 |
Home | Search | Browse | About IPO | Staff | Links |
|
Home | Search | Browse | About IPO | Staff | Links |
|
Illinois Newspapers and Reporters
Seetha Srinivasan The Civil War was a very trying time for American newspapers and their reporters. Editors of many newspapers opposed the Lincoln administration's decision to fight to preserve the Union, thereby causing the federal government to take over certain newspapers and asking others to stop publishing. In particular, newspapers from Chicago, Baltimore, and Philadelphia were taken over and operated by federal agents. Telegraph lines used for communication by the reporters were put under federal censorship in order to prevent military news from being published. Despite these restrictive changes made by the government, the newspapers still remained one of the main sources of information. Chicago newspapers were successful in reporting truthfully the battles of the Civil War. Chicago editors and reporters experienced many difficulties, doing their job under the most trying circumstances. Four Chicago newspapers (Chicago Tribune, Chicago Times, Chicago Journal, and Chicago Post) made a regular effort to obtain stories from correspondents covering the war front. The correspondents were paid for the stories. Among the four newspapers the Chicago Tribune was the leading Republican newspaper, rivalling the New York Tribune. In November 1861 the Chicago Tribune even made it a point to announce that "it spent more money for news telegrams and correspondents than any newspaper out of New York." The Chicago Tribune employed as many as twenty-nine correspondents throughout the country to report the happenings of the Civil War. During the Civil War, the Chicago Tribune was led by great editors of that time. In the first two-and-one-half years of the war, Charles H. Ray was the editor-in-chief. Ray was described as a "gentleman of intellectual culture, of fine social qualities, and in all respects a gentleman worth knowing." Ray's successor was Joseph Medill, "a ferocious disputant, a suitable trait in a man who was to leave his name imperishably linked with the 'World's Greatest Paper.' " He was described as a remarkable man who was outspoken and voiced his opinion often. At the same time, he was extremely considerate and helpful to others. He took the liberty to warn his successor at the paper, Edwin M. Stanton, on the horrors of the terrible Civil War and of the perils of remaining in the newspaper business at that time. All four Chicago newspapers employed the most capable reporters of the day to bring the battlefront news to the people. All reporters were uniformly excellent in their work, even though they differed from each other in the manner in which they wrote the stories. The common traits and differences among the reporters may be illustrated by recalling some aspects of the wartime stories written by four different reporters who worked for the Chicago newspapers. Henry Villard worked for the Tribune. He was a methodical and orderly Bavarian, and was not concerned with the drama of the war. His reports were ordinary, but factual. He paid a lot of attention to policies pertaining to the war and the military significance of individual battles. He believed his work as a journalist should be to study and criticize the decisions and work of army commanders. He did not pay much attention to the sufferings and emotions of individuals fighting the war. In many cases members of the same family were on opposite sides, fighting against one another, and such stories did not interest Villard. But he changed soon because of a crisis during the war. Secretary of War Charles A. Dana telegraphed a message to Washington on the causes of the defeat of the Union army at Chickamauga, which was promptly reported by Villard. Alarmed by the report, President Lincoln dispatched two army corps to reinforce the front. At the same time, he also halted the newspaper publications in the North. The halt made Villard travel to the battlefield to obtain accurate information on the defeat. Many officers sought Villard to tell their sides of the story. Based on this information, Villard sent several articles to Printing House Square for publication. He took a lot of interest in individuals and did not divulge the identity of officers who gave him the inside scoop. He protected the confidentiality of the sources, so that the officers would not get into difficulties. The crisis had changed Villard's way of reporting the war and brought into it new dimensions of including stories from officers and men fighting the battles. In contrast to Villard, the Chicago Daily Journal reporter, Benjamin Taylor, painted graphic pictures of battlefields that brought home the horrors of the war. Taylor was the son of a college president, and for a while he was the editor of the Journal. He ventured into the battlefield as a reporter and was awed and stunned by his experience in army camps, and while accompanying the army to a battle at Missionary Ridge and Lookout Mountain near Chattanooga. His reports from the battlefield were most eloquent and true and are representative of the ripe prose used by reporters of that time. A few lines are cited here. At half past twelve the order came—at 10 minutes before 2, 25,000 federal troops were in line for battle.
The line of skirmishes moved lightly out and swept true as a sword blade into the edge of the field. You should have seen the splendid line, two miles long, as straight and unwavering as a ray of lights. Shots of musketry, like the first great drops of summer rain upon a roof, pattered along the line. One fell here, another there, but still like joyous heralds before a royal progress, the skirmishes passed on. From wood and rifle pit, from rocky ledge and mountain top, 65,000 rebels watched these couriers bearing the gift of battle in their hands. Taylor had a faithful following among Chicago readers and "Chicagoans read his reports with increasing zest," according to one historian. It never made any difference it his pieces were timely or delayed. The vivid images he portrayed of battlefields pulled people deep into his articles. Other newspapers reprinted them. Even cabinet members in Washington read his articles regularly. Taylor had become the most widely read newspaper correspondent in the North. But, in May 1864, General Sherman expelled Taylor from the battlefield for giving too accurate a description of the Union line in one of his dispatches to the Journal. Reporters have to make difficult decisions in giving factual information and at the same time work under the rules of censorship. But if reporters are barred from the battlefront, then there is a danger that factual information may not become available. If they are allowed to visit the battlefront, then they may be injured or may even die. Civil War journalists were not protected from suffering physical injury and faced the same uncertainties about life as the battlefield soldier. Frank W. Reilly, a reporter for the Chicago Tribune, was working with a medical unit when he was wounded in the thigh. Despite the injury, Reilly managed to write two columns for publication in the Tribune. Villard learned about the misdeeds of the generals that contributed to battlefield losses, and he reported them. Publication of his paper was temporarily halted. But, other Civil War journalists got into trouble by exposing the mischief of generals, which had nothing to do with successes or failures of the battles. The case of Warren P. Isham, a daring young correspondent for the Chicago Times, is interesting and even humorous. He wrote a disrespectful piece about a brigadier general of the Union army. The general was patronizing an exclusive brothel in Memphis and was almost caught when a party of Confederate officers entered the same brothel. The general escaped through a rear window unnoticed by the Confederate officers. He concocted a tale to explain his peculiar situation to the guard at his own camp. Isham learned about the false story, did his own investigation, and reported the true story in the Times. When the Times copies arrived in Memphis the next day, military authorities suppressed the papers and put Isham in jail. He was convicted in a court martial for violating rules for wartime correspondents and was sentenced to three months imprisonment, which he served. Unlike Villard, Isham did not reveal any military secrets. Still he was punished. In conclusion, the reporters and editors of Illinois newspapers were a daring group of individuals who worked hard to bring a true picture of the horrors of the Civil War. They reported what they saw, sometimes in graphic terms, sometimes detailed, and at other times sketchy. The newspapers of the Civil War period played a very important role in informing people about the happenings at the battlefront. The technology of communication was not as advanced as it is today. In spite of that, the reporters tried hard to give timely reports. They used powerful prose to describe the battles. In contrast, modern-day news is reported rapidly, mostly by television. The images are graphic, and there is no need for eloquent descriptions. Finally, the Civil War journalists practiced very high standards of professional ethics. They were not afraid to tell the truth, and they protected the confidentiality of news sources. The standards established by the Civil War journalists are in practice even today.—[From Cutler J. Andrews, The North Reports the Civil War; Emmet Crozier, Yankee Reporters; Bernard A. Weisberger, Reporters for the Union; Lloyd Wendt, Chicago Tribune.]
|
|
|