Republican news item. [volume] (Laport, Pa.) 1896-19??, 1898-05-12
CIVIL WAR EXTRAS.
THERE WERE FEW FAKE BULLETINS
IN THE DAYS OF '61.

How the News of the Firing on Fort sum-
ter Was Spread in a Lively Western Town
The Mysterious Horseman Who Carried
the Tidings.
II remember the news of the Begin
ming of the civil war as it came to our
town." said man who Is not yet vet
eran. II was about 16 years old. l
was returning home in the afternoon.
l saw coming toward me a horse rid
den, as 1 recall it, madly by man.
AS they came nearer heard the man
shouting. The horse was blowing like
a locomotive. l noticed that the man
rode bareback. Every time he yelled
he plunged his heels into the sides OF
the horse. | do not remember the eX-
act words of the rider, but they were
about war beginning. AS he rode
people in the street who saw him stop
ped, listened, and asked one another
about it, many windows along the way
were hoisted, and as proceeded home
ward the women who knew me called
from the lookouts and asked me what
llldl HILL ScllQ dOOut tuC wal.
when | reached home / found my
mothers parlor scene of confusion.
The neighbors had called in to tell her
what they knew and to ask what she
knew about the war. The negroes
about our house were frightened. One
of them took refuge in the cellar and
came out only after she had been
threatened. Her fear was the 'abo-
lishiners' The word Yankee as an
approbious epithet had not at that time
come into use.
There were two newspapers in the
town and each one got out what was
called an extra 1t was not much like
the extra of this generation. The news
of the firing on Sumter consisted of
less than 200 words, was printed on a
small slip of white newspaper and was
set in the same width as the columns
of the papers which issued them. There
was no advertisement or other news on
the slips. These extras sold for 20
cents a piece. From that time until
the close of the war that was the sort
of extra that was issued by the papers
in the town where l lived.
"a long time afterward l heard talk
about the man who rode the horse and
who spread the news. He was the son
of the town miller. l never heard
where he got his information, but as
soon as he heard it he mounted the
horse that had been hitched to the rack
in front of the mill and carried the
news of his own accord. There were
four boys in that miller's family. They
enlisted early for the Confederate
cause. Not one of them returned. The
one who spread the news was killed
somewhere in the Wilderness; at
least, he was known to go into one of
the engagements of that series of stub
born fights and never came out. His
body was never identified.
Il recall that at the time of the fire
on Sumter, many of our people were
still on the fence, as we said. The
Lincoln electors had received few votes
in the town. 1t was Breckenridge
section. l remember that the tendency
was in favor of the preservation of the
Union, but the people were afraid of
Lincoln. At that time they believed
he had been elected for no other pur-
pose than that of freeing the niggers
and stealing the horses And so it
happened that negroes and horses were
locked up often at night, together, not
in the same room, of course, but often
in adjoining rooms in the outhouses.
have often thought that, if the people
had understood Lincoln in the begin
ming of the war as they came to know
him later, many man who went South
would have fought for the Union. And
if am correct in that, would the war
have lasted as long as it did?
81 remember gathering at the
house of my father one evening in
Scott was discussed. Some present had
been with Scott in Mexico. 1t was the
consensus Of that gathering, and this
was before the Bull Run fight, that
Napoleon came first and Winfield Scott
second. What an impression that
udue Ou my uihu. lelAeuiDeI uedI-
ing one of the Scott enthusiasts say
that Scott would end the war in one
fight.
II shall never forget the news of the
first Bull Run fight. My people had
arranged to leave the town on a short
vacation, but this news kept them at
home. The second days news gave
more particulars. 1t told of the rout-
ing of the Union Army. And then
saw something in human nature which
l had never seen before, OF which
knew nothing. ! saw the fence cleared,
to take up the old metaphor. And ev-
cry man and family came off to join
the Southern cause. l recall that Scott
was called a granny, and very soon af-