GEORGIA'S CIVIL WAR NEWSPAPERS: PARTISAN, SANGUINE, ENTERPRISING By J. FORD RISLEY A DISSERTATION PRESENTED TO THE GRADUATE SCHOOL OF THE UNIVERSITY OF FLORIDA IN PARTIAL FULFILLMENT OF THE REQUIREMENTS FOR THE DEGREE OF DOCTOR OF PHILOSOPHY UNIVERSITY OF FLORIDA 1996 FLORIDA LIBRARIES UNIVERSITY OF ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS help of Any scholarly venture of this size requires the publicly many people. It is great pleasure to be able to thank them. coinmittee, Bill F. I am grateful to the members of my and Bertram Chamberlin, John L. Griffith, William L. McKeen, comments and insights. I am Vjyatt—Brown , for their Leslie especially indebted to my committee chairman, F. finished Smith, for the many hours he devoted to the work, but product. Not only did his suggestions improve the high. He his good nature and sense of humor kept my spirits a good friend. is a fine scholar, an excellent mentor, and parents-in- My parents. Dotty and Steve Risley, and my been devoted law, Kate and Bob Schellenberg, have always Christine and supporters. My sister-in-law and her husband, several Doug Rick, generously let me stay with them during helped research trips to Georgia. And Joann Schellenberg with last-minute paperwork. and our I owe the greatest debt to my wife, Mary, daughters, Emily and Megan. They have made tremendous sacrifices in allowing me to pursue graduate studies. now I will at Although I can never repay them, I hope that least be able to spend a little more time with them. ii TABLE OF CONTENTS page ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS ii ABSTRACT ^ CHAPTERS 1 INTRODUCTION 1 Overview ^ Review of Literature "7 Purpose Research Questions Methodology 1^ Scope and Limitations 17 Battle Names 1® 2 ANTEBELLUM GEORGIA AND ITS PRESS 19 Overview 1^ Antebellum Georgia 20 Georgia's Antebellum Newspapers 25 Sectional Differences Widen 36 Conclusion ^1 3 "WAR AT LAST" Overview Reporting the Secession Convention 44 The War Begins 55 Newspapers Prepare to Cover the War 62 The Battle of First Manassas 68 Gubernatorial Election ®2 Conclusion ^1 4 "THE SKIES NEVER LOOKED BRIGHTER" 92 Overview Setbacks on the Battlefield 93 The Battle of Shiloh ^7 Fighting in Georgia 191 Other News 196 Fighting in Virginia 115 The Battle of Sharpsburg 124 iii The Battle of Fredericksburg 13 0 Conclusion 1^® 5 "OUR SITUATION IS NOT NEARLY SO GOOD" 137 Overview 1^^ Spring Campaigns 138 Other News I'^l Forrest Proclaimed a Hero 149 Vicksburg Surrenders 154 The Battle of Gettysburg 159 Fighting Elsewhere 188 Soldier Correspondents 173 The Battle of Chickamauga 179 The Battle of Chattanooga 184 Conclusion 1^^ 6 "SHERMAN PROSECUTES WAR DELIBERATELY" 194 Overview 1^4 Condition of Georgia's Newspapers 195 Local and Humorous News 1^9 Habeas Corpus Controversy 202 Fighting in Georgia 2 05 Atlanta's Newspapers Flee 219 "Rover" Reports the Fall of Atlanta 228 Fighting in Virginia 232 Brown, Stephens, and Augusta's Dailies 237 The March to the Sea 244 The Capture of Savannah 250 Conclusion 283 7 "IT IS FOLLY TO TALK ABOUT FURTHER RESISTANCE" ... 255 Overview 255 A Season of Discontent 255 Savannah's "Yankee" Newspapers Prosper 263 The End of the War 270 Newspapers Struggle to Publish 276 The Beginning of Reconciliation 280 Conclusion 283 8 CONCLUSIONS 284 Overview 284 Conditions of Publishing 285 Reporting the War 289 Conclusions 307 REFERENCES 211 BIOGRAPHICAL SKETCH 320 iv Abstract of Dissertation Presented to the Graduate School of the University of Florida in Partial Fulfillment of the Requirements for the Degree of Doctor of Philosophy GEORGIA'S CIVIL WAR NEWSPAPERS: PARTISAN, SANGUINE, ENTERPRISING By J. Ford Risley August 1996 Chairman: F. Leslie Smith lajor Department: College of Journalism and Communications This dissertation is an historical study of Georgia's lewspapers during the American Civil War. Particular ittention is paid to three questions: (1) What were the conditions under which Georgia newspapers were published and were tf^hat effect did the war have on the press? (2) What :he reporting strengths and weaknesses of the state's in lewspapers? (3) What role did the state's press play preserving or hurting public morale? The high cost of naterials, shortages of employees, and impact of the fighting greatly affected news and editorial content. After less than a year of fighting, most editors had reduced the size of their papers and by the end of the war less than lialf of the state's papers were still publishing. The historic roots of Georgia's press meant that reporting of V s :he war often was partisan, misleading, and incomplete. At :he same time, editors clearly viewed one of their tasks to le helping the South win the war, and in this respect their jditorials sanguinely minimizing Confederate defeats, /^illifying the North, and declaring the superiority of the Southern way of life were successful. Yet in not being entirely honest with their readers, editors likely made the Confederacy's defeat more difficult to accept. Yet while ;he war amplified the shortcomings of Georgia's journalism, Lt also had a positive impact on the press and created more Interest in newspapers than at any time in the state ' listory. The best reporters and editors recognized that readers wanted more than mere partisanship and propaganda and in numerous instances the stories produced were of sxcellent quality. In reporting the news of residents fighting in faraway places and the impact of the war on bheir communities, editors also showed a growing recognition af the importance of local and human interest news to readers. Never again would they take a backseat to news from elsewhere. Very likely, it was this recognition of the critical role the press played in local communities that kept many enterprising editors publishing far longer than they should have been expected to. vi CHAPTER 1 INTRODUCTION Overview The date was April 12, 1861. Word had reached Savannah, Georgia, early in the morning that one hundred miles away. Confederate cannons had opened fire on Fort Sumter in Charleston, South Carolina. James R. Sneed of the Savannah Republican and William T. Thompson of the Savannah Morning News hurriedly packed their bags and boarded the one o'clock train for Charleston. On the train the two editors were joined by citizens of Savannah who also had heard the news from Charleston and wanted to see the fighting for themselves. At one stop, where troops from South Carolina boarded the train, Sneed and Thompson could hear the sound took of cannon fire from the north. On a steam ferry that the them across the river to Charleston, the men could smell sulfurous fumes of gunpowder. After arriving in Charleston quick and checking in at a hotel, Sneed and Thompson ate a supper and rushed to the city's battery. There while a light rain fell, the editors and an immense crowd of men, women, and children witnessed the start of the American Civil War.^ ^"Fort Sumter Taken!" Savannah Morn ing News, 15 April 1861, 1. 1 2 Sneed and Thompson knew their readers would want the latest news from Fort Sumter. So did the editors of other Georgia newspapers. Reporters from at least two other papers, the Columbus Sun and the Macon Daily Telegraph , also were in Charleston to report on the fighting. During the first half of the century, newspapers had become the most popular form of literature read by Americans, in both the North and South. And during the decade prior to the Civil War, the number of newspapers in the South had more than doubled. In the absence of other media, most Southerners, Georgians included, learned of virtually all the news outside their communities from newspapers. As Southern historian Avery 0. Craven has written, the newspaper editor "more than any other person spoke to and for the people of 2 the section. Only the clergyman rivaled him in influence." Although ill-prepared for a war of such magnitude, Georgia's editors did their utmost to cover the war as best they knew how. The larger dailies sent correspondents into the field and supplemented their reports with letters from soldier correspondents. The smaller weeklies depended on soldier correspondents and news clipped from the major dailies. Both dailies and weeklies depended on two journalistic developments still in their infancy. ^ Avery O. Craven, The Growth of Southern Nationalism, 1848-1861 (Baton Rouge, La.: Louisiana State University Press, 1953), 275. See also, Donald E. Reynolds, Editors Make War. Southern Newspapers in the Secession Crisis. University Press, 1966), 5. (Nashville, Tenn. , Vanderbilt . 3 telegraphic news and cooperative news gathering services. Like those elsewhere, Georgia's newspaper correspondents had little journalism experience and no experience reporting a war. Despite these handicaps, several correspondents turned out excellent work and at least one, Peter W. Alexander of reputation that extended the Savannah Republican , gained a 3 beyond the boundaries of the state. In reporting news of the war, reporters and editors had to deal with Confederate censors as well as their own concerns about preserving public morale. Although the Confederate constitution provided for freedom of the press. Congress passed several bills aimed at censoring news. Some scholars have argued that officials did not need to silence the press because newspapers generally cooperated with the government to keep damaging information from being published. The government and newspapers were unified in in wanting to advance the cause of the Confederacy . Early the war, the Augusta Chronicle & Sentinel said, "We want to give the enemy no information of the number of men we have in service, nor of their position or destination, when our ^J. Cutler Andrews, The South Reports The Civil War 51. (Princeton, N. J. : Princeton University Press, 1970), '^J.