Existing comment:
In the mid-19th century, printers produced newspapers on steam presses that could print thousands of copies.
Reporters transmitted breaking news from the battlefields back to the home front. Sometimes newspapers printed battle results before the War Department or other Washington officials had become privy to the information.
Reparations and Recriminations:
In addition to the $200,000 ransom the Confederate army levied on Frederick, residents also fell victim to widespread looting during the Confederate occupation.
Many civilians filed war claims against the United States, but the government only reimbursed Union supporters who suffered damages inflicted by Federal forces.
John T. Worthington, June 28, 1873, Frederick Co., MD.
This claim is for stores taken in 1864 by Federal troops under General Hunter's command.
- 60 acres of corn in field
- 30 bushels of oats in stock
- 360 rails, 80 rails to the cord
- Week long occupancy of 360 acres
Claimed: $3,543
Received: $1,054
1877 Claim of Charles E. Trail and David Best, citizens of Frederick County, MD.
Total = $3,249.85
... David Best testifies to his own loyalty as follows: States he was loyal as any man at all times: Didn't want the South to win, wanted the north to win always: voted for Lincoln in 1864.
... John T. Best, son of David Best, corroborates the above statement, and says that both he and his father were Democrats before, and during the war: that they tried to keep out of both sides as well as they could.
Within a month after the battle, the local Provost Marshall ordered the arrest of southern sympathizers in the Frederick area and announced that they and their families would be sent south beyond Union lines. He compiled a list of 23 families to be expelled. One family was sent to Virginia before President Lincoln suspended the Provost Marshall's order. |