TOCWOC – A Civil War Blog

Category: Political History

  • Around The Web

    First we had Vance the governor, now it’s Vance the play. For a man who’s been dead 117 years, Zebulon Vance continues to cast a long shadow on Western North Carolina. The Civil War hero and lawmaker’s name is all over the place, on a big monument in downtown Asheville, at his old home place […]

  • America’s Most Significant Firearm?

    Happy 4th of July everyone—hope you were able to enjoy it with family and friends like I was. This day in 1863 was one of celebration and rejoicing for the United States as Lee’s army began its retreat southward from Pennsylvania and Vicksburg surrendered. Phil Schreier of the National Firearms Museum takes a look at […]

  • News from Carolina

    Rebel or loyalist? Sometimes it was hard to tell. On the surface, wealthy Lincolnton businessman and slaveholder John Phifer may have appeared loyal to Dixie. His textile mill on the South Fork River cranked out products much needed in the embattled South. His three sons were officers in the Confederate Army, and two died fighting […]

  • The New York Times on Abraham Lincoln’s First Inauguration

    The New York Times March 5, 1861 WASHINGTON, Monday, March 4. The day to which all have looked with so much anxiety and interest has come and passed. ABRAHAM LINCOLN has been inaugurated, and “all’s well.” At daylight the clouds were dark and heavy with rain, threatening to dampen the enthusiasm of the occasion with […]

  • Assassination, Blame, and Gun Control

    In the wake of the recent shootings in Arizona, Wired magazine looks at at a Secret Service study on the motivations of assassins. Although they vary, politics plays a surprisingly small role. Contrary to popular assumptions about public killings, the attackers didn’t conform to any particular demographic profile. But when Fein reconstructed their patterns of […]

  • Was it Really John Wilkes Booth?

    Just watched part of a History Channel show that taps into the article I posted on previously about whether it was really John Wilkes Booth who was shot by Union cavalry. I will summarize it so you won’t have to watch. The man , so ’tis said, was actually James William Boyd, a former Confederate […]

  • The Long Recall

    In honor of the upcoming Civil War sesquicentennial The American Interest has begun The Long Recall: An Aggregator of the Civil War. Walter Russell Mead explains: We will use a modern form to present the daily news: our Civil War aggregator that combines a short daily summary of the news along with links to articles […]