TOCWOC – A Civil War Blog

Month: July 2013

  • Arkansas Post – Part 4

    McClernand Takes Charge Sherman’s attack on the northern defenses of Vicksburg at Chickasaw Bayou was crushed on December 29th. On January 2nd the defeated Federals, after realizing the impossibility of success in this area, boarded their transports for the trip to Milliken’s Bend. As they loaded unit commanders took stock of their losses. Several units […]

  • Duke Digitized

    Archive.com now has an extensive collection of digitized material from the Duke libraries, including an excellent selection of Civil War related materials. Click “C” in Browse By Title and you will get a list of Confederate Circulars and related government papers. Also of interest is an 1861 city directory of New Orleans.

  • The decision that made West Virginia possible

    Normally I prefer to write about the military aspects of the war. But it is the 150th birthday of the State of West Virginia and, after reading some comments on how West Virginia came to be, there is one aspect that seems to me generally overlooked. After the bombardment of Fort Sumter by the confederates, […]

  • Who’s a Cracker?

    There’s been a good deal of discussion lately about the origins and meaning of the word “cracker” because of its use in the high profile Zimmerman murder case in Florida. Just before being shot Trayvon Martin complained about a “creepy-ass cracker” following him, and considerable ink has been spilled about whether this was a racial […]

  • Arkansas Post – Part 3

    The “Blue Wing” Following the aborted raid on Arkansas Post Hovey’s troops were absorbed into a division being formed under BG Frederick Steele. The new division was assigned to MG William T. Sherman’s force that had come down from Memphis. Sherman’s task was to try the direct approach to Vicksburg via a northern approach from […]

  • Two Views of Gettysburg Town

    With the Sesquicentennial of the Battle of Gettysburg almost on us I thought I’d post a couple of contemporary views of the town. As most of you know the Confederates swept through the town on July 1, driving the Federals before them and capturing large numbers of them. The Federals, however, held Cemetery Hill just […]