As the second year of the Civil War was drawing to a close, John S. Thrasher faced the biggest challenge of his already exciting journalistic career. The forty-six-year-old Thrasher had just been named superintendent of the newly created Press Association of the Confederate States of America. Since the beginning of the war, editors of the South's newspapers had struggled to find an effective means of gathering and distributing telegraphic news. The wide-ranging fighting taking place, coupled with the fact that few Southern journals employed full-time correspondents, had made reporting the war extremely difficult since the loss of the Associated Press in 1861. By March 1863, however, Confederate editors finally seemed to have settled on an effective system--and in Thrasher they had found the man with the energy and experience to direct the organization.(1)

The superintendent immediately determined that the P.A.--as it came to be known--needed guidelines for the reporting and writing of news reports to be sent over the wires. Thrasher instructed that all telegraphic stories should be written clearly and concisely, and that they should be free of opinion and comment. He ordered correspondents to transmit news immediately and, in the event of a developing event such as a major battle, to send regular updates. Reporters should take care not to reveal Confederate military secrets, he instructed, while cultivating sources within the army to ensure that the P.A. always reported news first.(2)

Thrasher proudly claimed that the Press Association's news gathering and reporting practices represented a "complete revolution" in Southern journalism. They were, in fact, a significant change for journalists in a region of the country where timely news reporting traditionally had taken a back seat to partisan editorial opinion, even among the region's largest daily newspapers.(3) Yet a close reading of the association's published telegraphic reports reveals that while correspondents successfully followed some of the superintendent's guidelines, others proved to be more troublesome.(4) This was hardly surprising considering the dearth of experienced correspondents in the South, the difficulties they faced in reporting the war, and the fact that nineteenth-century American journalists in general drew no firm distinction between reporting and editorializing.(5)

This study traces the development of cooperative newsgathering in the Confederacy, while also examining the Press Association's attempt to introduce new standards for reporting and writing of telegraphic news.(6) A study of the cooperative newsgathering practices in the Confederacy provides insight into the developing standards of American journalism at mid-century. Moreover, the persistence of Southern editors in securing a mutual arrangement for telegraphic news--and the attempt to established principles for reporting and writing that news--was a signal that the journalism practiced in the region was beginning to emerge from the old partisan practices that had dominated newspapers for so long.

Six days after the surrender of Fort Sumter, a detachment of U.S. Army soldiers marched into the office of the American Telegraph Company office in Washington, D.C., and quietly took possession of the office. Although most Southern editors still were dizzy with excitement over the victory at Charleston, it did not take them long to recognize the impact of the event: the South's main source of vital telegraphic news--the Associated Press--had been lost.(7) Confederate editors realized that a reliable Southern replacement for the A.P. would be needed if newspapers were to receive timely and trustworthy news of the fighting.

Cooperative newsgathering in the South dated back to 1847, when a group of editors banded together to pay the cost of receiving telegraphic news. On the eve of the war, two lines served the South. The American Telegraph Company's trunk line extended from New York through Washington to Richmond, Raleigh, Columbia, Macon, Montgomery, and Mobile. The Southwestern Telegraph Company's line extended from Louisville through Tennessee, Alabama, and Mississippi to New Orleans. William H. Pritchard operated the South's principal telegraphic news agency. The editor of the Augusta (Georgia) Constitutionalist, Pritchard also had served as the A.P.'s agent in Georgia, South Carolina, and Alabama since 1856, coordinating the distribution of news to members in those states.(8)

For the most part, however, Southern papers had been recipients and not originators of telegraphic news in the decades prior to the Civil War. Despite the modernizing influences of the so-called "penny press," the South's newspapers remained largely partisan, emphasizing opinion as opposed to news. Few of the region's papers employed correspondents to gather news on a regular basis. In fact, stories and editorials clipped from newspaper "exchanges" still comprised the bulk of reading material found in most Southern papers right up to the eve of the war.(9)

Soon after the war began and the American Telegraph Company's line to the South was severed, the Southern section was reorganized as the Southern Telegraph Company. Around the same time, the lines were severed of the Southwestern Telegraph Company, which extended from Louisville south through Kentucky, Tennessee, Alabama, Mississippi, and Louisiana. A separate Confederate headquarters for the Southwestern Telegraphic Company was set up in Nashville.(10) Recognizing that vital news would emanate from the new Confederate government, Pritchard, the former A.P. agent, had set up an office in Montgomery early in 1861. When the government transferred to Richmond, he moved his office there. However, Pritchard contracted diphtheria and died in Richmond on March 24, 1862. His son, William H. Pritchard, Jr., took over the telegraphic news operation that had become known as the Southern Associated Press.(11)

Even before the elder Pritchard's death, however, editors had expressed increasing dissatisfaction with the high cost and poor quality of the dispatches sent by the Confederacy's news gathering agency. The Memphis Appeal said there was "universal complaint" with "the present unorganized and imbecile arrangement." The telegraphic news reports were "vague and unsatisfactory, unmeaning, unreliable, and, in many instances, flagitiously false," the newspaper claimed. "They come to us in a roundabout way, after two or three repetitions by as many agents, thus securing exaggeration as well as additional expense."(12) The Augusta Chronicle and Sentinel declared: "The present `associated press' as a vehicle of news, has become nearly useless. If, by chance, any thing of importance is transmitted, we, in many cases, find that it has been anticipated by mail. We often received news from Richmond by the papers within an hour or two after we have received the same by telegraph, and the dispatches from the West, via Nashville are generally utterly useless."(13)

The Charleston Mercury joined several other Confederate newspapers in calling for a meeting of editors to discuss setting up an alternative service. "It is high time for the journals of the South to be making arrangements for a permanent, extended, better organized, and, at the same time, more economic agency," the Mercury noted. In January 1862, the editors of six daily papers met in Atlanta to discuss setting up a new mutual association. The editors agreed that a more systematic arrangement was needed to secure reliable service and they decided to meet again in March. Although that meeting took place, the editors apparently made little progress toward securing suitable arrangements.(14)

In the meantime, problems continued with the telegraphic reports, causing Confederate editors to grow increasingly impatient and angry. Wild rumors regularly found their way into news reports.(15) Additionally, when the Southern Associated Press sent a story from the battlefield to members, more often than not it arrived days late. The first reliable report on the Confederate victory at Second Bull Run on August 29 and 30 was not published in the Richmond Daily Dispatch until September 5. More than a week after the Confederacy lost at the Battle of Antietam, Southern Associated Press reports did not know the whereabouts of Gen. Robert E. Lee's Army of Northern Virginia. The telegraphic reporting provided from the Battle of Seven Pines so outraged James R. Sneed, editor of the Savannah Republican, that he vented his anger in the columns of his newspaper. "Whilst private individuals are telegraphing important information from Richmond concerning the late battles," he wrote, "we would be glad to know what the individual is doing who has set himself up at the capital as the agent of the Press and regularly comes forward with a bill for his services."(16)

Apparently frustrated at the lack of progress toward a cooperative arrangement, the editors of four Richmond newspapers--the Dispatch, Enquirer, Examiner, and Whig--established their own mutual news agency in November 1862. Known as the Richmond Associated Press, the agency had its headquarters in the Confederate capital and was led by John Graeme, editor of the Dispatch. A notice in the Dispatch said that all the resources of the association would be used to appoint news correspondents "at every important point in the Confederacy." Moreover, special arrangements would be made to obtain news from the Confederate army as well as the North. The notice claimed that a "large majority of the daily journals" in the Confederacy had united to form the new Associated Press.(17)

Despite the claims of the Dispatch, there seemed to be little agreement that the Richmond arrangement would serve the needs of the Confederate press any better. Moreover, the news reports distributed by the Richmond Associated Press differed little from those provided by the old system. The telegraphic stories from Fredericksburg provided by the Richmond Associated Press were more timely than many other major battles fought during the year, but still were generally incomplete. There also was little in the way of follow-up reporting from the battlefield, as later accounts of Fredericksburg depended almost entirely on Northern papers. Recognizing the problems, the editor of the Atlanta Southern Confederacy lamented that "the persons employed by the press and well paid to send us news, have proven themselves incompetent to the task."(18)

Apparently resolved to finally set up an effective newsgathering arrangement, a group of Southern editors met again on January 5, 1863, this time in Macon, Georgia. The group sent out a notice to every daily newspaper in the Confederacy asking editors to meet the following month in Augusta. Editors of twelve papers came to the meeting on February 4 and 5; three more were represented by proxy. The editors approved a constitution, elected officers, agreed to hire a superintendent, and settled on a name: the Press Association of the Confederate States of America. The editors elected R. W. Gibbes of the Columbia South Carolinian as president. According to its constitution, the Press Association's purpose was "to arrange, put in operation, and keep up an efficient system of reporting news by telegraph ... under the exclusive control and employed for the exclusive benefit of the members." Any daily newspaper published in the Confederacy could become a member upon paying an initiation fee of fifty dollars. Each member newspaper had one vote in the election of president, secretary/ treasurer, and board of directors. The board would establish policy of the association, and hire a superintendent and correspondents. It also would assess members "fairly and equitably" for the cost of operating the association.(19)

The board hired Thrasher as superintendent, and he took over the post on March 9. Thrasher apparently plunged into his new job with great enthusiasm and worked diligently to establish the association. During a six-week period, he traveled to many of the Confederacy's key news centers, including Charleston, Atlanta, Montgomery, Mobile, Jackson, and Vicksburg. He hired correspondents to report from Richmond and Charleston, as well as from some of the Confederacy's largest armies, including those of Lee and Braxton Bragg. To secure reporters, who were paid twenty-five dollars a week, Thrasher ran notices such as one that appeared in the Atlanta Southern Confederacy: "Desiring to extend the connections of the Press Association, gentlemen having experience as reporters or correspondents for newspapers, may contribute by sending me by mail information of their previous experience, present residence, customary terms for business and whether short hand writers or not."(20) By the summer the Association had about twenty correspondents scattered from Virginia to Mississippi, men whom one paper described as being "for the most part men of intelligence, judgment, and well acquainted with the wants of the press."(21)

Thrasher admonished his reporters on the importance of "securing early, full, and reliable" telegraphic news. P.A. correspondents were to write clearly and concisely, using short sentences and avoiding ambiguous words. The superintendent ordered that all reports should be free of opinion and comment. He urged correspondents "to sift reports" and "to not send unfounded rumors as news." Finally, he warned correspondents to "see that you are not beaten" by reporters from other journals. Thrasher took great pride in his orders, calling them a "complete revolution" in the work practices of Southern journalism. "It has been left to our young Confederation, to exhibit to the world the first instance of the entire Press of a people combining in one body to prosecute the labors of its high mission ...," he wrote to P.A. members.(22)

In later instructions, Thrasher instructed correspondents that they represented the "whole daily press" of the Confederacy and that they should request "early intelligence of events." Correspondents were to transmit all news that in their judgment could be published without harming the military effort of the Confederate army. Thrasher warned that the "greatest caution" should be exercised in reporting troop movements and, in all cases, commanding generals should be consulted about information considered appropriate for transmission. In the event censors refused to approve a story, Thrasher told reporters to send him a copy, along with the name and rank of the person prohibiting the transmission and the reason given. When news of "absorbing public interest" occurred, correspondents were to transmit "four or five reports" during the course of a day. Finally, to maintain good relations with their sources, correspondents were expected to visit them "twice daily" and "freely exchange news" so the reporters might get information in return. To create good will with government sources, Thrasher instructed correspondents to supply governors of the states where they worked with any information of interest that was transmitted to association members.(23)

An important aspect of the Press Association was the insistence of organizers that it be a truly cooperative news organization. Although the superintendent hired correspondents to be stationed at "points of interest," the P.A. expected its members to send "all news of interest occurring in their vicinity" at times when no correspondent was available. Terms did not prohibit "individual enterprise" if a member wanted to make arrangements with another paper to receive special news dispatches. However, members could not exclude other member papers from joint participation on equal terms.(24)

In March, telegraphic service began to thirty-one daily newspapers in the Confederacy, the majority of which had subscribed to the old Richmond Associated Press. By May, the number of member papers had grown to forty-four, including four dailies in Richmond. In a report to the board, Thrasher declared that the list comprised "every daily journal in the Confederacy." With the board's approval, Thrasher moved his office to Atlanta, a city that he said combined "the advantages of a central geographic position" and also allowed "communication by telegraph and rail with all parts of the country.(25)

No sooner had the Press Association formed than Thrasher and the organization confronted major challenges to telegraphic news coverage during the spring and summer of 1863. It soon became clear that in spite of the superintendent's organizational efforts, telegraphic reporting in the Confederacy had plenty of hurdles to overcome. The P.A.'s stories on the Battle of Chancellorsville drew heavily from the news columns of the Richmond newspapers that, in turn, had taken much of their information from the Northern press. For his part, the editor of the Augusta Constitutionalist expressed outrage at the "ridiculously and pitifully false accounts" of the battle that he received from the Press Association and refused to print them in his newspaper.(26)

To its credit, the P.A. provided almost daily reports during the long siege of Vicksburg. Still, the stories contained numerous problems. Most of the telegraphic dispatches never gave an accurate picture of the seriousness of the Union threat to the so-called "Gibraltar of the South." By spring 1863, soldiers and civilians in the city suffered tremendously from the Federal stranglehold. Yet news reports repeatedly told of how "plenty" of provisions existed. Moreover, stories of the fighting around Vicksburg variously reported the wholly unfounded reports that 10,000 Union troops had been killed, and that 40,000 more had been captured.(27)

No doubt a major reason for the problems was that many of the reports on Vicksburg came from the Press Association reporter in Jackson, Mississippi, who was cut off from regular communication with the city and had to depend on the accounts of people who had left. The Vicksburg Citizen provided some news of the fighting, but the paper had its own problems to deal with. Nonetheless, the Richmond Examiner's editor referred to the P.A. reports from Jackson as "an unintelligible compound of gas, braggadocio, blunder, absurdity and impossibility." He also accused the P.A. correspondent of wild exaggeration in reporting enemy losses. The news that the city had surrendered on July 4 reached Jackson three days later and opened with the simple sentence: "Vicksburg has fallen."(28)

As the siege of Vicksburg drew to a climax, the Association was trying to report on the Confederacy's latest invasion of the North. To be sure, reporting the fighting was made difficult because, once across the Potomac River, Southern correspondents did not have access to friendly telegraphic lines. Moreover, only one Press Association reporter accompanied the Army of Northern Virginia as it marched into Pennsylvania and fought at Gettysburg July 1-3. Early telegraphic accounts of the battle were not distributed to P.A. members until July 5 and then were taken from Northern newspapers. The following day's report gave some sense of the pivotal battle, referring to it as "the bloodiest fight of the war." But the same account also credited Lee's army with capturing 40,000 Union troops. During the next two days, the P.A. provided sketchy information about the outcome of Gettysburg, but one dispatch also acknowledged that, "Everything is so indefinite that it is impossible to form a correct idea of the fight." By July 9, the Press Association was quoting Northern newspapers that Lee had been "badly defeated" at Gettysburg. A later story that same day acknowledged that the news of Vicksburg and Gettysburg had a "depressing effect" on the residents of Richmond. However, the same accounts contended there was "no excitement" over the defeat and added, "The citizens are hopeful and confident."(29)

A more complete picture of what happened at the two battles gradually emerged in telegraphic dispatches provided to P. A. member papers during the rest of July. One story told of how Rebel troops at Vicksburg were eating little more than bread and mule meat in the final days of the siege. Another story from Richmond described the devastating casualties at Gettysburg not only among the army's enlisted soldiers, but also the officers.(30)

Despite the problems with many reports, Press Association reporters seemed to heed Thrasher's warning about sifting truth from fiction. Correspondents, on the whole, did not write the kind of atrocity stories about the Union Army regularly found in Confederate newspapers during the war. As they were instructed, P.A. reporters avoided using the first person in their telegraphic accounts. They also were generally successful at following Thrasher's instructions to keep their opinions out of stories and stick to the facts.(31)

While some of Thrasher's ideas for the Press Association succeeded, others clearly did not work as well. The superintendent had become concerned about the cost of transmitting stories over the telegraph and sought various means to save money. He believed that "several classes of words" could be deleted from stories without unduly changing their meaning. Articles, pronouns, prepositions, conjunctions, and auxiliary verbs constituted about two-fifths of the words used by good writers, he claimed, and more than one-half of the words used by bad and careless writers. Thrasher instructed correspondents to "Read every message over after writing it out, and purge it of every word not required to convey your meaning; and see where you can use one word to express what you have put in two or three. Omit articles, pronouns, prepositions, conjunctions, and auxiliary verbs, when by so doing the plain sense of your meaning will not be lost." He offered several examples, including the following (the italicized words would be those omitted):

   OKALONA, April 25--Our cavalry engaged the enemy yesterday at Birmingham.
   The fight lasted 2 1/2 hours. The enemy were completely routed, with 15
   killed and a large number wounded. Col. Hatch of the 2d Iowa cavalry was
   seen to fall from his horse, which ran into our lines and was captured. Our
   loss was one killed and twenty wounded. The destruction of the bridge
   prevented pursuit.

By eliminating the italicized words, Thrasher said, fifty-four words would be used as compared to sixty-nine, resulting in savings that would lower costs to members if reporters practiced the system regularly. Criticism from association members, however, forced Thrasher to soon abandon his idea.(32)

Certainly, Southern editors certainly made great use of the daily telegraphic news items they received from the Press Association. On many days, subscribing papers used a dozen or more dispatches in a single issue. Because of page layout considerations, several items might be nothing more than updated dispatches from the same locale. The old, outdated stories were never removed. In fact, some issues would have a series of dispatches with headlines such as, "News from the Front," "Good News from the Front," and "Latest News from the Front." The vast majority of dispatches provided by the P.A. dealt with news of the war, but mixed in occasionally were news items from Richmond, such as congressional action or a speech by the president. Telegraphic news unrelated to the war was rare, but sometimes member papers provided news of a major fire or the death of a prominent citizen.

Some of the most thorough reporting by the Press Association came during the series of naval battles in Charleston harbor in the summer and fall of 1863. The P.A.'s correspondent, B. R. Riordan, provided daily accounts of the heavy Federal shelling of Fort Sumter, Battery Wagner, and later Charleston itself. In some cases, Riordan filed as many as three telegraphic reports to members in a single day. The correspondent spared few details in describing the fighting, often mentioning the precise number of Union shells fired at the harbor's various defenses. In one story, he reported that Fort Sumter's flagstaff had been destroyed six times during shelling in August and, as a result, the Confederate flag was flying from the ruins of one wall. Of course, he still fell victim to some inaccuracies in the rush to inform his public. Later, he reported the news that the 54th Massachusetts Regiment was garrisoning Battery Wagner in the harbor and that the Massachusetts state flag flew over it. The assault by the Massachusetts regiment, however, had failed and the fort remained in Confederate hands until 1865.(33)

By September, the news focus increasingly was on eastern Tennessee and northern Georgia. At the same time, the Press Association was confronted with a new obstacle: an uncooperative Confederate command. General Bragg, who commanded the Army of Tennessee, had a long-running feud with reporters and earlier in the summer had imposed strict censorship rules after a series of defeats. By the time Bragg's army had been forced to retreat again and evacuate Chattanooga, relations with correspondents had reached the breaking point. Press Association reporter Will O. Woodson became one of the first reporters to feel the general's wrath and was barred from reporting from the army. The opening line of the P.A.'s dispatch on September 16 told the story: "There is no communication allowed the Bragg's army." Three days later, the Battle of Chickamauga began with one full-time correspondent on hand to report the fighting. Superintendent Thrasher, who was back in Atlanta, had to compile stories about the Confederate victory based on information gleaned from wounded soldiers and others who had returned from the fighting. Not surprisingly, the dispatches were often incomplete and reported erroneous information, including that Maj. Gen. John B. Hood had been killed.(34)

The Rebel triumph at Chickamauga did not ease Bragg's feud with the press. The Confederate commander still refused to admit a Press Association reporter to the army, forcing Thrasher to continue compiling incomplete telegraphic reports from Atlanta. In the days following the battle, as both sides faced off in Chattanooga, the P.A. corrected some erroneously reported information, including the rumor of Hood's death. The Association reported the visit of President Jefferson Davis to Atlanta in early October, but could not cover his visit to Bragg's army in Chattanooga a few days later. The P.A. also was unable to learn the main purpose of the president's visit to the army, which was to investigate complaints about Bragg's leadership and whether he should be removed from command. Several brief P.A. stories hinted that changes might be made in the army, but they did not report the dissension within the command. Without its own correspondent in Chattanooga, most of the reporting provided to Association members was taken from correspondent Samuel Chester Reid's dispatches to the Atlanta Intelligencer. However, Reid had experienced his own difficulties with Bragg in the past and had his own problems in reporting from the army.(35)

The Press Association's report on the Battle of Missionary Ridge, which was written by Reid, downplayed the seriousness of the devastating Confederate defeat during the two days of fighting at Chattanooga. The account gave no indication of the tremendous geographic advantage that Southern troops enjoyed on the ridge or that once Union troops reached the top of Missionary Ridge, the Southern army turned and fled. Reid noted that the Confederate casualties were "severe," but that the "enemy's loss was unusually great." A follow-up story the next day, written from the reports of officers who had traveled to Atlanta, likewise gave little indication of the seriousness of the defeat. It claimed that the loss of Missionary Ridge resulted from the "sheer force of numbers." Moreover, the report made the startling claim that the Union Army had suffered 20,000 casualties during the two days of fighting, compared to only 1,000 for the South. Less than a week after the loss at Chattanooga, the Press Association reported that General Bragg, at his own request, had been relieved as commander of the Army of Tennessee. The army, which had been forced to abandon Chattanooga, had set up a new headquarters near Dalton, Georgia.(36) Despite the problems in reporting some of the major campaigns of years past, as 1864 opened Thrasher was buoyed by the success of the Press Association. In a report to the board, he claimed that it was "the first known instance of an union of the whole press of a country for the purpose of collecting and diffusing intelligence of general interest to the people." The superintendent contended that the work of the association had done much to ensure the "preservation of journalism" in the Confederate states.(37)

Yet it was becoming clear that 1864 would be a difficult year for the P.A.--and also for the Confederacy. At the group's first annual meeting on April 6 in Augusta, the turning tide of the war clearly occupied everyone's mind. President Gibbes welcomed members by noting that the press could help the South's cause by maintaining unanimity in support of the Confederate government and reminding readers of the sacrifices required. Members changed their minds and voted to permit weekly and semi-weekly newspapers in the Confederacy to join the association. Non-daily papers would be permitted to print all telegraphic reports provided by the P.A. at a rate of one-fifth of the amount assessed to the daily press. Superintendent Thrasher reported that eleven weekly and semi-weekly newspapers had applied for membership. A troubling development was the absence of the Richmond press from the annual meeting. Thrasher reported that the publishers of the city's newspapers had announced their intention to leave the Association and set up a separate cooperative news arrangement. The Richmond papers cited the cost of membership in the association and the poor quality of telegraphic news as the chief reasons for wanting to quit.(38)

Since January, the Press Association had been carrying almost daily reports from northern Georgia, where the Union and Rebel armies had settled into their winter quarters and occasionally skirmished. Spring brought increasing conjecture in the telegraphic reports about a campaign against Atlanta, which began on May 7. It soon became clear that Confederate reporters, including those with the Press Association, were going to have more problems reporting the fighting. Bragg's successor, Gen. Joseph E. Johnston, imposed censorship on all news from the army. Military authorities ordered that control of censorship be taken away from the provost marshal and given to the inspector general, who was far stricter in what he allowed to be sent over the wires. In May, Thrasher traveled to the army's headquarters to get daily press service restored. But the trip apparently accomplished little because most of the dispatches over the next several weeks originated from Atlanta. Many of the stories used information taken from second-hand sources. The superintendent also apparently had difficulty with his correspondents because in late May he sent two "competent" men on horseback to report from either wing of the army.(39)

Despite Thrasher's admonition that correspondents stick to the facts, a clear sense of morale building was evident in many of the Press Association accounts as the fighting moved closer to Atlanta. Correspondents seemed increasingly sensitive to the criticisms that Johnston's army was retreating. A telegraphic story in mid-May took pains to note, "We are prepared at all points to meet the enemy. Our forces in front of Dalton are intact. The rumors of our falling back are false.... Our army is confident, hopeful and buoyant." Three weeks later, another Press Association dispatch said that the "army is not and has not been retreating, as reported, but follows the enemy on the arc of a circle, as he moves from left to right."(40)

In the three weeks prior to the Battle of Kennesaw Mountain, the P.A. correspondents sent back daily reports on the fighting, often several reports a day. The story of Maj. Gen. Leonidas K. Polk's death was transmitted immediately and contained important details. Likewise, the P.A. report of Kennesaw, the largest battle of the campaign to date and a setback for the Union Army, vividly described the intense fighting that took place, as well as individual acts of heroism and compassion.(41) Despite the Rebel victory at Kennesaw, the Federal army's constant flanking forced Johnston's army to continue falling back toward Atlanta. Although the P.A. correspondents avoided outright comment, they seemed compelled to make sure readers did not get discouraged by the news. A July 12 story, that described the Union army crossing the Chattahoochee River just north of the city, nonetheless ended by noting, "Everything is working right. The highest confidence prevails." The news that President Davis replaced Johnston with Hood was reported the day it happened in a brief, straight-forward report.(42)

Three weeks later, after the Confederacy had suffered a series of defeats around the city, the Press Association dispatch went so far as to proclaim, "Atlanta is safe. All are hopeful and in the best of spirits." Probably because of telegraph difficulties, news of Atlanta's capture did not appear on the P.A. wires until September 4 and then only in a brief, incomplete story. A slightly longer story the following day told how the Confederate Army had exploded its extra ammunition and burned supplies in the city not needed by troops. Despite the gloomy news, the Press Association story ended on a hopeful note saying, "While the fall of Atlanta is regretted, the army and people are not at all discouraged."(43)

More problems appeared the following month when the P.A. transmitted a widely published story claiming that the town of Allatoona, Georgia, with 4,000 Union troops had been captured by General Hood's army. The story also stated that Sherman's supply line had been destroyed and the general was cut off from the main portion of his army. The story was completely false. In fact, Rebel troops under the command of Maj. Gen. Samuel G. French withdrew after being unable to capture the Federal depot at Allatoona, the Confederate army's first setback since evacuating Atlanta. General Sherman was miles away at Kennesaw Mountain.(44)

With Georgia's press in disarray, by mid-October the Press Association depended almost entirely on Northern papers for news from the fighting in the state. The first clue of Sherman's plans after capturing Atlanta appeared in the Augusta Chronicle and Sentinnel on November 19. The P.A. story was based on a report in the Chicago Times that said the 75,000-man Federal army planned to sweep through Georgia and South Carolina. The story also gave an indication of how Sherman planned to conduct his march, noting that the army would live off the land before destroying anything of value.(45)

The Press Association's reporting of fighting in Virginia during the spring and summer met some of the superintendent's goals, yet was far from what he would have liked. On May 5, the P.A. reported that Gen. Ulysses S. Grant's army had crossed the Rapidan River to begin a new campaign. However, that was the last time the Wilderness and Spotsylvania campaigns were reported with any degree of timeliness or completeness. Despite being aware that a new campaign was about to begin, the P.A. reporter left for the front on May 7 after the major fighting at the Wilderness was over. Union soldiers also severed two telegraphic lines south of Richmond, cutting off communication to the lower South. News accounts provided to member papers came from Savannah Republican correspondent Peter W. Alexander, who had proven to be one of the best reporters in the Confederacy but did not do his best work during the campaign. Reports of the fighting around Spotsylvania Courthouse likewise suffered from problems. News accounts greatly exaggerated the extent of Federal casualties, in one instance reporting that 20,000 troops had been lost, and in another claiming a loss of 45,000 men.(46)

Thrasher no doubt was more pleased with the reporting of the ensuing battles of Cold Harbor and Petersburg. The P.A. quickly reported Lee's victory over Grant at Cold Harbor and did not overestimate Union losses. News of the initial battle of the Petersburg campaign was provided by a local newspaper, the Petersburg Express, in accordance with guidelines calling for members to provide news in their locale. By June 20, after repeated Union assaults on Petersburg failed, a Press Association report correctly hinted that the campaign would not be settled quickly.(47)

By August, four of Richmond's five daily newspapers--the Dispatch, Enquirer, Examiner, and Sentinel--had carried out their threat to leave the Confederate Press Association. In September, they announced the formation of the Mutual Press Association with James W. Lewellen of the Dispatch as president. Organizers apparently wanted to reduce news-gathering costs by having member papers report news on a reciprocal basis. Member newspapers would agree to pay five dollars a month in advance and to provide to the Mutual Press Association's Richmond agent all the important news from their vicinity. The impact of the Richmond newspapers leaving the Press Association is difficult to determine. The P.A. still had a correspondent in the capital to report on the Congress and administration. Moreover, members of the Confederate press had repeatedly complained about the unwillingness of the Richmond press to cooperate with the P.A. The editor of the Macon Telegraph and Confederate dismissed the plan of the Richmond papers and noted that the four had never provided much news from the capital to the Press Association anyway. If the newspapers were successful in forming their own mutual association, he wrote, "the public will have to thank" those papers if the Confederate press contained "only the meagre [sic] and semi-occasional dispatches which are to be found in the Enquirer, Examiner, Dispatch, and Sentinel."(48)

While Thasher contended with a rebellious Richmond press, the superintendent was on the move. Threatened by Sherman's army, he and the rest of Atlanta's press fled south to the safety of Macon. With travel and communications to the north blocked from Atlanta, Thrasher decided in September to visit the trans-Mississippi area. In his absence, Graeme, the P.A.'S Richmond agent, directed business affairs. By the time of Thrasher's return in January, a significant portion of the Confederate press had been silenced, making the work of the Press Association all the more difficult. Adding to the problems was the Union Army, which had destroyed hundreds of miles of telegraphic lines in the South. Most of the news the P.A. managed to send over the telegraph reported on the work of the Confederate Congress. The news that a Confederate delegation discussed peace negotiations was reported in several brief and incomplete stories, as was the case with the news that the negotiations had failed. The Press Association reports largely were taken from Northern papers. Inaccuracy still plagued some of the reporting by the P.A. For example, a dispatch in March erroneously reported that 6,000 Union troops had been killed during fighting at Bentonville, North Carolina.(49)

By April, the Press Association was on the verge of collapse, along with the rest of the Confederacy. The news that Richmond had been evacuated on April 2 was not transmitted for two days. The story originated from Danville, the temporary capital of the Confederacy, and for the next week Danville became the main source of news from the fighting in Virginia. But there were still problems in learning the results of the fighting and transmitting dispatches. On April 9, the day Lee surrendered at Appomattox Courthouse, the Press Association sent a story saying there had been heavy fighting in the area a day earlier. The news of Lee's surrender--taken from Northern newspaper accounts--did not appear in many Southern papers for more than a week. It mattered little, however, because by that point, few newspapers in the South were still publishing.(50)

With the war over, the Confederate Press Association came to an abrupt end. For various reasons, including the destruction of so many telegraph lines in the South, Associated Press service was not immediately resumed to most of the old Confederate journals. That did not pose a major problem because even before the war ended, many Southern newspapers had suspended publishing either because of a lack of employees, inadequate supplies, or Federal occupation. The Associated Press restored service to most newspapers in the old Confederacy by autumn and, in a few cases, by the end of the year.(51)

The history of cooperative news gathering in the Confederacy had been marked by repeated frustration mixed with some accomplishments. The South's press clearly had struggled to find a suitable mutual arrangement for gathering and transmitting telegraphic news. The most ambitious and longest lasting system, the Press Association of the Confederacy, dealt with a host of problems in reporting news of the war. Although the quality of news reports suffered from numerous shortcomings and regularly came under criticism from editors, the organizational effort put forth to create a mutual news gathering association generally drew strong praise. Moreover, there is little question that without the telegraphic reports provided by the Press Association, most Southern newspapers would have had little timely news of the war and been forced to rely mainly on northern accounts.

The P.A. had a mixed record in following the principles established by Thrasher. As instructed, most correspondents wrote in the clear, concise style that was becoming popular in telegraphic stories. In some instances, especially during major campaigns, the men filed stories in a timely manner and updated them regularly. Reporters also generally kept their opinions out of stories, except after the Battle of Gettysburg and during the Atlanta Campaign, where a clear sense of morale building was evident. For the most part, they avoided the kind of stories about atrocities often written by less experienced correspondents. On the other hand, numerous important battles and campaigns were reported incompletely. In most cases, correspondents also did little in the way of follow-up reporting. Despite Thrasher's warning, many mistakes made their way into Press Association stories. Casualty figures more often than not were wrong and almost always inflated when it came to the Union. Except for the most egregious errors, the P.A. did not correct the mistakes.

For these reasons, the Press Association was not the "revolutionary experience" that Thrasher liked to claim. Yet, the standards that the Press Association sought to live up to in its reporting of the war clearly raised the bar for journalism in the South. In his insistence on conciseness and objectivity in telegraphic stories, Thrasher portended the emphasis on succinct, factual writing that would become hallmarks of twentieth-century journalism. Likewise, his emphasis on timely, updated news became one of the guiding principles of modern wire-service reporting. Certainly, the Press Association had to overcome numerous obstacles in reporting the war, most notably intractable generals, uncooperative member newspapers in Richmond, and downed telegraph lines. This mattered little to Southern editors who were always quick to point out when the P.A.'S correspondents did not live up to the standards established for them. Here again, however, the expectations of members revealed that accurate and complete reporting had gained a more prominent role in the editorial offices of Southern newspapers. Due largely to the tremendous demand for information from the battlefield, a more modern, news-oriented press had begun to emerge throughout much of the South. The Confederate Press Association deserves some credit for that.

The author wishes to thank the College of Communications of the Pennsylvania State University for a summer research grant that allowed him to complete research for this article.

(1.) The Press Association of the Confederate States of America (Griffin, Ga.: Hill & Swayze's Printing House, 1863), 6. Thrasher was born in Portland, Maine, but had moved to Cuba with his parents as a youth. After working as a clerk, he joined a group of revolutionary agitators and helped edit an anti-Spanish newspaper. He was court martialed for his activity and briefly imprisoned off the coast of Africa. After his release, he moved to New Orleans and worked for Cuban annexation by the United States. The New York Herald later hired him as a correspondent and he traveled in Mexico and South America before the war began. What prompted Thrasher to move to the Confederacy or how he came to the attention of the Press Association's board is not clear. "John Sydney Thrasher," Dictionary of American Biography (New York: Charles Scribner's, 1936), 18:509-10.

(2.) Press Association of the Confederate States of America, 29, 55.

(3.) Carl R. Osthaus, Partisans of the Southern Press: Editorial Spokesman of the Nineteenth Century (Lexington: University Press of Kentucky, 1994), 69-94; Avery Craven, The Growth of Southern Nationalism, 1848-1861 (Baton Rouge: Louisiana State University Press, 1953), 303-11; Clement Eaton, The Growth of Southern Civilization: 1790-1860 (New York: Harper & Brothers, 1961), 265-70; and Frank Luther Mott, American Journalism, A History 1690-1960, 3rd ed. (New York: Macmillan, 1962), 228-52.

(4.) The telegraphic reports studied for the most part were published in the Augusta Chronicle and Sentinel. The newspaper was chosen because of its availability and because it was one of the few daily papers in the Confederacy to publish virtually uninterrupted throughout the entire war. However, the same telegraphic reports were provided to all members of the Press Association.

(5.) J. Cutler Andrews, The South Reports the Civil War (Princeton: Princeton University Press, 1970), 506-42. On the development of objectivity in nineteenth-century journalism, see Dan Schiller, Objectivity and the News: The Public and the Rise of Commercial Journalism (Philadelphia: University of Pennsylvania Press, 1981); Michael Schudson, Discovering the News: A Social History of American Newspapers (New York: Basic Books, 1978); and David Mindich, Just the Facts: How "Objectivity" Came to Define American Journalism (New York: New York University Press, 1998).

(6.) Previous examinations of the Press Association have focused on its organization. Quintus C. Wilson, "Confederate Press Association: A Pioneer News Agency," Journalism Quarterly 26 (June 1949): 160-66; Ruby F. Tucker, "The Press Association of the Confederate States of America in Georgia" (master's thesis, University of Georgia, 1950). Neither study addressed the kinds of stories provided by the Press Association nor how well it lived up to the standards established. Richard A. Schwarzlose's comprehensive study of cooperative newsgathering in the United States during the nineteenth century, The Nation's Newsbrokers, 2 vols. (Evanston: Northwestern University Press, 1989-1990), gives some attention to the Confederate Press Association in the context of the entire Civil War. Other histories of mutual newsgathering, such as Victor Rosewater, History of Cooperative News-Gathering in the United States (New York: Appleton, 1936), completely ignore efforts in the South during the war.

(7.) J. Cutler Andrews, "The Southern Telegraph Company, 1861-1865: A Chapter in the History of Wartime Communication," Journal of Southern History 30 (Aug. 1964): 320-21.

(8.) Robert L. Thompson, Wiring a Continent: The History of the Telegraph Industry in the United States, 1832-1866 (Princeton: Princeton University Press, 1947), 373-76; Andrews, The South Reports the Civil War, 55-56.

(9.) On the popularity of the exchange system for newspapers, see Richard B. Kielbowicz, News in the Mail: The Press, Post Office, and Public Information, 1700s-1860s (New York: Greenwood Press, 1989).

(10.) Thompson, Wiring a Continent, 373-76; Andrews, "The Southern Telegraph Company, 1861-1865," 319-44. The telegraph lines from the North to the states of the new Confederacy were severed in large part to prevent any sensitive military information from getting into the hands of Confederate leaders. Richard B. Kielbowicz, "The Telegraph, Censorship and Politics at the Outset of the Civil War," Civil War History 30 (June 1994): 97.

(11.) Augusta Chronicle and Sentinel, Mar. 25, 1862; Andrews, The South Reports the Civil War, 55-56.

(12.) As quoted in the Boston Advertiser, Jan. 20, 1862.

(13.) Augusta Chronicle and Sentinel, Jan. 21, 1862.

(14.) As quoted in Rabun Lee Brantley, Georgia Journalism of the Civil War Period (Nashville, Tenn.: George Peabody College, 1929), 91.

(15.) A Press Association story from Chattanooga quoted a gentleman who had read an account of the Battle of Perryville in a Louisville paper, which claimed that the Federals had lost 25,000 men in the fighting. Charleston Courier, Oct. 15, 1862.

(16.) Richmond Daily Dispatch, Sept. 5, 25, 1862. Editors regularly complained about the lack of news coming from key news centers. See, for example, "The Want of News," Augusta Chronicle and Sentinel, May 29,1862. Savannah Republican, June 5, 1862.

(17.) Richmond Dispatch, Nov. 5, 1862. A story in the Richmond Enquirer praised the new organization and said it was a welcome improvement over Pritchard's system. That press association only employed "five or six" correspondents, the Enquirer contended, and was "more profitable" to Pritchard than "advantageous to the press." Richmond Enquirer, Nov. 26, 1862.

(18.) Charleston Courier, Dec. 17, 1862; Atlanta Southern Confederacy, Dec. 17, 1862.

(19.) The Press Association of the Confederate States of America, 6, 8-10.

(20.) Ibid., 44. Thrasher made an initial favorable impression on at least one newspaper. The Atlanta Southern Confederacy commented that he "comprehends the duties of the business which he assumed and has taken hold with a will. He has untiring energy and the most extensive experience in journalism--thoroughly comprehending the wants of the Press in the telegraphic line." Atlanta Southern Confederacy, Mar. 26, May 6, 1863.

(21.) Savannah Republican, May 6, 1863. Since Press Association correspondents did not attach their names to stories, it is often difficult to identify them. Among the reporters who have been identified are: Jonathan W. Albertson, who reported from the Army of Northern Virginia; J. Henley Smith, who covered Congress; A. J. Wagner, who served as the correspondent in Jackson, Mississippi; and Will O. Woodson, who reported on the Confederate Army in Tennessee and Kentucky. Smith had helped to found the Atlanta Southern Confederacy and left the paper to join the Press Association as a correspondent. Nothing is known about the other correspondents who have been identified. Andrews, The South Reports the Civil War, 57.

(22.) The Press Association of the Confederate States of America, 29, 41. Unlike the Associated Press in the North, which often served as a semi-official medium for the government, especially the Lincoln administration, news gathering was the only mission of the Confederate Press Association. It never had any formal or informal relationship with the Confederate government. See Menahem Blondheim, News Over the Wires: The Telegraph and the Flow of Public Information in America, 1844-1897 (Cambridge: Harvard University Press, 1994), 129-40.

(23.) Ibid., 54.

(24.) Ibid., 9-10. Schwarzlose concludes that the Associated Press had never tried requiring members to transmit news in their locale, yet it would become "widely adopted" by the A.P. after the war. Schwarzlose, The Nation's Newsbrokers, 269.

(25.) Ibid., 39. The number of member newspapers gradually decreased as the Union Army occupied more of the Confederacy and as other newspapers ceased publishing for economic reasons. The original members of the Association were the Mobile (Ala.) Advertiser and Register, Montgomery (Ala.) Advertiser, Jackson (Miss.) Appeal, Charlotte (N.C.) Bulletin, Winchester (Tenn.) Bulletin, Augusta (Ga.) Chronicle and Sentinel, Vicksburg (Miss.) Citizen, Atlanta (Ga.) Commonwealth, Macon (Ga.) Confederate, Augusta (Ga.) Constitutionalist, Charleston (S.C.) Courier, Natchez (Miss.) Courier, Richmond (Va.) Dispatch, Columbus (Ga.) Enquirer, Richmond (Va.) Enquirer, Richmond (Va.) Examiner, Petersburg (Va.) Express, Columbia (S.C.) Guardian, Wilmington (N.C.) Journal, Montgomery (Ala.) Mail, Charleston (S.C) Mercury, Jackson (Miss.) Mississippian, Port Hudson (La.) News, Savannah (Ga.) News, Raleigh (N.C) Progress, Chattanooga (Tenn.) Rebel, Knoxville (Tenn.) Register, Selma (Ala.) Reporter, Lynchburg (Va.) Republican, Savannah (Ga.) Republican, Richmond (Va.) Sentinel, Selma (Ala.) Sentinel, Columbia (S.C) South Carolinian, Atlanta (Ga.) Southern Confederacy, Raleigh (N.C.) State Journal, Columbus (Ga.) Sun, Macon (Ga.) Telegraph, Columbus (Ga.) Times, Mobile (Ala.) Tribune, Lynchburg (Va.) Virginian, Richmond (Va.) Whig, and Vicksburg (Va.) Whig. Ibid., 37.

(26.) Augusta Constitutionalist, May 14, 1863. The Savannah Republican's editor complained that during a period of three weeks after Chancellorsville, "We have not seen the casualties of a single Georgia Regiment in a Virginia paper." Savannah Republican, May 25, 1863.

(27.) Augusta Chronicle and Sentinel, May 24, 26, 1863. Even during the costliest Union engagement at Vicksburg, the May 22 assault, Federal casualties never exceeded 3,200. James R. Arnold, Grant Wins the War: Decision at Vicksburg (New York: John Wiley & Sons, 1997), 256-57.

(28.) In late June, a shell passed through the Citizen's office. Cases and types were scattered, but no one was injured. By this point, the Citizen also had run out of paper and was forced to print on the back of wallpaper. Augusta Chronicle and Sentinel, July 1, 1863. Richmond Daily Examiner, June 6, 25, 1863. The Savannah Republican's editor complained bitterly about the tendency of the press to accept reports from Vicksburg at face value, noting, "[T]here is a heavy weight of responsibility resting on somebody's shoulders for the regular and systematic lying that has been put upon the public regarding the ability of this place to hold out. The western press in the vicinity of the unfortunate city have been quite badly imposed on as anybody else." Savannah Republican, July 10, 1863. Augusta Chronicle and Sentinel, July 9, 1863.

(29.) Augusta Chronicle and Sentinel, July 7, 8, 10, 1863. Total union casualties at Gettysburg did not exceed 23,000. James M. McPherson, Battle Cry of Freedom: The Civil War Era (New York: Ballantine Books, 1989), 664.

(30.) Augusta Chronicle and Sentinel, July 14, 1863.

(31.) On the use of atrocity stories in newspapers during the war, see James W. Silver, "Propaganda in the Confederacy," Journal of Southern History 11 (Nov. 1945): 499-501.

(32.) The Press Association of the Confederate States of America, 45-46. The Savannah Morning News published an example of one Press Association dispatch from Jackson: "Eight boats passed Vicksburg last night; one burnt two disabled five succeeded. Rumor canal Miliken's Bend reach Mississippi near New Carthage believed construction Batteries opposite Vicksburg Jew paid burn bridge Big Black Vicksburg attached within ten 10 days all officers absent ordered report opposite Vicksburg sixty-four 64 steamers left Memphis for Vicksburg soldiers niggers no papers allowed below Cairo Yankees fortifying Rolla RR north Memphis Bulletin Argus suppressed editors arrested."

(33.) Augusta Chronicle and Sentinel, Aug. 23, Sept. 9, 1863.

(34.) Minutes of the Board of Directors of the Press Association, Embracing the Quarterly Reports of the Superintendent (Atlanta: Franklin Steam Publishing House, 1864), 10, 23-24. The reason given for refusing to grant press access to the army was "the indiscretion of special correspondents in regards to army matters." For more on Bragg's feud with the press, see Judith Lee Hallock, Braxton Braggand Confederate Defeat (Tuscaloosa: University of Alabama Press, 1991), 39; Andrews, The South Reports the Civil War, 337-57. Augusta Chronicle and Sentinel, Sept. 23, 1863.

(35.) Augusta Chronicle and Sentinel, Sept. 30, Oct. 13, 16, 1863. Andrews, The South Reports the Civil War, 364-65.

(36.) Augusta Chronicle and Sentinel, Nov. 27, 28, 1863. For accurate figures on the loss at Chattanooga, see Clifford Dowdey, Storming the Gateway: Chattanooga, 1863 (New York: David McKay, 1960), 156-95. Augusta Chronicle and Sentinel, Dec. 4, 1863.

(37.) Minutes of the Board of Directors of the Press Association, 24, 41-42, 51-52.

(38.) First Annual Meeting of the Press Association (Montgomery: Memphis Appeal Job Printing, 1864), 30-31.

(39.) Andrews, The South Reports the Civil War, 439; Augusta Chronicle and Sentinel, May 19, 1864.

(40.) Augusta Chronicle and Sentinel, May 14, June 9, 1864.

(41.) Ibid., June 15, 29, 1864. The heroism and compassion of troops at Kennesaw also is described in Albert Castel, Decision in the West: The Atlanta Campaign of 1864 (Lawrence: University of Kansas Press, 1992), 306-21.

(42.) Augusta Chronicle and Sentinel, July 12, 1864.

(43.) Ibid., Aug. 10, Sept. 6, 1864.

(44.) Ibid., Oct. 12, 1864. Mark M. Boatner III, The Civil War Dictionary (New York: Vintage Books, 1991), 8-9.

(45.) Augusta Chronicle and Sentinel, Nov. 19, 1864.

(46.) Ibid., May 8, 10, 18, 19, 1864. In the two heaviest days of fighting around Spotsylvania, Union casualties totaled 4,100 killed and 6,820 wounded. Boatner, Civil War Dictionary, 783-89.

(47.) Augusta Chronicle and Sentinel, June 5, 17, 1864.

(48.) Richmond Dispatch, Oct. 20, 1864. Writing to Vice President Alexander H. Stephens early in 1864, J. Henley Smith, formerly the P.A.'S correspondent in Richmond, noted, "I am astonished at the Richmond Press. They regard themselves as metropolitan, and ignore anything from any other quarter of the Confederacy. They have all the while been an impediment in the proper working [of] the Press Association." Alexander H. Stephens Papers, Library of Congress. Macon Telegraph and Confederate, Oct. 27, 1864.

(49.) Augusta Chronicle and Sentinel, Jan. 29, Mar. 21, 1865. Federal casualties at Bentonville, in fact, totaled 1,527, including 194 killed. Nathaniel Cheairs Hughes, Jr., Bentonville: The Final Battle of Sherman and Johnston (Chapel Hill: University of North Carolina Press, 1996), 219-20.

(50.) Augusta Chronicle and Sentinel, Apr. 6, 11, 21, 1865. The whereabouts of Thrasher during the final days before the surrender or immediately afterwards is not known. On April 16, the Augusta Constitutionalist reported that Thrasher had made a "flying visit" to the city. However, there is no record of the Press Association's annual meeting, scheduled to take place in Augusta in April, ever taking place. Likewise, there is no record of the superintendent's first-quarter report for 1865 being compiled.

(51.) The last series of Press Association reports appeared in the Augusta Chronicle and Sentinel on April 25. It has been estimated that no more than twenty Southern dailies were still publishing by the time the Confederacy surrendered. Andrews, The South Reports the Civil War, 44. The Richmond Whig, for example, suspended publishing from April 1 to December 9. When it resumed operations, the paper again was subscribing to the Associated Press. During the postwar fragmentation that plagued the Associated Press, the Southern Associated Press was reorganized in 1866 as a branch of the New York A.P. Growing conflicts among regional A.P.S led the Southern Associated Press to incorporate in 1892. Schwarzlose, The Nation's Newsbrokers, (Evanston: Northwestern University Press, 1990), 2:36.

FORD RISLEY is assistant professor of communications at Penn State. He is the author of several articles on the Southern press during the Civil War era.