TOCWOC – A Civil War Blog

In the early 1860s, a violent fight raged to determine the fate of a vast country. An insurrection had split it in two, leaving much of the southern half governed by men who claimed to be the leaders of a new state but were dismissed by their foes as illegitimate “rebels,” outlaws who had given […]

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Fought just west of Jacksonville on February 20, 1864, Olustee was another one of those pull-it-out-by-the-skin-of-the-teeth Confederate victories that staved off defeat just a little longer. I recently came into possession of a letter by a member of a New York regiment about the battle, where he describes Confederate Indians shooting white officers leading back […]

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Rock Island Auctions has some Civil War guns up for their September auction. As usual I can’t afford any of them but it’s nice to look. Of particular interest are: A contract Henry rifle for the 1st D.C. Cavalry. This rifle is one of approximately 1000 Henry rifles purchased by the Ordnance Department in late […]

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I’ve been researching sharpshooters for several years now, so it’s always nice to find something new like this from the history of the 115th New York. It’s interesting for a couple of reasons. One is the story of the conversion of the 13th Indiana into a sharpshooter battalion in all but name. This is almost […]

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I found this amusing, from Afghanistan, about the verbal war between the Afghan Army and the Taliban. The foes chatter with each other over their Vietnam-era, two-way radio system. It’s such an antiquated system that the Taliban and the Afghan forces share radio frequencies, and verbal barbs, as they try to kill or capture one […]

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Generalissimo Gary Yee has informed me that his long-awaited book Sharpshooters (1750-1900), The Men, Their Guns, Their Story will be out shortly. Can’t tell you much more than that since the web site isn’t up yet, but it promises to be the most complete work on the subject yet. I’ve never met Gary but we’ve […]

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One of our local columnists, Rob Neufeld, pens a short item on the last shots of the war, which were supposedly fired right here in Western NC. What caught my eye is that they were fired by sharpshooters under the command of Lt. Robert Conley of Company F, Thomas Legion on May 6, 1865. On […]

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