Page:American Historical Review, Vol. 23.djvu/316

306 ship, the transmission of "contraband" intelligence through the telegraph offices of Baltimore, Philadelphia, and New York was not prevented. Information of a highly confidential character might be suppressed in Washington and then sent over the wires from other points. When for instance a Tribune writer found that the Secretary of War had ordered the censor to suppress all news from Fredericksburg, the forbidden article was sent by messenger on a night train. Even after the control of the telegraph became general, messages could be freely sent by mail and this became the regular method by which news reporters conveyed their "copy". Excessive caution had to be exercised to prevent official despatches from being intercepted. Through a mysterious "leak" in the staff of, his telegrams to Halleck were immediately sent to New York and published. In consequence of this situation an order from to Pope directed that reporters be removed, and that no telegrams be sent over the wires except those sent by Pope himself. Everywhere throughout the war unauthorized news was continually finding its way into print through numerous unsealed channels.

In striking contrast with the feebleness of the censorship was the activity of the various news-gathering agencies. It is doubtful whether any war has ever been as fully "covered" as the Civil War. The leading New York dailies spent huge sums on their "war departments"—half a million being spent by the Herald alone—and an army of "specials" was placed in the field whose stories form a notable record of adventure and activity. We read of correspondents facing the battle-fire while writing from the field, carrying the confidential messages of men high in authority, making desperate rides to bring the first news of important events, entering the service as nurses or signal officers in order to secure the best opportunities for observation, adopting clever ruses to evade the guards or outwit rivals, writing steadily all night as sheet after sheet of "copy" was handed to the printers, and, in short, leading lives of thrilling excitement and of exacting strenuousness. The stories of Richardson and Browne of the Tribune running the blockade at Vicksburg, of Osbon, the Herald correspondent, hoisting 's signals as the Gulf squadron ran the gauntlet of the Confederate batteries at New Orleans, of Henry Villard bringing to Washington and to the Tribune the news of Fredericksburg after a perilous night ride through a "sea of mire", of Stedman, after