TOCWOC – A Civil War Blog

  • Short Takes

    A tour around the web for Civil War topics… A look at a recently acquired archive of Civil War telegraph messages, thought to be lost. As the article points out, there is quite a bit of similarity between the telegraph messages of the 19th Century and today’s text messages. Some are ciphered and the code […]

  • First they came for Nathan Bedford Forrest….

    I normally don’t do much on contemporary politics, but unfortunately political correctness is starting to have a real effect on public life and Civil War studies. The latest craze is what might be called the historical cleansing of America of all symbols which might offend the usual suspects. It started with Confederate monuments, but it […]

  • Review: Civil War Infantry Tactics by Earl Hess

    Civil War Infantry Tactics: Training, Combat, and Small-Unit Effectiveness by Earl J. Hess Hardcover: 368 pages 6.1 x 9.4 inches ISBN-10: 0807159379 ISBN-13: 978-0807159378 Publisher: LSU Press (April 13, 2015) Earl Hess has added yet another tome to his ever-growing list of Civil War books. His latest is devoted to infantry tactics, which I must […]

  • Civil War Fought by Grasshoppers

    A friend send this from the recent NC State Fair. Funny, but even funnier is that both flags are Confederate. Made by a school kid, don’t know what grade.

  • Author Interview: Dennis Rasbach, Author of Joshua Lawrence Chamberlain and the Petersburg Campaign

    Editor’s Note: This post originally appeared earlier today at The Siege of Petersburg Online and has been cross-posted here. Medical doctor Dennis Rasbach became interested in his ancestor’s unit during the Civil War.  In the course of his research, he realized the 21st Pennsylvania (Dismounted) fought in a brigade from the same division as that […]

  • Pegler on Sharpshooting, Capandball on Lorenz and Needle Gun

    Martin Pegler, prolific author and former Senior Curator of Firearms at the Royal Armouries Museum, Leeds, has published a series of articles in American Rifleman on sniping and sharpshooting. The first starts with the introduction of the rifle and goes into the early 19th Century. The next one covers the period starting roughly with the […]

  • Blackford at Seven Pines

    Johnston continued to retreat until he was literally under the spires of Richmond. On May 31 he finally made his move at Seven Pines. The flooded Chickahominy River had split the Union army, leaving two corps isolated south of the river, which Johnston planned to strike with nearly his entire force. While the plan was […]

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