The herald., 1896-07-12
WAR TIME JOURNALISM

Just before the siege Atlanta leaped
into prominence as newspaper center.
The real population of the city at that
time was not over 15,O0O. put the reIu-
gees, confederate workmen and their
families swelled it to about $4,000. john
stons army of $4,000 men a few miles
away temporarily added a large element
which was of great Importance from
business, and especially from news
paper. point of view.
The newspapers flourished in those req
days.
Atlanta had six morning dailies and
one afternoon paper when Shermans
guns were booming on the banks OF the
Chattahoochee seven miles westward.
The Intelligencer, Southern Confeder-
acy, Gate City Guardian Reveille, APP
peal and Register were all good papers.
when the fact is considered that they
were published in small inland city.
about to undergo one of the nercest
sieges of the war. The commonwealth
was bright afternoon paper and the
Appeal and Register attracted a good
deal of attention because the former
hailed from Memphis. and the latter
from Knoxville. Tenn.
They were all four page sheets, with
five or six columns to the page, Wnen
they could get paper of the right size
but it was a common thing to see them
issue half sheets of brown wrapping pa
II,
on cheap wall paper. Their telegraphic
news service was very limited. ana TWO
columns of kilograms in an issue always
attracted attention. These kilograms
were never padded. and the result of
great battle was often told in four or
five printed lines.
In the local columns Of these war news
papers there was very little news, but
the editorial pages were always we'll
filled. Howell Cobb and L. Q. c. Lamar
frequently wrote the Registers editori-
ais, and Henry Watterson was for sew
eral months on the staff of the South
ern Confederacy, which achieved great
success under the management of Col
onel George w. Adair, who afterward
made a reputation as a dashing officer
in Forests cavalry.
At that time Watterson was SLIM
pale-faced young man, and he was any
thing but an enthusiastic worker. it
is quite likely that he saw the handwrit-
ing on the wall and knew that the cause
of the south was doomed. But there
were twenty writers on the Southern
Confederacy, and among them some who
felt hopeful and confident to the last
One of these was an old gentleman nam
ed Cardozo, whose financial articles
would make interesting reading just
now to the advocates of an inflated cur
rency. Cardozo had a scheme for MAX
ing Confederate money as good as gold.
him still explaining it to the public.
Very little space was then devoted to
miscellaneous reading matter, but the
poets were well represented, and some
very promising short story writer's came
to the front War editorials, however,
were the chief stock in trade of those
newspapers. and they owed their exist
ence to the fact that the confederate
leaders needed their aid in shaping pub
lie opinion.
Fifty cents a copy for a newspaper did
not profit its owners at time when
confederate money was almost worth
less. and advertising did not yield much.
Material and labor cost great deal,
and each office had numerous editors ana
compoSitorS whose services were not
really needed. Some of these journalists
never wrote line and were not expected
to do anything. They were men of some
means or influence who connected them
selves with newspapers in order to evade
the conscript law, which exempted news
paper proprietOrs and their employees.
Once when the printers on the Com
monwealth struck for higher wages
there was some trouble and considerable
fun. The business manager at once dis
charged the printers and notified the
conscript officer, who Immediately or
dered them to the camp of instruction.
The printers were not slow to retail
late. They made a point that the pro-
DuSlneSS I1dHdS6T ana eQlIOTS
of the paper were idle in consequence of
the strike, and were therefore not ex-
empt from military duty. The authori-
ties held similar view, and the result
was fresh batch of conscripts. This
did not suit either side and a compromise
was effected. The editors and printers
resumed work and the army lost more
than a score of able bodied men.
During the first two or three weeks
OF the siege the newspapers either sus-
pended or removed southwark The Ap-
peal retreated before the federals until
1t was finally captured in Alabama, its
whole outfit having been reduced to a
small job press and a few pounds of type.
The Intelligencer continued to issue
little sheet containing a column sum-
mary of the news until the day before
the city fell.
Before the bombardment commenced
the Atlanta papers ridicued the idea of
a siege and predicted that Sherman
would never cross the Chattahoochee
When the federals crossed the river the
confederate editors declared that they
were rushing into a trap set for their
destruction. Then came the siege, and
with 1t more editorial predictions to the
EJECT that the city could never be taken
Even when the exhausted confederates
marched out, it was claimed by the edi-
tors that the invaders would find the
place a second Moscow and would soon
De forced into disastrous retreat. They
were Jubilantly making these predic-
tions when Sherman laid the town in
ashes and started to the sea
Only few of Atlanta's war journalists
are now living. Henry Watterson is
among the two or three survivors who
nave stuck to journalism; the others are
real estate agents, insurance men or
retired capitalists. Not one of the old
papers is now in existence, and instead
OF supporting seven fiourishing dailies
this city of over 900 inhabitants is
satisfied with one morning paper, the
Constitution, and two afternoon papers.
the Journal and Commercial
a great newspaper center was destroy
ed when Sherman turned Atlanta into
pillar of fire by night and a cloud bv
day to guide his marching legions-Wal- |
lace Putnam Reed in Chicago Times
Herald.
Withdrawal
We regret that our young friend, w. |