TOCWOC – A Civil War Blog

Month: July 2011

  • The Volcanic Carbine

    I mentioned Volcanic arms in an earlier post about Smith & Wesson. Although probably not many were used in the war, the Volcanic is very important in firearms history. Take a look at this Volcanic carbine—it’s the same basic design as the Henry and the later Winchesters. Loaded with the anemic .41 cal. “rocket ball”, […]

  • The Battle of the Crater at the Siege of Petersburg Online

    Editor’s Note: This post originally appeared earlier today at The Siege of Petersburg Online: Beyond the Crater. By far the most famous and awe-inspiring battle of the Siege of Petersburg, the Battle of the Crater, occurred 147 years ago today.  The Battle of the Crater featured the longest tunnel dug in siege operations in the […]

  • GIS at Civil War Battles

    The New York Times has an interesting article on the use of GIS (Geographical Information Service) in analyzing history, including Civil War battles like Gettysburg. Personally I have always felt that the 2-D maps we see in books are inadequate for conveying the flow of the battle. Things that look obvious on a flat surface […]

  • Civil War Book Review: Soldiering in the Army of Northern Virginia: A Statistical Portrait of the Troops Who Served under Robert E. Lee

    Soldiering in the Army of Northern Virginia: A Statistical Portrait of the Troops Who Served under Robert E. Lee by Joseph T. Glatthaar   Product Details Hardcover: 256 pages Publisher: The University of North Carolina Press (June 2, 2011) Language: English ISBN-10: 0807834920 ISBN-13: 978-0807834923 Joseph T. Glatthaar gathered an astounding amount of data when […]

  • Gettysburg Magazine Subscription Drive: Win Three Free Days in Gettysburg!

    Gettysburg Magazine Publisher Andy Turner pointed me in the direction of a fantastic new plan to raise 1,000 new subscriptions to Gettysburg Magazine by December 31, 2011.  Best of all, if you help, you’ll be eligible to win some fantastic prizes! Since Gettysburg Magazine relies on subscribers and does not contain ads, I commend Andy’s […]

  • Siege of Petersburg Online Posts: Week of 7/17/2011

    This weekly series looks at the posts which have appeared over the last 7 days at The Siege of Petersburg Online: Beyond the Crater.  It’s a way to show TOCWOC readers what I’ve been doing over at my other Civil War site. Most of my focus right now, to set the stage for those wholly […]

  • Civil War on the Web

    A day or two late, but here’s something about Tarheels at Manassas. About 300 Forsyth County men gathered 150 years ago today to fight in the Battle of Bull Run, when Confederate forces defeated Union troops in the first major engagement of the Civil War. But most of those local soldiers didn’t see much action, […]