TOCWOC – A Civil War Blog

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 →]

After what seems like forever I’m back home and trying to get back to a normal life, including posting on TOCWOC. For now, however, I’ll just leave a couple of links of interest to keep everyone entertained while we’re all under “house arrest.” An excellent documentary on the 1864 battle of Olustee in Florida.   […]

[Read more →]

For those of you who follow TOCWOC but are not regular readers of my Siege of Petersburg Online site, I thought I’d provide a little update here, the first in quite awhile. I’ve been VERY, VERY busy, so much so that my blogging here has dropped off more than I’d like.  That said, here’s where […]

[Read more →]

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.

[Read more →]

Civil War Infantry Tactics: Training, Combat, and Small-Unit Effectiveness by Earl J. Hess Hardcover: 368 pages 6.1 x 9.4 inches ISBN-10: 0807159379 ISBN-13: 978-0807159378 Publisher: LSU Press (April 13, 2015) Earl Hess has added yet another tome to his ever-growing list of Civil War books. His latest is devoted to infantry tactics, which I must […]

[Read more →]

Johnston’s army arrived on the Virginia Peninsula and established a line at the Warwick River to block McClellan’s advance. Blackford and his men scrambled to adjust to the novelty of a continuous contact with the Federals. On April 22nd Blackford wrote his parents from “Curtain to Redoubt No. ‘4’ near Yorktown, Va.”, first apologizing for […]

[Read more →]

Gallagher, Gary W. (ed.) & Janney, Caroline E. (ed.). Cold Harbor to the Crater: The End of the Overland Campaign. (University of North Carolina Press: September 2015). 360 pp., 6.125 x 9.25, 31 halftones, 5 maps, notes, bibliography, index.  ISBN: 978-1-4696-2533-1. $35.00 (Hardcover) Gary Gallagher and the University of North Carolina Press return to the […]

[Read more →]