TOCWOC – A Civil War Blog

Category: Anecdotes

  • Reader Challenge: Prove Rosecrans was Panicked at Chickamauga

    As I slowly work my way to the end of General Grant and the Rewriting of History: How the Destruction of General William S. Rosecrans Influenced Our Understanding of the Civil War, I continue to find interesting questions raised.  My goal today is to explore one of those questions, with your help. The Question: First, […]

  • From the Engineer Depot – Battle of the Zouaves

    On September 18, 1861 roughly 850 men were mustered in as the 50th New York Infantry (later 50th NY engineers) and ordered to Washington without arms. The trip to the capital began with train ride to New York City. Arriving there on the 21st they were marched to the Battery where they made camp. Their […]

  • The Donaldsonville LA Artillery at the Siege of Petersburg: A 10 Part Series

    In  late September I commented on the good stroke of fortune I experienced when NPS Historian John Hennessy contacted me with an offer of newspaper clippings focusing on the Siege of Petersburg.  One of the first emails I received from John contained an amazing set of ten articles on the Donaldsonville Louisiana Artillery, commanded by […]

  • The Claims of the Negro (September 5, 1864 Richmond Examiner)

    As I was copying newspaper articles from the Richmond Examiner from September 1864 for my Siege of Petersburg site, I came across the following interesting article in the September 5, 1864 Richmond Examiner: The Claims of the Negro.–One Benjamin Ruff, claiming to be a member of the Sixth Virginia cavalry, was committed to the Castle […]

  • Riot at Grand Junction

    In 1861, Grand Junction, Tennessee (my home town) was of great importance to the Confederacy and a target for the Union. Although a small place, it was the intersection of two railroads making it a transportation hub for troops, supplies, etc. The Confederacy placed a supply depot there. When the fighting started in Virginia during […]

  • Short Takes

    A large group of scholars and enthusiasts are gathering Tuesday at UNC Wilmington for a symposium on the remnants of the blockade runner Modern Greece. Sorry, it’s sold out. From the archives of the Manchester Guardian comes an editorial from 1861 about the impending “war to the knife” in the US. Like most of the […]

  • On the Skirmish Line Outside Atlanta With William Holden

    Sorry for the gap in posting—I have been down with a nasty G-I bug most of the week. I’ve been wanting to post parts of another William Holden letter I acquired, one of which I have posted already. Holden, an Iowa farm boy, was by 1864 and experienced soldier and held the rank of first […]