Existing comment:
The Great (In)Censor of the Public Press:
Shortly after Edwin Stanton assumed his new duties as secretary of war, he immediately began a reorganization of the War Department and implemented strict policies for conducting business both on and off the battlefield. One of his edicts was to restrict what the press was reporting about the war. In may 1862, during the Peninsular Campaign in Virginia, the editors of Vanity Fair mocked Stanton for his alleged censorship of the press and restrictions of news reports from the battlefield.
Bobbett and Hooper Wood-engraving Company (active 1855-1870?), after Henry Louis Stephens Wood engraving, published in Vanity Fair, New York, May 17, 1862. |