TOCWOC – A Civil War Blog

I have ordered a copy of Scott Hippensteel’s new book Myths of the Civil War. Drew Wagenhoffer has a review here. Much of the book seems to be about “sniping” and about debunking various incidents. I am skeptical about books that talk about “myths” but would like to see what Hippensteel has to say, so […]

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My essay on Picketing, Skirmishing, and Sharpshooting in the Civil War is up at Essential Civil War Curriculum, a Sesquicentennial project of the Virginia Center for Civil War Studies at Virginia Tech. Primary sponsors are Dr. James I. (Bud) Robertson and Professor William C. (Jack) Davis, both Professors at Virginia Tech. The security of an […]

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Martin Pegler, prolific author and former Senior Curator of Firearms at the Royal Armouries Museum, Leeds, has published a series of articles in American Rifleman on sniping and sharpshooting. The first starts with the introduction of the rifle and goes into the early 19th Century. The next one covers the period starting roughly with the […]

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I came across this representation of a target shot a 500 yards by a .577 Enfield and a .451 Whitworth, which shows pretty clearly why the Whitworth made a better sharpshooter’s rifle. Source: W.W. Greener, The Gun and Its Development (1910) Google Books now has Life magazine in their collection, and among the issues is […]

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Update: Welcome to TOCWOC for those of you who have found this page through a Google Search!  If you enjoy what you’re about to read below, feel free to Subscribe to TOCWOC’s RSS feed.  Be sure to check out the Civil War Book Reviews which have been posted here and browse through TOCWOC founder Brett […]

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Various commentators have mentioned that the ethos of the 18th and 19th Centuries disapproved of sharpshooters, who were seen as acting in a cowardly manner. Some even considered it unchivalrous to take aim at an individual foeman. Here’s an example in an editorial that appeared in the Missouri Democrat in December, 1862. Major-General Hindman, it […]

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