TOCWOC – A Civil War Blog

SIMPLY MURDER: The Battle of Fredericksburg, December 13, 1862 (Emerging Civil War) by Chris Mackowski and Kristopher White Product Details Paperback: 168 pages Publisher: Savas Beatie (April 2013) Language: English ISBN-10: 1611211468 ISBN-13: 978-1611211467   Raising the bar Sometimes breaking the mold fails.  However, breaking the mold can yield a spectacular success producing something that […]

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Mackowski, Chris, and White, Kristopher D. Simply Murder: The Battle of Fredericksburg, December 13, 1862. (Savas Beatie, December 2012). 168 pages, 171 illustrations, 6 maps, further reading, index. ISBN: 978-1-61121-146-7 $12.95 (Paperback). Simply Murder: The Battle of Fredericksburg, December 13, 1862 is the first in a proposed “Emerging Civil War Series” of books by Civil War […]

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Best Books on the Civil War Battle of Fredericksburg: December 13, 1862 While I typically create “best Civil War books on…” posts for the 150th anniversary of major (and sometimes not so major) battles, I usually come up with brand new things to say about them.  In this case I’ll mostly be letting my prior […]

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Reading the War December 1862 We do not have many books from Antietam to Gettysburg.  I have no idea why but it is a fact we have to accept.  Compounding the problem is that several books are out of date or just plain bad.  My recommendations are: The Fredericksburg Campaign by Francis Augustin O’Reilly is […]

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FREDERICKSBURG: THE LEFT Once the town of Fredericksburg was secured, Burnside inexplicably waited a full day to attack. If he attacked on December 12th instead of the 13th he might have caught Jackson out of position and won the battle. But the troops plundered and vandalized and the union pattern again was one of indecision […]

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Fredericksburg: the Beginning It was November 15th, 1862 and the Army of the Potomac was on the move. General Ambrose Burnside had taken command of the union army.  He replaced General McClellan after the federal forces failed to put away Robert E. Lee’s Confederates following the bloody battle at Antietam. Under pressure from President Abraham […]

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As forewarned I will make my first blog on my pet project; engineers. This little seen letter comes from Captain Ira Spaulding of the 50th New York Engineers. It describes his experiences at Fredericksburg. Head quarters Detachment of the 50th NY Engineers Opposite Fredericksburg, December 20th (?), 1862 My dear Dunklee, I have just received […]

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