TOCWOC – A Civil War Blog

It’s been a little while since our last Odds & Ends, so I figured it was high time we took another look around the Civil War blogosphere and also skim through other Civil War related items of interest.  We’ll tackle the Civil War blogs today and have a bonus Odds & Ends on Saturday dealing with other Civil War goodness.

• Ted Savas provides some details on a new Savas-Beatie project entitled The Gettysburg Encyclopedia.

• Brian Dirck explores the possiblity of Abraham Lincoln not only knowing about but also playing baseball.

• Patrick Lewis at Army of Tennessee has two very interesting posts on viewshed restoration by clearing trees and building breastworks at Chickamauga.

• Harry Smeltzer asks some interesting questions at Bull Runnings:
  

  What then do we make of the likes of Steuart (of Maryland, above left) and Simon Buckner or John Breckenridge (of Kentucky, above center and right)? Were these men traitors to both their country and their states? They were born, raised and resided in states that did not secede, and chose simply between a purely foreign country and the one of their birth or residence (as opposed to folks like John Gibbon and Winfield Scott). Are they to be viewed any differently than, say, John C. Pemberton (who was at least married to a Virginian so may have had a significant nag factor to contend with, not to mention some wealth in a seceded state)? What do you say?

• Scott Mingus’ Gettysburg miniatures scenario book Crossed Sabers: Gettysburg in Miniature is back in print.

• Daniel Sauerwein at Civil War History presents a brief biography of John Logan.

• Craig Warren points Ambrose Bierce fans (myself heartily included) in the direction of a new Bierce article.

• Jim Schmidt’s new book Lincoln’s Labels: America’s Best Known Brands and the Civil War is scheduled to hit shelves on August 1.  Congratulations Jim!

• David Woodbury continues what he calls his lazy habit of rehabilitating interviews for of Battlefields and Bibliophiles.  If the interviews continue to be this interesting, he can stay lazy for the rest of the summer as far as that goes.  The latest interview is of recently deceased Ulysses S. Grant scholar John Y. Simon.

• Josh at Student of the Civil War looks at Wiley Sword’s book Courage Under Fire.

• Rene Tyree at wig-wags provides some information on a new book on artist Edouard Manet and the Civil War.

• Last but most certainly not least, Drew Wagenhoffer reviews Eric Wittenburg, J.D. Petruzzi, and Mike Nugent’s new Gettysburg retreat book One Continuous Fight.

As I said in the lead-in, we’ll take a look at other Civil War news over the weekend, probably on Saturday morning.