TOCWOC – A Civil War Blog

Category: Military History

  • James Burton and Firearms Design and Development

    Nice article on James Burton, who, as it says, was one of the most important and influential men in firearms design and development, especially regarding manufacture. An American, he also figures prominently in the Civil War. In April 1844, Burton took a job as a machinist at the Harpers Ferry Armory. Coincidentally, the B&O Railroad […]

  • The Robinson Confederate Sharps

    Ian at Forgotten Weapons examines the Confederate Robinson carbine. S. C. Robinson’s company made some 1900 of them before the Confederate government bought the factory in early 1863. Although there were some complaints about them, the Robinsons were well made arms and quite serviceable. Unfortunately, as with so many of the Confederacy’s manufacturing efforts, there […]

  • Pregnant…And On Picket

    Raynor’s Historical Collectible Auctions site is worth a visit to look at the Civil War manuscripts for auction. You can learn a lot just by looking at the excepts of the letters about soldiers’ attitudes about the war, their enemies, politicians, their leaders, and slavery. It’s often quite different than what you read in the […]

  • Picketing, Skirmishing, and Sharpshooting in the Civil War

    My essay on Picketing, Skirmishing, and Sharpshooting in the Civil War is up at Essential Civil War Curriculum, a Sesquicentennial project of the Virginia Center for Civil War Studies at Virginia Tech. Primary sponsors are Dr. James I. (Bud) Robertson and Professor William C. (Jack) Davis, both Professors at Virginia Tech. The security of an […]

  • Short Takes

    What is old is new again. Who would have thought that John C. Calhoun, in spite of having his named purged from a school, would be the most influential thinker in the liberal West? Yet nullification (okay, they call it resistance) and even secession (Calexit) are the issues of the day. It even extends to […]

  • Some Fun With An Original P56 Enfield

    Wonder why the Confederate sharpshooters (and I mean here the light infantry battalions) were so feared? Cap and Ball will show you with an original P56 two-band Enfield rifle, which shoots very well indeed. And, he’s in the correct uniform.

  • The 1854 Lorenz Jaegerstutzen rifle

    Most students of Civil War weapons have heard of the Austrian Lorenz rifle. Sometimes called the “Austrian Enfield,” it ranked third in numbers issued to troops on both sides during the conflict, and was the second most common imported rifle after the British Enfield. The biggest users seem to have been the Army of Tennessee […]