TOCWOC - A Civil War Blog

If you’re new To TOCWOC, you may want to subscribe to my RSS feed. Thanks for visiting!The past two months, July and August, I took a look at the Amazon.com top 10 Civil War bestsellers.  Although I’m barely squeaking this in prior to month’s end, and despite Dimitri’s hatred of lists, I’d like to revisit [...]

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American Scholar takes a look at the Lieber Code, formalized in 1863 by the US Army as General Orders No. 100. This was one of the first formal codes concerning the conduct of war, and is the basis of the modern ones such as the Hague and Geneva conventions. The author, Francis Lieber (1798–1872), was [...]

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I haven’t done an Odds & Ends entry in several weeks, so let’s see what’s happening in the Civil War blogosphere and beyond.

TOCWOC recently made it onto a list of “100 Awesome Blogs for History Junkies” listed in an unusual place.  It’s nice to be recognized from time to time!  I tried to recommend several [...]

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Air Date: 092608
Subject: Why Study the Battle of Fredericksburg?
Books: Fredericksburg! Fredericksburg! & The Confederate Republic: A Revolution Against Politics
Guest: Professor George C. Rable
Summary: Civil War Author and Historian Professor George Rable discusses the reasons to study the Battle of Fredericksburg among other things.
Brett’s Summary: The interview with George Rable starts with Dr. Rable going into [...]

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Several Fridays ago, I posted Ian Spurgeon’s winning entry in the Roll Call to Destiny Book Contest.  Contestants had to answer the following two questions:
What are the five most important books you have read on the Civil War? Why is each important?
This week, Stephanie Farra’s entry in the contest is featured.  It appears below.  This [...]

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I’ve long wished for a good campaign study looking at the clashes between the Army of the Potomac and the Army of Northern Virginia from after Gettysburg through the end of 1863.  As many TOCWOC readers know, both sides sent one or more corps west to the fighting at Chickamauga and Chattanooga.  Despite this, the [...]

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My interest in the Civil War began in the early 60’s, when a local Philadelphia newspaper did a series of articles for the War’s 100th Anniversary. This was during my pre-high school days and I was hopelessly hooked. I remember correcting a history teacher, an Irish nun, on certain details regarding the War. She [...]

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The Wake of the Woonsocket: The Continuing Adventures of Rory Dunbrody, CSN and Tobias St. John, USN by Les Eldridge, ISBN 978-0-9794847-1-1, Leeward Coast Press-Softocver-$18.95

I must first admit that I have not read the first two installments of Lee Eldridge’s planned
quartet of Civil War sea novels, so chronologically I am [...]

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The Disagreement: A Novel by Nick Taylor, ISBN 978-1416550655, Simon & Schuster, © 2008, 360 Pages - Hardcover (7×10) - $24.95
It was a time of metamorphosis, when civilians became soldiers, boys changed into men, and the enslaved set free.  A nation torn asunder, North from South, peacetime transformed into a time of war, the innocence of youth, [...]

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Black Confederates
by James Durney

No Civil War subject creates the upset of Black Confederates. For many, the idea that slaves would stay with and be loyal to the Confederacy is unacceptable. The lack of documentation, CSA laws restricting enlistments, racial prejudices and the Emancipation Tradition all stand against the idea of Black Confederates.
Four regiments of [...]

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