TOCWOC - A Civil War Blog

My intense interest in the Petersburg Campaign has spawned
a tangential interest in unit histories, with an emphasis on regimental
histories. As I go about compiling my Petersburg
Orders of Battle, I have already found the few unit histories I have
in my possession (mostly H.E. Howard books on Virginia units) to be extremely
helpful in answering some questions as [...]

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The major publisher Mad Minute Games alluded to on December 21 has been revealed as Paradox, publishers of the Europa Universalis and Hearts of Iron series of games. The following press release is located at the Paradox and MMG sites. Feel free to discuss the news on the Paradox forums and the MMG [...]

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As both an amateur historian and a wargamer, I get the feeling sometimes that academia and other amateur historians sometimes look down their noses at anyone who plays wargames. With this in mind, I sent out an email to several prominent people in the Civil War wargaming community. The email follows in its [...]

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The American Civil War Campaign Games Design Center, my fan site for the HPS Simulations Civil War Battles series, has been updated. Rolf Hall has created a graphics mod for HPS’ Campaign Peninsula. Rolf is also the designer of many other graphics mods for the HPS Civil War Battles series.

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Taken At The Flood: Robert E. Lee & Confederate Strategy in the Maryland Campaign of 1862
by Joseph L. Harsh
Chapter 1
“We cannot afford to be idle”, Lee’s Strategic Dilemma, September 2-3, 1862
Chapter 1 is all about decisions. Lee had driven the Union forces under John Pope back into the fortifications surrounding Washington, D.C. As [...]

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I’ve now updated the Confederate OOB of my Petersburg Campaign Project through the month of September 1864 (the Fifth Offensive), and I’ve completed all units found in Sifakis’ Compendium of the Confederate Armies. The OOBs I’m starting with are from F. Ray Sibley, Jr.’s reference work The Confederate Order of Battle: The Army of [...]

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Merry Christmas and Happy Holidays. I probably won’t be posting again until early next week. Enjoy yourselves everybody.

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Books on the Appomattox Campaign
Lee’s Last Retreat: The Flight to Appomattox
by William Marvel
328 pp., 6 maps
Within the past two weeks, I’ve reviewed Chris Calkins’ self-published book/pamphlet titled Thirty-Six Hours Before Appomattox and the H.E. Howard published book The Battles of Appomattox Station and Appomattox Court House, April 8-9, 1865, 2nd Edition. In these volumes, [...]

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Mad Minute Games announced today that they have reached a preliminary agreement with an as yet unnamed publisher. This allows the company to see a retail release of their new game, Take Command: Second Manassas. Here are the details, straight from MMG:
Major Announcement for TC2M & Preorders
December 21, 2005
MadMinute Games, Inc. would like [...]

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Here’s a summary for Volume 8, Number 7 of North & South magazine. For those of you who have never read an issue, I consider this, along with Blue & Gray, to be the two best Civil War magazines today. (Note: I haven’t seen much of Gettysburg Magazine, which I hear is excellent from everyone [...]

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