TOCWOC – A Civil War Blog

Month: January 2014

  • Chickasaw Bayou (7)

    December 28 – Blake’s Levee Overnight of the 27th-28th the Confederate line received its first appreciable reinforcement. Three brigades of troops arrived. Two brigades arrived from Grenada (Vaughn and Gregg) and one from middle Tennessee (Barton). These troops were rushed to the threatened area. BG John Vaughn’s three regiment brigade formed a line covering the […]

  • The Top 13 Controversies at Franklin: Part 4

    Editor’s Note: After I’d posted my recent comments on Lee’s possible endorsement of John Bell Hood for army command in 1864, I started going back over a lengthy nine or ten part series I did on Eric Jacobson’s book For Cause & for Country: A Study of the Affair at Spring Hill and the Battle of Franklin.  I had totally […]

  • The Last ANV Offensive: Gordon’s Assault on Fort Stedman

    Editor’s Note: The Siege of Petersburg Volume 2: The Western Front Battles, September 1864-April 1865 by Ed Bearss and Bryce Suderow is scheduled to be released in early 2014, according to publisher Savas Beatie.  The publisher was kind enough to pass along this unedited, original version of a portion of the chapter on the March […]

  • “We have been a little too quick for them” — Confederate failure at Snake Creek Gap

    Continued from The Road to Villanow. By May 8th the Confederates had lost control of the valley between Taylor Ridge and Rocky Face.1 It was too late to stop the US advance from reaching Snake Creek Gap. Nonetheless there appears to have been a last ditch effort to fight for the gap. Most books on […]

  • The Road To Villanow, May 7th and 8th, 1864

    Back in 2012 I wrote a post about the Confederate defense of Resaca, Georgia, in which I argued that General Joseph Johnston took adequate measures to protect the town and the railway bridge from the movement made by the Army of the Tennessee through Snake Creek Gap on May 9, 1864. But a question remains: […]

  • Savas Beatie Author Interview: Daniel T. Davis and Phillip S. Greenwalt on the ’64 Valley Campaign

    Editor’s Note: This Savas Beatie author interview originally appeared at the Savas Beatie web site and appears at TOCWOC with written permission.  This interview may not be reproduced without the express written content of Savas Beatie.  For more details on this and other fine Savas Beatie books, please email the publisher at  sales@savasbeatie.com. An Interview with Bloody Autumn authors Daniel T. Davis and […]

  • Chickasaw Bayou (6)

    December 27th Safely ashore and anticipating the arrival of BG A. J. Smith’s division from Milliken’s Bend Sherman formulated a plan to seize crossings of Chickasaw Bayou on the 27th,but his initial plan was altered when Smith’s troops were delayed. Restructuring the plan Sherman ordered BG Steele to detach Blair’s brigade and embark his remaining […]