TOCWOC – A Civil War Blog

  • Short Takes

    Capandball, whom we have met before, does a very nice video about light infantry jaegers in Central Europe. He is Hungarian, which was at the time part of the Austrian empire. As you will see, these old jaeger rifles were quite accurate but rather slow to load. He also discusses the theory of how and […]

  • 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 […]

  • A Look at the Whitworth rifle

    The Whitworth rifle, used by Confederate sharpshooters during the Late Unpleasantness, has acquired an almost mythic status and a matching price tag. American Rifleman takes a look at current specimen in private hands. Whitworths were prized sharpshooter arms during the Civil War, some numbers of them being run through the blockade by the rebels and […]

  • Review: Lee’s Lost Dispatch and Other Civil War Controversies by Philip Leigh

    Lee’s Lost Dispatch and Other Civil War Controversies By Phillip Leigh Illustrated, photos, maps, notes, bibliography, index, 224 pp. softcover $18.95 Westholme Publishing 2015 www.westholmepublishing.com Phillip Leigh, whose last book, Trading With the Enemy, I reviewed a while back, has produced another volume for the Civil War reader. This one is a series of essays […]

  • Civil War Book Review: Cold Harbor to the Crater: The End of the Overland Campaign

    Gallagher, Gary W. (ed.) & Janney, Caroline E. (ed.). Cold Harbor to the Crater: The End of the Overland Campaign. (University of North Carolina Press: September 2015). 360 pp., 6.125 x 9.25, 31 halftones, 5 maps, notes, bibliography, index.  ISBN: 978-1-4696-2533-1. $35.00 (Hardcover) Gary Gallagher and the University of North Carolina Press return to the […]

  • Civil War News goes away…but maybe not

    I had received a backchannel warning in December, but the latest issue of Civil War News made it official—January is the last one. Got those unfamiliar with it, CWN comes out monthly in newspaper format and features articles on current CW issues like re-enactments, historical issues and celebrations, and other current issues. As such it […]

  • Return to Snake Creek Gap – October 1864

    Several times in the past (here, here, here, and here) I have posted  about the movement of the Army of the Tennessee through Snake Creek Gap, Georgia in May 1864. In discussions about that event, I have often seen it said “if only Johnston had defended the gap”. The opposing armies returned to the area later […]

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