TOCWOC – A Civil War Blog

Category: Strategy & Tactics

  • Marion Armstrong on French’s Attack on The Sunken Road

    Some longtime readers may recall from my review of Marion Armstrong’s Unfurl Those Colors! that I was unconvinced Edwin Sumner ordered French’s Division to attack the Sunken Road at Antietam.  It was with interest then, that I read a recent interview with Marion Armstrong conducted by the Save Historic Antietam Foundation over at Harry Smeltzer’s […]

  • Review: Guide to the Atlanta Campaign: Rocky Face Ridge to Kennesaw Mountain

    Jay Luvaas and Harold W. Nelson (Editors). Guide to the Atlanta Campaign: Rocky Face Ridge to Kennesaw Mountain. Lawrence, KS: University Press of Kansas (May 7, 2008). 383 pages., order of battle, notes, index. ISBN: 978-0700615704 $17.95 (Paperback). The U.S. Army War College Guides to Civil War Battles series is well-established at this point, a […]

  • B&G Article on Fort Stedman: Who Probed Fort Friend?

    In my last post I looked the attacks on the attacks on Battery IX and Fort McGilvery in the northern sector, where I concluded that Gen. Walker got three brigades into action (Lewis, Kasey and Ransom) but failed to make a coordinated attack on Battery IX and any ground attack at all on Fort McGilvery. […]

  • B&G Article on Fort Stedman: the Attacks on Battery IX

    After having looked at the initial assault, it’s time to take a look at the northern sector and attacks on Battery IX and Fort McGilvery. Maj. Gen. Orlando Willcox, whose division was attacked, stated that there were three Confederate columns: “One column moved toward the right of Battery No. 10, a second column moved toward […]

  • Earl J. Hess on His New Book The Rifle Musket in the Civil War

    Author Earl Hess was kind enough to write to TOCWOC and provide some information on his important new book The Rifle Musket in the Civil War.  He had the following to say: Was Paddy Griffith right when he suggested in 1986 that the rifle musket had relatively little impact on changing the face of battle […]

  • Blue & Gray article on Fort Stedman: Ransom’s brigade

    Before taking a look at Fort Friend, I first want to examine the actions of Ransom’s brigade (24th, 25th, 35th, 49th, and 56th NC regiments) at Fort Stedman. Students of the battle, including myself, have had it attacking Battery IX, but after taking another look I have come to the conclusion that Ransom’s and Wallace’s […]

  • Blue & Gray article on Fort Stedman

    In a previous post I looked at some order of battle problems with the recent Blue & Gray article on Fort Stedman. Today I’ll look more at the article itself, particularly the treatment of the sharpshooters. There are some issues, as I’ll try to point out, with which I disagree but are honest differences of […]