TOCWOC – A Civil War Blog

Category: Controversies of a Campaign

  • The Road Not Taken

    After musing on the battle of Mansfield in my previous post, I come to the question of whether Banks was on the wrong road. The basics of the situation are this: by the first week of April 1864 U.S. forces had advanced as far as Grand Ecore and Natchitoches; it was about 75 miles further […]

  • What went wrong at the battle of Mansfield?

    As described previously, even though overall the US had more men in the campaign, Taylor enjoyed a numerical advantage at the moment he attacked at Mansfield. As a result Taylor was able to overwhelm the US front line, turning it in on itself and driving it back. So for Taylor, not much went wrong that […]

  • Review: The Day Lincoln Was Almost Shot: The Fort Stevens Story by B.F. Cooling

    The Day Lincoln Was Almost Shot: The Fort Stevens Story by Benjamin Franklin Cooling III The Scarecrow Press $45.00 May 2013 ISBN: 978-0-8108-8622-3       Most people would put the high water mark of the Confederacy at a copse of trees near the crest of Cemetery Hill just outside of Gettysburg, PA, on the […]

  • Civil War Book Review: The Battle of Pickett’s Mill: Along the Dead-Line

    Butkovich, Brad. The Battle of Pickett’s Mill: Along the Dead-Line (The History Press, 2013). 208 pages, over 20 images, maps, order of battle, notes, bibliography. ISBN: 978-1-62619-042-9 $21.99 (Paperback). The Battle of Pickett’s Mill: Along the Dead-Line is the first detailed modern book focused solely on the Battle of Pickett’s Mill.  The small battle is […]

  • Counting US Forces at Mansfield

    Even though I was able to count a sizable Confederates force that Taylor had at the Battle of Mansfield, wasn’t he outnumbered in the battle? Coming up with the total Present for Duty (PFD) on the US side is relatively easy since there is a table in the Office Records that shows the following Present […]

  • Where was Rosecrans?

    Previously I wrote about who really won the battle of Iuka. This time I am going to dig deeper into Rosecrans’ performance at that battle. Attention has often been deflected from Rosecrans by questions about where Grant and Ord were during the battle. A lot of ink has been spilled about ‘acoustic shadows’, mis-communication or […]

  • Will the Real Winner of Iuka Come On Down!

    Brett’s post last month on the new book by Frank Varney inspired me to write this post. In my view, the standard conclusion about the Battle of Iuka is wrong, but not in the way Varney would like. I agree that the winner of the battle has been unjustly overlooked, but its not Rosecrans that […]