TOCWOC – A Civil War Blog

Category: Spotlight On An Individual

  • The Army Moves South

    After an uneventful winter on the Potomac front the Confederates abruptly pulled back to the line of the Rappahannock on March 9, which completely unhinged McClellan’s strategy of landing at Urbanna to outflank them. Blackford describes the move, which makes it clear that the Confederates had much to learn about moving an army. His company […]

  • Sharpshooter: The Selected Letters and Papers of Maj. Eugene Blackford C.S.A.

    Sharpshooter: The Selected Letters and Papers of Maj. Eugene Blackford, C.S.A. Fred L. Ray, Ed. ISBN-13 978-0-9882435-1-4 / ISBN-10 0988243512 6×9 inch hardback / 230 Pages 10 Maps 30 Illustrations Footnoted / Indexed / Complete Bibliography Publication date: March 2016 Price after publication $39.95 I am nearly finished with the first phase of the biggest […]

  • Take Your Choice: The Assassination of Abraham Lincoln

    Take Your Choice By Jack McGuire   When I think of Assassin’s the name John Wilkes Booth heads the list.  A first rate actor according to all accounts of his life, someone who characteristically often played the villain.   Booth was arrested and taken before a Provost Marshal in 1862 for saying “So help me holy […]

  • William Holden, Second Iowa

    I have some letters from William Holden, a soldier with the Second Iowa. An ardent abolitionist who lived in Ottumwa, the 22-year-old Holden signed up at the beginning of the conflict and stayed on until the end, re-enlisting in December, 1863. Serving in the Western armies, he fought in almost all the major battles of […]

  • Stonewall Jackson Anecdote

    I was reading the Richmond Daily Dispatch the other night looking for something else when I came across this amusing anecdote of Stonewall Jackson at Fredericksburg. It certainly reinforces his reputation for both eccentricity and asceticism. The Daily Dispatch: January 3, 1863. Anecdote of Stonewall. The Richmond correspondent of the Charleston Mercury gives the following […]

  • Hang Down Your Head, Tom Dula

    Asheville newspaperman Rob Neufeld has a two part series on Tom Dula, better known (and pronounced) as Tom Dooley. If you’re from my generation you can remember the Kingston Trio singing the sad ballad, which became a huge national hit and is credited with launching the folk revival of the early 60s. Hang down your […]

  • Ulysses S. Grant’s Papers Online Courtesy of Mississippi State University

    Editor’s Note: This blog entry was originally posted at Beyond the Crater: The Petersburg Campaign Online.  It has been crossposted here at TOCWOC – A Civil War Blog. (Hat tip to Nick and Harry.) As many of you are probably aware, the Grant Papers moved from the care of John Y. Simon at Southern Illinois […]