TOCWOC – A Civil War Blog

Month: March 2018

  • The Confederate Cook & Brother Rifle, and a Lorenz Reproduction

    Ian at Forgotten Weapons examines two products of the Confederate Cook & Brother manufactury. Cook and Brother was one of the largest and most successful of the private ordnance factories in the South during the Civil War. It was formed by two British brothers who had moved to New Orleans, Frederick and Francis Cook. They […]

  • Then They Came for General Hooker…

    Being in New England Massachusetts suffers from an acute shortage of Confederate monuments, giving activists little to do. However, creative ones will find a way, and you can always go after Union heroes. One Massachusetts lawmaker has a problem with General Joseph Hooker (a native son) because an entrance named in his honor insults “women’s […]

  • The Robinson Confederate Sharps

    Ian at Forgotten Weapons examines the Confederate Robinson carbine. S. C. Robinson’s company made some 1900 of them before the Confederate government bought the factory in early 1863. Although there were some complaints about them, the Robinsons were well made arms and quite serviceable. Unfortunately, as with so many of the Confederacy’s manufacturing efforts, there […]

  • Pregnant…And On Picket

    Raynor’s Historical Collectible Auctions site is worth a visit to look at the Civil War manuscripts for auction. You can learn a lot just by looking at the excepts of the letters about soldiers’ attitudes about the war, their enemies, politicians, their leaders, and slavery. It’s often quite different than what you read in the […]

  • Picketing, Skirmishing, and Sharpshooting in the Civil War

    My essay on Picketing, Skirmishing, and Sharpshooting in the Civil War is up at Essential Civil War Curriculum, a Sesquicentennial project of the Virginia Center for Civil War Studies at Virginia Tech. Primary sponsors are Dr. James I. (Bud) Robertson and Professor William C. (Jack) Davis, both Professors at Virginia Tech. The security of an […]

  • Review: Southern Reconstruction by Philip Leigh

    Southern Reconstruction By Philip Leigh