Military censorship of the press during the Civil War
Although Lincoln and his cabinet had some success in shutting down Northern newspapers which expressed opposing political viewpoints, he was far less successful in controlling the exposure of military information. Early in the war General George B. McClellan complained in a letter to the Secretary of War, Edwin M. Stanton, of the printing of his orders and the movements of his army in the press of the day, even as he was in direct confrontation with the enemy. Commanders of the Southern armies complained of similar difficulties keeping their plans and movements out of the Southern press.
More than 350 correspondents from Northern newspapers flooded the fronts during the Civil War, while their Southern contemporaries numbered about 150. All were under pressure from their editors to get stories and get them quickly. The use of the telegraph, carrier pigeons, and increasingly the railroads allowed stories to be filed and subsequently appear in print quickly. Often planned military movements were reported in the press before they were executed by the troops. Front line troops often exchanged coffee, tobacco, and newspapers with each other, ensuring both sides knew what the opposition was planning.
In response the Union Army attempted to impose news blackouts and established officers to review the stories being filed before they were sent. Reporters quickly found ways to circumvent those proscriptions, and the army established new barriers to submission. Denial of access to army telegraphers meant reporters had to use civilian facilities, paying as they went. Civilian telegrams were charged for by the word. Reporters had to change the manner in which they wrote. The flowery language prevalent in American newspapers prior to the Civil War gave way to the much more terse and economical language which prevailed in newspaper reporting through the twentieth century.
In February 1862 Congress passed legislation which allowed the President to seize control of the nation’s telegraph and rail facilities on a temporary basis in the event of a national emergency requiring such action. Edwin Stanton issued orders which made clear to all that telegraphic messages on the network relating to military operations were prohibited. He also made clear that any editor or reporter who violated the dictum would be banned from access to the network. Being cut off from the telegraph would initiate banishment from the railroads and the Post Office, effectively isolating the reporter from filing any stories.
Throughout the war the press and the government and military jockeyed for means of circumventing each other. Lincoln, and later US Grant, recognized the need to maintain good press relations to advance political agenda, and left the battle between the free press and the government to be fought by their underlings. Outright censorship was attempted many times, usually through cajoling and the promise of a quid pro quo, and seldom with the threat of reprisal. This led to many reporters, who were called “specials”, to file so-called eyewitness accounts of battles despite never getting to within fifty miles of the battlefield.