TOCWOC - A Civil War Blog

I found several emails from Bill Adams, who is kind enough to provide me with a lot of information about black powder period arms. As for the higher muzzle velocity for the smoothbore musket, he points out three factors:

Many musket cartridges came with a paper patch, which helped sealing somewhat
The round ball upset when fired, [...]

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The 19th Century saw the most rapid improvement in the rifle of any comparable period in history. At the beginning of the century the exemplar of the standard arm was the smooth bore .75 cal. Brown Bess musket, and by the end we have the modern .30 cal. bolt action, box magazine repeater using smokeless [...]

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I recently had the privilege of doing some research at the Perkins Library at Duke University in Durham. It has, I am told, the largest collection of unpublished Confederate manuscripts in the world. I had only a day and could barely scratch the surface, but I can tell you there’s a lot there. Duke is [...]

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The AP has an article on the recent death of relic hunter and Civil War ordnance expert Sam White this February in Richmond.

Experts suspect White was killed while trying to disarm a 9-inch, 75-pound naval cannonball, a particularly potent explosive with a more complex fuse and many times the destructive power of those used by [...]

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Seen at the Lowe’s parking lot here in Asheville recently. Your guess is as good as mine.

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This article on “Southernism” by Michael Hirsch in Newsweak is getting a good bit of buzz on the web. He thinks the South won after all.

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A nice article on Civil War flag restoration in the Montgomery Advertiser.

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I always enjoy window shopping on the Damon Mills web site, wishing I had the money to buy some of the old guns there. Just sold (for a mere $18,500) is a very fine sporting Whitworth with case and full kit. The decorative work on this rifle is impressive, and is obviously something that only [...]

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If war interests you I recommend an article in American Scientist online, “Statistics of Deadly Quarrels,” which takes a look at the work of British mathematician and meteorologist Lewis Fry Richardson, who attempted a mathematical analysis of war and unpleasantness generally.
In organizing his data, Richardson borrowed a [...]

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Hiram Berdan left on a more or less unauthorized leave after Gettysburg and never returned to the army. He eventually resigned, leaving the 1st U.S.S.S. under the command of his long-suffering subordinate, Lt. Col. Caspar Trepp. Though the Swiss-born Trepp was a fine soldier, he lasted only until late November 1863 before falling victim to [...]

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