked out their web page. Turns out LaGrange was home to one of the Civil War’s most colorful and unusual militia companies, the all-female Nancy Harts. Named after a heroine of the Revolutionary War, the group elected two local women as officers. The […]

  • The Ewell Contribution

    A few days ago I wrote about the ‘Ewell Option ‘ — a plan for General Richard Ewell to strike at US forces in northern Virginia in April or May 1862 — and how instead Ewell decided to stick with Stonewall Jackson and support his efforts in the Shenandoah Valley. The resulting campaign became famous and […]

  • Did the Moon Do In Stonewall Jackson?

    Or is this just another loony theory? Two astronomers from Texas State University think that the angle of the moon had a lot to do with Stonewall’s fatal wounding at Chancellorsville. If Jackson’s reconnaissance party was riding in bright moonlight, then his own men should have recognized them as they returned from the Union’s side, […]

  • Reader Challenge: Prove Rosecrans was Panicked at Chickamauga

    As I slowly work my way to the end of General Grant and the Rewriting of History: How the Destruction of General William S. Rosecrans Influenced Our Understanding of the Civil War, I continue to find interesting questions raised.  My goal today is to explore one of those questions, with your help. The Question: First, […]

  • Spencers and Brooklyn Eagles

    Sorry for the radio silence but a couple of projects haven’t left me much time to blog. Here are a couple of things from around the web that might interest TOCWOC readers. A look a Christopher Spencer, “[A] quiet little Yankee who sold himself in relentless slavery to his idea for six weary years until […]