TOCWOC – A Civil War Blog

Author: Fred Ray

  • Desecrating The Dead

    The History Vandals are at it again. When all this started I predicted that it would not stop with the Confederate generals and it gives me no pleasure to be right. This time it’s a grave marker. The city council in Madison, Wisconsin, has voted to remove a marker with the names of Confederate prisoners […]

  • Died Of A Broken Heart?

    It’s no uncommon in Civil War literature to see someone’s death ascribed to broken heart after losing or breaking up with a loved one, homesickness, or “melancholia.” There might have been more to it than we might think now. It’s not a heart attack, but so-called “broken heart syndrome” still puts patients at high risk […]

  • Peninsula Campaign Animated Map

    Very nice animated map of the Peninsula Campaign in 1862. If you’d like a short and concise campaign summary, check it out—it’s well done.

  • Manassas Soldiers Laid to Rest

    Previously I mentioned that the remains of two unfortunate soldiers killed at Second Manassas had been found in a surgeon’s pit on the battlefield. I am happy to report that they have been decently interred at Arlington National Cemetery after all these years. The two Union soldiers buried Thursday at Arlington with full military honors […]

  • A Look At Some Various Period Arms

    The 19th Century was a busy one for firearms development. At its beginning armies used .75 cal. smoothbore muskets like the Brown Bess, and by its end they were using the fully modern .30 cal. box magazine repeater with smokeless powder. One of the big technological jumps happened during the US Civil War with the […]

  • Silent Sam Falls to Vandals

    Silent Sam, the memorial on the UNC campus to the Confederate common soldier, fell to vandals yesterday. I’ve mentioned earlier that it has drawn protests but this time the mostly white mob was serious. In an action carried out with paramilitary precision masked thugs shrouded the statue with banners, tied ropes on it, and pulled it […]

  • Her Majesty Takes a Shot

    It is the summer of 1860. The British government, rattled by a French invasion scare, seeks to train a sizable corps of volunteers armed with the new rifles, much as the Americans had done to them eight-five years earlier. To properly kick things off the queen herself pulls a silken cord and fires the first […]