TOCWOC – A Civil War Blog

Lt. General Richard S. Ewell is well-known among students of the early was battles, perhaps being most famous for his decision not to attack the Union position on Cemetery Hill on the evening of July 1, 1863 at Gettysburg.  Ewell’s performance at Gettysburg, in the Fall of 1863 and in the Overland Campaign caused General […]

[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 →]

Better late than, you know…. the Pennsylvania Patriot & Union retracts an 1863 editorial panning the Gettysburg Address. Most of us would love to own a real Civil War cannon, but it’s probably still ill-advised to fire it at your neighbor, even if it’s only loaded with wadding. Dr. Howard Markel at PBS takes a […]

[Read more →]

Smithsonian magazine has a very interesting map study of Gettysburg using modern GIS data to plot elevations and sight distances. You can take a look for yourself and see what the commanders actually saw on those fateful days. Which is not what we see on maps today where, looking down from above, we know exactly […]

[Read more →]

I was in LaGrange, GA, last weekend for a family get-together and checked out their web page. Turns out LaGrange was home to one of the Civil War’s most colorful and unusual militia companies, the all-female Nancy Harts. Named after a heroine of the Revolutionary War, the group elected two local women as officers. The […]

[Read more →]

Sorry for the radio silence but a couple of projects haven’t left me much time to blog. Here are a couple of things from around the web that might interest TOCWOC readers. A look a Christopher Spencer, “[A] quiet little Yankee who sold himself in relentless slavery to his idea for six weary years until […]

[Read more →]

Editor’s Note: This entry has been cross-posted at The Siege of Petersburg Online. — Actions and Skirmishes: How Do I Find Out What Happened? As I continue to study all phases and aspects of the massive nine plus month Siege of Petersburg, one interesting topic I’ve come across is the idea of “actions”, “skirmishes”, and […]

[Read more →]