TOCWOC – A Civil War Blog

  • Free Access to Fold3 Military Records for Memorial Day

    Fold3 is offering free access to its records for the Memorial Day weekend. Especially if you’re still in lockdown this is an excellent chance to access Civil War records, including an extensive collection of service records.

  • Musketoons and Rifle-Muskets: What’s In A Name?

    Names and nomenclature do make a difference in military topics. You’d like to be as accurate as possible, and I think it’s important to use the terminology current at the time unless you specify you’re using something contemporary. I’ll use two examples that have caused a lot of confusion—musketoon and the rifle-musket. The difference between […]

  • Who Shot General Hancock?

    It has become somewhat of a cottage industry to try to identify who shot various prominent figures like generals Sedgwick and Reynolds. The other say I ran across this postwar newspaper article dealing with the shooting of General Winfield Hancock at Gettysburg. The article credits Sergeant William Wood of Company H, 56th Virginia (Kemper’s brigade, […]

  • Back in the Saddle

    After what seems like forever I’m back home and trying to get back to a normal life, including posting on TOCWOC. For now, however, I’ll just leave a couple of links of interest to keep everyone entertained while we’re all under “house arrest.” An excellent documentary on the 1864 battle of Olustee in Florida.   […]

  • Civil War Book Review: Lincoln Takes Command: The Campaign to Seize Norfolk and the Destruction of the CSS Virginia by Steve Norder

    Norder, Steve. Lincoln Takes Command: The Campaign to Seize Norfolk and the Destruction of the CSS Virginia. (Savas Beatie: December 2019). 336 pages, 36 illustrations, 2 maps.  ISBN: 978-1-61121-457-4. $32.95 (Hardcover) What if I told you Abraham Lincoln, barely over a year into his first term and while McClellan’s Peninsula Campaign was raging, decided to […]

  • Civil War Records Free on Fold3

    For a limited time (until April 15th) Fold3 is making its Civil War records available for free. So if you need to research an ancestor’s military record, now’s the time. It does require you to register, however.  

  • Civil War Book Review: The Real Horse Soldiers: Benjamin Grierson’s Epic 1863 Civil War Raid Through Mississippi by Timothy B. Smith

    Smith, Timothy B. The Real Horse Soldiers: Benjamin Grierson’s Epic 1863 Civil War Raid Through Mississippi. (Savas Beatie: October 2018). 336 pages, 36 illustrations, 12 maps, notes, bibliography, index.  ISBN: 978-1-61121-428-4. $32.95 (Cloth) Timothy B. Smith’s latest work on the Civil War in the Western Theater, The Real Horse Soldiers: Benjamin Grierson’s Epic 1863 Civil […]

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