TOCWOC – A Civil War Blog

Melting Pot Soldiers: The Union’s Ethnic Regiments. William L. Burton. Ames, IA: Iowa State University Press, 1st Ed., 1988. 282 pp. No maps. Many people assume that immigrants coming to this country are often harassed and discriminated against solely by “Native” Americans until they assimilate, hence the “melting pot” analogy. William L. Burton sets out […]

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I missed the series of August battles of Grant’s Fourth Offensive due to real life issues, but I’m back with a look at perhaps the North’s best chance to drive Lee out of Petersburg and Richmond between July 30, 1864 and April 2, 1865. The events of September 29, 1864 nearly proved fatal to Lee’s […]

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Brian Downey has a new blog post up about a subject I mentioned in August — General French’s march away from the West Woods toward the Sunken Lane. This really is the mystery of the battle and I’ve often wondered why so many historians have sort of passed over it with little or no comment. […]

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Yankee Autumn In Acadiana: A Narrative of the Great Texas Overland Expedition through Southwestern Louisiana October-December 1863. David C. Edmonds. Lafayette, LA: Center For Louisiana Studies, 2005. 495 pp. 21 maps, numerous illustarions. The term “narrative” is a fitting one for David C. Edmonds’ Yankee Autumn in Acadiana. This book is at its heart a […]

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Drew Wagenhoffer has an interview with John Fox, chronicler of the Thirty-fifth Georgia. Worth reading, as John and I independently had many of the same unfortunate experiences with the publishing industry, which led us both to the same conclusion about doing it ourselves. I’ve gotten to know John pretty well, since as fellow micropublishers we […]

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Thanks to Brett I recently picked up a nice little battle monograph – Disaster in the West Woods, General Edwin V. Sumner and the II Corps at Antietam, by Marion V. Armstrong (Western Maryland Interpretive Association 2002). At 77 pages it’s short, but a worthwhile read for anyone interested in Antietam. Right now it’s on […]

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In the past month and a half, I’ve marked the anniversaries of important battles during the Petersburg Campaign (and I apologize for missing the Wilson-Kautz Raid and First Deep Bottom). When Petersburg does manage to get mentioned, arguably the most “popular” battle (you have to include Five Forks as well) is the Crater, fought on […]

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