TOCWOC – A Civil War Blog

Category: Western Theater

  • The Top 13 Controversies at Franklin: Part 3

    Editor’s Note: After I’d posted my recent comments on Lee’s possible endorsement of John Bell Hood for army command in 1864, I started going back over a lengthy nine or ten part series I did on Eric Jacobson’s book For Cause & for Country: A Study of the Affair at Spring Hill and the Battle of Franklin.  I had totally […]

  • Varney v. Burnside, a brief for the defense

    As discussed earlier this month, I recently read General Grant and the Rewriting of History by Frank Varney.  Though it is marketed as a book about the impact of Ulysses Grant’s memoirs on the writing of history,  I found that it is mostly about reframing the Civil War career of General William Rosecrans. In doing […]

  • The Top 13 Controversies at Franklin: Part 2

    Editor’s Note: After I’d posted my recent comments on Lee’s possible endorsement of John Bell Hood for army command in 1864, I started going back over a lengthy nine or ten part series I did on Eric Jacobson’s book For Cause & for Country: A Study of the Affair at Spring Hill and the Battle of Franklin.  I had totally […]

  • The Case of the Missing Telegram

    Last week, in expressing my initial thoughts about General Grant and the Rewriting of History by Frank Varney, I wrote “do not be surprised to find me writing multiple blog posts” about the book. And so here I am, at it again. In the comments section to the previous post there was some discussion of […]

  • The Top 13 Controversies at Franklin: Part 1

    Editor’s Note: After I’d posted my recent comments on Lee’s possible endorsement of John Bell Hood for army command in 1864, I started going back over a lengthy nine or ten part series I did on Eric Jacobson’s book For Cause & for Country: A Study of the Affair at Spring Hill and the Battle of […]

  • Frank Varney and the Mangling of History

    I have been working my way through General Grant and the Rewriting of History by Frank Varney, that was published by Savas Beatie this past July, and I have a problem: I am so annoyed by it I might not be able to finish. I wanted to like this book, but do not be surprised […]

  • Civil War Book Review: The Battle of Pickett’s Mill: Along the Dead-Line

    Butkovich, Brad. The Battle of Pickett’s Mill: Along the Dead-Line (The History Press, 2013). 208 pages, over 20 images, maps, order of battle, notes, bibliography. ISBN: 978-1-62619-042-9 $21.99 (Paperback). The Battle of Pickett’s Mill: Along the Dead-Line is the first detailed modern book focused solely on the Battle of Pickett’s Mill.  The small battle is […]