The Civil War in Black and White

A collection of historic front pages shows how civilians experienced and read about the war

  • By Jeanne Maglaty
  • Smithsonian.com, January 10, 2012
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Harpers Weekly The Press in the Field The Philadelphia Inquirer
Harpers Weekly

(Newseum Archives)


The popular Harper’s Weekly, based in New York, was pro-Union, as can be seen in a June 18, 1864, illustration of emaciated prisoners of war. The caption read: “Rebel cruelty—our starved soldiers. From photographs taken at United States General Hospital, Annapolis, Maryland.” The men had been released from Belle Isle camp, in the James River in Richmond, and later died.

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Comments (5)

Could "Wide Awake" refer to the Wide Awakes? The Republican paramilitary group whose goal was "to be a body joined together in large numbers to work for the good of the Republican Ticket"? Seems likely, considering this group worked hard to ensure a Republican victory in 1860.

to: Vijai Narayanan, Perhaps this info from newspaper cover #3 will help you: "Although newspapers weren’t yet able to reproduce photographs, says Christoffersen, they could use information documented in photographs to make engravings. The Illustrated News points out that its portrait of Anderson was sketched from a photo taken at the fort."

Wonderful feature story. The Confed news printed on wallpaper was fascinating, See #6. Thank you.

Keep all these 'goodies' coming ---daughter Cecily Beard gave me this link -----especially liked the one on Ferdinand Pecora ---the 'bangster' Pecora gangster of yesteryear are the same off shoot of those of 2009 ----OUR GREAT DEPRESSION of our century

This is really fascinating, but I'm also curious as to how the photos and illustrations were printed in the papers as early as the 1860s. Any thoughts?

I love studying the Civil War & how it was fought love reading about the outcome of new laws, scrimmages & the layout of the times.



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