TOCWOC – A Civil War Blog

The excitement of battle quickly died down, to be followed by the unending drudgery of drill, picket, and fatigue details of all sorts. Blackford was taken ill and went home to recuperate, then returned, still very weak, when he heard a battle might be imminent. There was an action at Ball’s Bluff on October 20th […]

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Another historical mystery found its way into my little corner of Civil War cyberspace recently.  Gary Skinner sent along a beautifully preserved letter recently for use on my Siege of Petersburg site.  The letter, written on August 4, 1864 and describing the Battle of the Crater, is a lengthy one.  The mystery concerns exactly WHO […]

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Editor’s Note: This preview has been cross-posted at The Siege of Petersburg Online.  Also be sure to check out the book’s permanent bibliography page. Taylor, Guy C. & Alderson, Kevin (ed) & Alderson, Patsy (ed). Letters Home to Sarah: The Civil War Letters of Guy C. Taylor, Thirty-Sixth Wisconsin Volunteers. (University of Wisconsin Press: November […]

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Editor’s Note: This review originally appeared at The Siege of Petersburg Online: Beyond the Crater earlier today. Jordan, Mary & Hatch, Joyce. Dear Friend Amelia: The Civil War Letters of Private John Tidd. Six Mile Creek Press (January 2011). 176 pp., 100+ illustrations, notes. ISBN: 978-1-57003-922-5 $34.95 (Cloth). Reading a collection of wartime soldier letters […]

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The Bravest of the Brave: The Correspondence of Stephen Dodson Ramseur George G. Kundahl (Editor) Product Details Hardcover: 392 pages Publisher: The University of North Carolina Press (May 15, 2010) Language: English ISBN-10: 0807833738 ISBN-13: 978-0807833735 Stephen Dodson Ramseur was the youngest major general in the Confederate Army. An 1860 graduate of West Point, he […]

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Historians make much of the problems the Confederacy had with state’s rights, and how it hindered the war effort. They haven’t paid enough attention, I think, to the problems it caused to the Union war effort. I found out about one aspect of it while researching the sharpshooter book, about how the various states tried, […]

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