Existing comment:
Read All About It!
Soldier Reporters:
Newspapers as far away as Boston carried accounts of the battle. Many "correspondents" were soldiers writing letters to newspapers back home. They often mixed facts and opinions.
From The Nashville Banner:
"We have seen Wildcat, and chased the kittens into their holes, but with all their Yankee cunning, they have not the courage to fight..."
-- Captain Albert Roberts (alias John Happy), 20th Tennessee Infantry (CSA)
FroM the Toledo Blade:
"We passed the campground of Zollicoffer's men and saw the ruin that they made. They laid waste to everything upon which they laid their murderous hands."
-- RB Raffensparger, Chaplain, 14th Ohio Infantry (USA)
General Battles the Press:
General Scheopf was unhappy with professional reporters who also followed the army. While camped at London after the battle he wrote:
"With importune citizens on one side and meddlesome reporters on the other, I can scarce find time to attend to the appropriate duties... cannot something be done to rid our camps of this latter class?" |