TOCWOC – A Civil War Blog

Category: Military History

  • H. L. Hunley Righted

    Follow the link and you too can see what no living person has seen—the complete Confederate submarine H. L. Hunley, which has just been turned to an upright position. No way you’d get me on that thing, but I salute the brave men who went out on it. More here, with lots of photos.

  • Short Takes

    Professor J. David Hacker takes and new look at Civil War dead and concludes there was a major undercount, especially in the South. Even as Civil War history has gone through several cycles of revision, one thing has remained fixed: the number of dead. Since about 1900, historians and the general public have assumed that […]

  • Mahone’s Petersburg Failure: The Battle of Burgess Mill, Oct. 27, 1864 by Bryce Suderow

    Editor’s Note: Bryce Suderow completed this lengthy set of notes on the first day of fighting at the Battle of Boydton Plank Road (aka the Battle of Burgess Mill), fought on October 27, 1864 during the Siege of Petersburg, Grant’s Sixth Offensive. Bryce was gracious enough to share his research and has given written permission […]

  • Weapons of the Second Iowa?

    Frequent blog readers probably know that I and a couple of others like Joe Bilby are always trying to confirm CW battle ranges. I recently came across an account of the battle of Corinth (Oct. 3-4, 1862) that talks about it. A soldier in the 2nd Iowa wrote: The Rebel batteries silenced ours, and about […]

  • Short Takes

    They still probably won’t take your Confederate money, but Richmond seems to be on the rise again, this time as “Startup South” and perhaps the next silicon valley. In hearing from dozens of Richmond startups, two institutions stick out as important nodes in the local innovation system. The first is Virginia Commonwealth University. As Richard […]

  • Civil War Book Review: The Battle of New Market Heights: Freedom Will Be Theirs by the Sword

    Editor’s Note: This book review first appeared last Thursday at The Siege of Petersburg Online. Price, James S.. The Battle of New Market Heights: Freedom Will Be Theirs by the Sword (The History Press, 2011). 128 pages, photos, maps, notes, bibliography. ISBN: 978-1-60949-038-6 $19.99 (Paperback). When asked to name the most important fight in which […]

  • Review: An Iowa Soldier Writes Home

    An Iowa Soldier Writes Home: The Civil War Letters of Union Private Daniel J. Parvin Edited by: Phillip A. Hubbart Carolina Academic Press 2011 Paper 196 pages $25.00 ISBN: 978-1-59460-978-7 • LCCN 2011002478 Phillip Hubbart, a retired Florida appellate judge, transcribed 117 letters of his great-great-grandfather Daniel J. Parvin, an infantryman who fought with the […]