TOCWOC – A Civil War Blog

The “Blue Wing” Following the aborted raid on Arkansas Post Hovey’s troops were absorbed into a division being formed under BG Frederick Steele. The new division was assigned to MG William T. Sherman’s force that had come down from Memphis. Sherman’s task was to try the direct approach to Vicksburg via a northern approach from […]

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Background As the first Union attempt at Vicksburg was gaining momentum in the fall of 1862 the Confederate leaders on the other side of the river also worried about possible action there. In Arkansas MG Theophilus Holmes, commander of the Trans- Mississippi Department, ordered Colonel John Dunnington to locate a suitable position for a fortification […]

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We recently passed the 150th anniversary of the Battle of  Shiloh which prompts me to discuss a quotation which bothers me.  Anyone who has read a modern book on Shiloh has probably seen some variation on “Take your damned regiment back to Ohio.  There is no enemy closer than Corinth.”  Allegedly this statement was the […]

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Castel, Albert.  Simpson, Brooks D. Victors in Blue: How Union Generals Fought the Confederates, Battled Each Other, and Won the Civil War (University Press of Kansas, 2011). 374 pages, 10 photos, 10 maps, notes. ISBN: 978-0-7006-1793-7 $34.95 (Hardcover). What ONE Union general, other than Grant, could have defeated Robert E. Lee?  How should the victorious […]

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This version of Odds & Ends can teach you about the Emancipation Proclamation, tell you about some upcoming events at Petersburg National Battlefield, see what kind of Zouave you’d be, and even shed some light on strange steam engines and weapons of the Civil War Era.  Read on to find out how: Rea Andrew Redd […]

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This Odds & Ends contains quite a few links from the Civil War blogs.  I’m trying to fill in just a bit for the recently retired This Week in Civil War Blogs formerly run by Civil War Interactive, but I doubt I’d ever have time to fill in on a permanent basis.  I’d like to […]

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Bruce Chadwick. 1858: Abraham Lincoln, Jefferson Davis, Robert E. Lee, Ulysses S. Grant, and the War They Failed to See. Naperville, IL: Sourcebooks, Inc. (April 1, 2008). 355 pages., notes, index. ISBN: 978-1402209413 $24.95 (Hardcover w/DJ). Why 1858? I found myself asking that question repeatedly the entire time I was reading this book. What made […]

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