TOCWOC – A Civil War Blog

Month: May 2012

  • Fredericksburg: The Beginning

    Fredericksburg: the Beginning It was November 15th, 1862 and the Army of the Potomac was on the move. General Ambrose Burnside had taken command of the union army.  He replaced General McClellan after the federal forces failed to put away Robert E. Lee’s Confederates following the bloody battle at Antietam. Under pressure from President Abraham […]

  • Gettysburg’s Mystery Man

    One of the most well-known, yet most mysterious characters of the Battle of Gettysburg is Lieutenant General James Longstreet’s scout Henry Thomas Harrison, or more commonly known as simply, Harrison. Harrison gained fame and acknowledgement with the release of Ron Maxwell’s motion picture, Gettysburg and Michael Shaara’s novel The Killer Angels . Portrayed by the […]

  • Questions (and Some Answers) about Broadfoot’s Supplement to the Official Records

    I’ve long been interested in Broadfoot Publishing’s Supplement to the Official Records, first published in the 1990’s to rave reviews.  I’ve even managed to find a reasonably detailed index for the set.  This is a GREAT set from everything I’ve read about it.  The downside is that Broadfoot only published and sold this as a […]

  • Whiting’s Failure

    The actions of Confederate MG William H. C. Whiting at Fort Fisher painted this soldier as a true Southern patriot but it wasn’t always this way. He was also the author of one of the great Confederate military failures in the east. Gen. P.G.T Beauregard’s magnificent break out attack from the Drewry’s Bluff fortifications during […]

  • Defeat By Detachment – The Missing Men At Cedar Mountain

    After the Battle of Cedar Mountain, General Pope was surprised to learn that General Banks had less than 8,000 men in the battle.  Just 10 days earlier Pope’s staff had compiled the strength report of the Army of Virginia for the month of July and Banks’ Corps was shown as having 14,785 present for duty.  […]

  • 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 […]

  • De Aragon, The Chronicle of a Confedere Surgeon – Part 9

    Author’s Note: This is part 9 in the series on Major Ramon T. de Aragon. After the Battle of Chickamauga, De Aragon’s brigade returned to Mississippi  and was placed in the division of Major General Samuel Gibbs French. It was to remain in this division till the end of the war. When reading excerpts of […]