TOCWOC – A Civil War Blog

Category: Civil War Individuals

  • Blackford’s baptism of fire at Manassas

    For Blackford, the deciding moment came with the secession of Virginia on April 17, 1861. Like many other Southern Unionists like John Mosby, Jubal Early, and Robert E. Lee, Blackford threw in his lot with the new Confederacy, taking his company, the Barbour Greys, to Richmond. There they were assigned to the 5th Alabama Infantry. […]

  • Eugene Blackford letter excerpt March 11, 1861

    Once secession of the Lower South was a fact, the seceded states immediately began attempting to expel Federal garrisons and claim United States installations. This was successful except for a few points, most notably Ft. Pickens at Pensacola and Ft. Sumter at Charleston. Alabama and Mississippi both sent troops to assist the taking of Ft. […]

  • Eugene Blackford letter excerpt January 14, 1861

    In this letter home to his father, Blackford seems to understand better than the politicians what is coming. Although opposing secession, he also opposes coercion by the Federal government. Ere this I suppose you have received the intelligence that Alabama has seceded, and that I am for the first time in my life without the […]

  • Eugene Blackford letter excerpt January 5, 1861

    I will be periodically posting excerpts from Eugene Blackford’s letters in the next few months, all of which are included in Volume I of my upcoming book (which may still be ordered at a prepublication discount). This letter finds Blackford, a Virginian, in the small town of Clayton, Alabama (near Eufaula) working as a school […]

  • Sharpshooter: The Selected Letters and Papers of Maj. Eugene Blackford C.S.A.

    Sharpshooter: The Selected Letters and Papers of Maj. Eugene Blackford, C.S.A. Fred L. Ray, Ed. ISBN-13 978-0-9882435-1-4 / ISBN-10 0988243512 6×9 inch hardback / 230 Pages 10 Maps 30 Illustrations Footnoted / Indexed / Complete Bibliography Publication date: March 2016 Price after publication $39.95 I am nearly finished with the first phase of the biggest […]

  • Civil War Book Review: The Lost Papers of Confederate General John Bell Hood by Stephen Hood

    Hood, Stephen M. The Lost Papers of Confederate General John Bell Hood. (Savas Beatie: January 2015). 312 pages, 56 illustrations, notes, bibliography, index.  ISBN: 978-1-61121-182-5. $32.95 (Cloth) It’s not often that a significant cache of personal papers from a Confederate army commander is found.  But that is exactly why the book being reviewed right now […]

  • Was General Sherman Smeared?

    This being the 150th anniversary of Sherman’s March to the Sea, the venerable New York times has an article questioning just how bad Uncle Billy really was. Seems we have a new crop of historians who think that the Southern demonization of him was unwarranted, a sour grapes myth by the defeated Confederates perpetuated by […]