Civil War and Secondary Sources

Much like what is going on currently in America, with COVID-19, during the time of the Civil War, America was in a similar situation- minus the war now.

During the Civil War, American did not know what to do. It was foreign territory, fighting against ourselves. Many people on each side of the fight were confused and upset, sometimes not knowing what was going on on each side, or their own. According to Thomas F. Carroll, who wrote "The Freedom of Speech and of the Press during the Civil War," America was very 'perplexed' and that showed in their journaling. Carroll also commented that during the Civil War that "every department of the Government was paralyzed by treason," (516). On both sides, nonetheless, since both sides felt the confusion and did not know who to trust or what to do.

He also mentions that each state was just ready to go right after each other no matter what. They only knew one thing: fighting, which made connection to the capitol hard, and eventually cut off. This made it hard for both sides, and the capitol to get information out to the public because no one really knew what was right. In Risley's Journal he talks about how journalism on each side was hard because both sides fabricated, well mostly the south, the news they would publish. They had problems with accuracy and truth during the war, especially the first year when journalism was taking off and the main form of anyone receiving news.

According to Risley's article, there was both opposition and enforcement of the war during the first years. I am not surprised by this, for many people had conflicting opinions that wanted to be heard through the press.
Something else that is worth noting is that one of the only things that kept the divided nation together were journalists and the press... The quote at the end of Risley's article sums this up perfectly, quoting Holmes, "We must have something to eat, and the paper to read. Everything else we can give up."

Eliza Richards, writer of Corresponding Lines: Poetry, Journalism, and the U.S. Civil War, has a different view, however, at how fast paced the news was, "the whole nation is now penetrated by the ramification of a network of iron nerves which flash sensation and volition backward and forward..." Richards is citing the press as a negative during the war because it is a mass overload that can easily overwhelm people. She really likes the analogy of the press being like a train during the war. With such overwhelming and mass amounts of information, the soldiers would hear about events that would take place and overthink it so much in their minds that it was like a train just going in circles for hours. This would take tolls on the soldiers, on both sides, mentally. They were so consumed about the news, even if they did not want to be, that is was impairing their judgement and focus.

In the end, the types of reporting between the north and the south may have been slightly different, with how factual everything was, but the press united both sides even though they were fighting against one nation. However good or bad that may be.




https://www.jstor.org/stable/1065306?seq=1#metadata_info_tab_contents
https://muse.jhu.edu/article/261611
https://www.essentialcivilwarcurriculum.com/civil-war-journalism.html