Category: Military History
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More on Battle Ranges
Last week I looked at a study by a serving US Army officer, Maj. Thomas Erhart, about the need for longer range infantry weapons in Afghanistan. While looking at some of the supporting material I came across a fascinating study the Army conducted in 1960 (once classified secret) that led directly to the introduction of […]
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Col. G. F. R. Henderson on the Civil War
We have had a lively discussion of my observations of the Civil War and landscape (comments welcome, as always), so I thought I’d take the opportunity to post some of the thoughts of Col. G.F.R. Henderson of the British Army, who wrote and lectured prolifically on the American Civil War, and is best remembered for […]
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Battle Ranges
The range at which an enemy soldier can be engaged on the battlefield is a factor that has occupied both soldiers and pundits since the invention of firearms. In Civil War circles much of the recent controversy has centered around Paddy Griffith’s revisionist work Battle Tactics of the Civil War, in which he argued that […]
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Lincoln and Stanton
Two men could not have been more different than Abraham Lincoln and Edwin Stanton. Lincoln had a broad vision, a humane disposition and a folksy way of expressing himself. He could be flexible, was not terribly good at particulars, and could ignore a personal insult if it advanced his cause. Stanton, OTOH was a master […]
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Combat Trash Talkin’
I found this amusing, from Afghanistan, about the verbal war between the Afghan Army and the Taliban. The foes chatter with each other over their Vietnam-era, two-way radio system. It’s such an antiquated system that the Taliban and the Afghan forces share radio frequencies, and verbal barbs, as they try to kill or capture one […]
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Army of the Potomac Ordnance at the Battle of Fredericksburg
I was browsing the web for Quarterly Ordnance Returns (i.e. the type and number of weapons each unit had at a given time) for the Army of the Potomac. I found a gem at the Fredericksburg National Battlefield site. Historian Eric Mink apparently transcribed the Ordnance returns for the Army of the Potomac for the […]
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The Impact of Railroads on Warfare During the American Civil War
Editor’s Note: Dave Hollis is a guest poster with an avid interest in military history. He is a member of the the U.S. Army Reserve and has been published several times. Dave’s first (but hopefully not last) post here at TOCWOC concerns the impact of railroads on the American Civil War. The American Civil war […]