Looking for the Confederate War

In November 1861, a group of dissidents/Unionists burned several bridges in East Tennessee. They had been told that Federal soldiers were o...

This week, I am writing about the Shelton Laurel Massacre. Traditionally, this story starts with the Unionist-leaning Shelton Laurel people...

Time to start putting that 2017 calendar together. I am still out stumping the Capitals of the Confederacy/North Carolina as the Last Confe...

Last night was the premiere of the Petersburg episode on Blood and Fury. So how did I become involved? Here's my story. In May of ...

You've probably figured out that I like lists of books. For several years, I've kept a list of North Carolina counties and their ...

This weekend, our friends at Ft. Fisher are holding their anniversary events. If you live in the area, please drop in and check out the...

A couple of months ago, I was reading a new biography on a North Carolina Confederate general. In this book, the author claimed that North ...

   In the January issue of America's Civil War, there is an interesting piece on the LeMat revolvers, written by Michael G. Williams. ...

Leroy Pope Walker, Confederacy Secretary of War For the past few days, I've been reading Denis Peterson's Confederate Cabinet ...

Have you ever been reading something and a word or two, or a sentence, kind of pops out at you? That was me a couple a days ago. I was readi...

It should not come as any surprise, but I read lots of books every year. They are for research, for reviews, even for fun. A couple of week...

In June 1864, Capt. George W. Kirk led a raid from East Tennessee into Western North Carolina. Kirk surrounded and captured Camp Vance near...

Kevin Stone asked the other day about the Lockville and Haywood communities in Chatham County during the War. Let's look at Lockville. ...

Last week, I posted that it was my tenth anniversary as a blogger. As part of my "celebration," I asked a few friends to intervie...

Dang... I missed my own anniversary. I started this blog ten years ago yesterday - November 2, 2006. I guess this small post will have to...

The new issue of J19 arrived yesterday, and I was reading an essay by Jillian Spivey Caddell entitled "Words of War." The author ...

Most of us have heard the Vance anecdote - about how he was in the process of delivering a speech for the Union when word arrived of the fi...

We tend to write and talk a lot about Tar Heel regiments in the Army of Northern Virginia. And rightfully so. That is where the bulk of Nor...

A couple of folks have messaged my lately wondering "what's next?". So, here is what I've been working on since turning i...

On the verge of the conflict in 1861, North Carolina had eight representatives in the US House, and two in the US Senate. Every state has t...