TOCWOC – A Civil War Blog

TOCWOC Editor’s Note: This one grew out of a research project I’ve been working through for The Siege of Petersburg Online, cataloging the ordnance officers of the Army of Northern Virginia one Compiled Military Service Record at a time. Philip Beverley Stanard was the Third Corps’ Chief Ordnance Officer under A.P. Hill from 1863 to […]

[Read more →]

Reorganizing the Confederate Valley Ordnance Department After the Disaster at Waynesboro Lt. Col. Briscoe G. Baldwin, Chief of Ordnance, Army of Northern Virginia Briscoe Baldwin isn’t a name that gets much attention outside of Lee’s staff studies, but by the last winter of the war he was about as embedded in the Army of Northern […]

[Read more →]

Virginia Military Institute is now offering coloring books as part of its student “stress busters” program. “Stress Busters is held on Reading Day of each semester,” the school said. “This is an opportunity for cadets to unwind and relax before studying for finals. This event often includes stress reduction activities such as yoga, therapy dogs, […]

[Read more →]

Most students of the Civil War have at least heard of Clement Vallandigham, an Ohio lawyer who served in Congress and stood for governor of Ohio during the Civil War. Vallandigham was a prominent Copperhead Democrat who advocated a peaceful solution to the bloodshed, and was arrested, convicted by a military court martial, and eventually […]

[Read more →]

Recently K. S. McPhail, who runs the excellent New Kent County History web site, has been sending me a ton of excellent first person accounts from post-war newspapers, many of which you’ll find on my Siege of Petersburg Postwar Newspaper accounts page.  The articles Mr. McPhail has been sending along are mostly from papers which […]

[Read more →]

I wanted to take a moment to thank K. S. McPhail (New Kent County History) for sending along multiple postwar accounts of the Siege of Petersburg, including a lengthy reminiscence on the August 21, 1864 action at the Battle of Globe Tavern by Confederate veteran John H. Neil.  Neil was a member of the 7th […]

[Read more →]

Some time ago I did a post on the origin of the word “sharpshooter” – that it came into the English language by way of the German mercenary riflemen hired by the British crown in the late 18th Century. A couple of commenters, however, took issue with that analysis and insisted that it came from […]

[Read more →]