Month: May 2017

  • Pepperbox and Army sidearms

    Cap and Ball takes a look at the Pepperbox revolver. It’s generic term for a pistol that revolves the entire barrel assembly rather than just the cylinder, and was quite popular in the 1850s. At least a few were probably used in the Civil War, and they were certainly in use then by civilians. As […]

  • McFarland Book of the Week: Joseph Brown and His Civil War Ironclads: The USS Chillicothe, Indianola, and Tuscumbia

    Joseph Brown and His Civil War Ironclads: The USS Chillicothe, Indianola, and Tuscumbia by Myron J. Smith, Jr. TOCWOC’s Take: Author Myron J. Smith is no stranger to the naval war on the Western waters, as he has published multiple books on various ships which participated in these conflicts.  Here he covers the three ironclads built […]

  • Dispatches from the Battles of New Orleans

    This time it’s Jeff Davis. Same MO—heavy, militarized police presence with body armor and snipers on the rooftops. Everyone is masked and the logos and license plates covered, statue moved to “an undisclosed location.” Pat Gallagher, who lives in Jefferson Parish, said she decided to go out to the intersection because she is concerned about […]

  • Short Takes

    Cap and Ball is at it again, this time with a P56 Enfield Short Rifle. This is the shorter version of the more common P53 Rifle Musket used extensively by North and South. The P56 (which also came in the slightly different P58 and P60 models) was a favorite of Confederate sharpshooters, both because of […]