TOCWOC – A Civil War Blog

  • Lorenzo Barber’s “Combo” Gun

    Some time ago (in 2006) I wrote a post about John Jacob and his unusual rifle. In it I said that Lorenzo Barber, the “Fighting Parson” of the 1st U.S.S.S., used a Jacob rifle because he is mentioned as having a double-barrel rifle with one barrel loaded with buckshot and the other with a bullet. […]

  • The Effect of Bayonets, The Oldest revolver

    Cap and Ball is at it again, this time to answer a question that often comes up about Civil War rifles. Did the addition of a bayonet have any effect on accuracy? He also has some commentary on the use of bayonets during the war. We often hear that Sam Colt invented the revolver, and […]

  • Civil War Amputation Kit

    Amputation of wounded limbs was not new but reached somewhat of a high point in the Civil War. The Minie ball, in particular, was notorious for shattering bone. Doctors soon found that trying to save a limb was counterproductive—it almost always became infected and the patient died. We have all seen gruesome photos of severed […]

  • Four Civil War Pistols (and the rounds they fired)

    Cap and Ball, whom we have met before, has a very informative post on four Civil War revolvers—the Colt, the Remington, Starr, and Adams. He shows how each worked and which worked best. He also shows the paper cartridges they fired and how to make them. Quite interesting if you want to know the details […]

  • Gone With The Wind—Or Are They?

    A look at the people who buy all those statues people have been tearing down. The leaders of Newton Falls have declared their town a “sanctuary city” for unwanted statuary. “History is a big part of this community’s identity – you can still dig up arrowheads in the fields – and we have acres of […]

  • Josie Wales’s Gun For Sale

    One of the guns from what was probably Clint Eastwood’s best Western is up for auction. Set in Missouri during and just after the Civil War, it chronicles the flight of an ex-Confederate guerilla to escape a vengeful Union. “Well, you gonna pull those pistols or whistle ‘Dixie’?” Moments after delivering this line in the […]

  • Civil War Smallpox Strains Found

    Smallpox, unlike the Minié ball, was an indiscriminate, equal-opportunity killer that killed about 30% of those it infected.  Although there was no cure, English physician Edward Jenner had devised a vaccine of sorts. He noticed that milkmaids often contracted cowpox, which resembled smallpox but was much less virulent, and were thereafter immune to smallpox. He […]

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