TOCWOC – A Civil War Blog

Category: Eastern Theater

  • Review in Brief: Disaster in the West Woods by Marion Armstrong

    Marion V. Armstrong. Disaster in the West Woods: General Edwin V. Sumner and the II Corps at Antietam. Western Maryland Interpretive Association (2002). 78 pages, 6 maps, notes, bibliography, index. ASIN: B0014SER8S Out of Print (Paperback). Disaster in the West Woods takes a detailed tactical look at II Corps commander Edwin Vose Sumner’s performance at […]

  • Controversies of a Campaign: Why Did French Attack the Sunken Road At Antietam?

    I just finished reading Marion V. Armstrong’s new book Unfurl Those Colors!: McClellan, Sumner, and the Second Army Corps in the Antietam Campaign, and one of Armstrong’s theories just doesn’t sit right with me.  Before we go into details let me give you a little bit of background.  The fight over the northern portion of […]

  • 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 […]

  • Review: Chancellorsville and the Germans by Christian B. Keller

    Christian B. Keller. Chancellorsville and the Germans: Nativism, Ethnicity, and Civil War Memory. New York: Fordham University Press; First Edition (May 15, 2007). 244 pp., 4 maps, notes, index. ISBN: 978-0823226504 $65.00 (Hardcover w/DJ). How serious a blow was the Battle of Chancellorsville to the collective German-American psyche? Christian B. Keller attempts to answer precisely […]

  • Chancellorsville and the Germans by Christian B. Keller

    I received Chancellorsville and the Germans: Nativism, Ethnicity, and Civil War Memory in the mail on Tuesday from Fordham University Press.  As a German-American, this particular book has special meaning for me. Christian B. Keller ties the scapegoating of the predominantly German Union XI Corps after Chancellorsville to a slowed process of assimilation by German-Americans […]

  • Campaign Antietam Screen Shots: Groveton and Second Bull Run

    Several weeks ago, I showed readers some South Mountain screen shots of HPS‘ newly released Campaign Antietam. As I explained there, despite being given the name “Campaign Antietam”, the game actually covers quite a few more battlefields, including First Bull Run (including Blackburn’s Ford, Henry Hill, and Matthews Hill), Second Bull Run (including Cedar Mountain, […]