TOCWOC – A Civil War Blog

A happy 4th of July weekend to everyone, and I hope you are all with family in this holiday and staying healthy. The news keeps on coming faster than I can keep up with it. The city of Richmond, I am sorry to say, has removed the statue of General Stonewall Jackson. At least it […]

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Good article on the Civil War Trust web site on Stonewall Jackson’s flank march at Chancellorsville by Robert K. Krick. Using new information Krick gives full credit to the vital role of Maj. Eugene Blackford’s Alabama sharpshooter battalion, and in general how Jackson and Robert Rodes used these new units. While Fitz Lee and his […]

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A few days ago I wrote about the ‘Ewell Option ‘ — a plan for General Richard Ewell to strike at US forces in northern Virginia in April or May 1862 — and how instead Ewell decided to stick with Stonewall Jackson and support his efforts in the Shenandoah Valley. The resulting campaign became famous and […]

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We have a tendency to view history as if through a rear view mirror, looking back along the path taken and framing what happened by how it turned out.  Since we know that in May and June of 1862 General Thomas Stonewall Jackson led a famous campaign in the Shenandoah Valley, the events leading up […]

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Or is this just another loony theory? Two astronomers from Texas State University think that the angle of the moon had a lot to do with Stonewall’s fatal wounding at Chancellorsville. If Jackson’s reconnaissance party was riding in bright moonlight, then his own men should have recognized them as they returned from the Union’s side, […]

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Hewitt, Lawrence Lee (ed).  Schott, Thomas E. (ed).  Lee and His Generals: Essays in Honor of T. Harry Williams (The University of Tennessee Press, June 15, 2012). 368 pages, illustrations, maps, bibliography, endnotes by essay, index. ISBN: 978-1-57233-850-0 $45.95 (Hardcover). Who was Robert E. Lee’s worst corps commander during the Civil War?  How has Robert […]

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Since  it is the 150th anniversary of the Shenandoah Valley campaign of 1862, I am going to discuss a particular aspect of the campaign – the condition of Major General Thomas “Stonewall” Jackson’s command at the end of April.  During the preceding weeks Major General Nathaniel Banks had advanced up the Shenandoah Valley as far […]

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