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304 of all telegraphic messages from Washington relating to "the civil or military operations of the government", and it was understood that only a bare statement of the essential facts without extended comment would be allowed in the despatches. No mention of the criticism of for the  was permitted; the press was not allowed to say that senators and others of influence had urged Sherman's removal; a report of the dissatisfaction of the people of Minnesota at the withdrawal of their troops from the Mississippi Valley for the defense of the Atlantic river line was withheld from the wires, and the papers were to be silent regarding cabinet objections to 's official report. There was a free censorship of despatches of a political, personal, or general sort, and correspondents were deterred from sending messages whose publication seemed improbable.

It thus appears that from the outset of the war a censorship existed. Its habitat varied, for at different times it resided with the Treasury, War, and State departments. Though this censorship was so partial and feeble as to be ineffective, yet the inevitable outcry from the newspapers, with the equally inevitable echoes of sympathy in Congress, arose. The newspaper men complained of unreasonable strictness in the censoring of their despatches, of an unequal policy which benefited some papers at the expense of others, and of an occasional looseness which resulted in unfortunate "leaks". It was regarded as an outrage that a communication to the New York Tribune professing to give advance information as to the President's annual message to Congress should be "killed", while a despatch to the New York Herald with the same data should be allowed to go. Considering the instructions under which the censor was to keep back all news regarding the prior to the publication of the official correspondence between  and, it was considered unpardonable that the unpopular Russell of the London Times should be permitted to use the wires in transmitting to a friend intelligence that proved useful in stock trading. In harmony with complaints of this sort from the newspaper world, the Judiciary Committee of the House of Representatives, charged with an investigation of the telegraphic censorship, reported that wholesome political discussion and criticism were restrained, that numerous despatches were suppressed, that the censor was unequal to his position, and that the censorship had been carried too far.

As early as August 2, 1861, an attempt was made to obviate the necessity of undue official interference by the establishment of a