The Newspaper Front: The Civil War from the Southern Side

Disclaimers always add something titillating to a post, so here goes our very own… This post focuses on reporting in the South, but the war of words worked both ways during the Civil War. The northern press could be inaccurate, hypocritical, and disingenuous. We would love to read examples you have ...

Ads during the Civil War Years

Civil War era newspapers were more than just sources of information regarding current events.  In the Boston Daily Advertiser, for example, nearly half of any given issue was devoted to advertising.   It was certainly not alone in this, though it was at least honest enough to include the word “advertiser” in its name.  Goods and ...

This Week in the Civil War: Gettysburg, Hippos, and the French are in Mexico!

In the United States today July, 1863 is remembered primarily as the month of the Battle of Gettysburg.  For Americans at the time, however, there was plenty of other news to think about.  Readers of Frank Leslie’s Illustrated Newspaper, a weekly publication from New York, learned about the battle in the July 11th edition of ...

The Civil War Comes to California

As was mentioned in a post last week, Americans will be marking the 150th anniversaries of the great events of the Civil War over the next four years.  Many of the battles, commanders and regiments of that conflict have become legends, and the narrative of a nation split apart, brother fighting against brother, remains compelling.  ...