TOCWOC – A Civil War Blog

Month: January 2009

  • Buck & Ball

    Most students of the Civil War are familiar with the term “buck & ball”—a load consisting of a single large ball and three buckshot fired from a .69 caliber smoothbore musket. Now it can be yours! Well, sort of. An Italian ammunition company now makes a 12 gauge shotshell for home defense that sports a […]

  • The Seceded State of Kanawha

    Strange Maps blog posts a period map relating to the secession of western Virginia in 1861. West Virginia is the state that seceded where others failed. When in 1861 the South broke away from the US to form the Confederacy, the Mountain State in its turn left Virginia to remain within the Union. The electoral process […]

  • War, Perception, and Social History

    J. D. Petruzzi has a thoughtful and perceptive post about how historical events are perceived by authors and readers. I would add that it’s all to easy to substitute opinion for fact, and deplore that many modern authors feel the need to put themselves on a higher moral plane so as to pass judgment on […]

  • Review: Bedlam South by Mark Grisham & David Donaldson

    Bedlam South: A Novel, by Mark Grisham & David Donaldson, ISBN 9780681497566, Borders Press, © 2007, Hardcover, 308 pages, $24.95 The struggle to stay sane during the insanity of war is often a staple metaphor of the “war novel” genre. In their novel, “Bedlam South,” Mark Grisham and David Donaldson have transformed that metaphor into […]

  • January 2009 Book Notes

    Those that can’t write, Review! January 2009 James Durney *************************************************************** Book News We have a number of promising books due in 2009.  The good news is that our choices for reading material are numerous and seem limited only by the depth of our pockets or the willingness of the local library is to buy Civil […]

  • Review: Fear in North Carolina

    Fear in North Carolina: The Civil War Journals and Letters of the Henry Family by Karen L. Clinard (Compiler), Richard Russell (Compiler) Paperback: 443 pages Publisher: Reminiscing Books; First edition (April 1, 2008) ISBN-10: 0979396131 ISBN-13: 978-0979396137 Product Dimensions: 9.3 x 5.9 x 1.3 inches Price: $29.95 Social history is very much in fashion these […]

  • A Soldier’s Remains

    Some men never came home from the war, and many were simply listed as “missing.” One such unfortunate soul came to light recently at Antietam, where a hiker in the Cornfield found what he thought were human remains. Most of those who died there (and the Cornfield changed hands numerous times) were hastily buried, then […]