Evening Star Newspaper, October 16, 1896, Page 13

THE MEMORIAL ARCH. ed in and reformed the press, co! jerstanding ard its ma he had like the ¢ virtue, by Fielding: fe on purpuse to of Jose “He I the defense f George P. id the battle of New s of this war of at decay public he politics and p' ton’s presidential suc quality returned w who had and wr Edward Livingston and Henry former his chief of staff at New latter our ce ry Lee's father wrote the Mein the Revolation, and hi , Waose militar, p of the In his w of the war of 1812 re- of a painting, y Powell. -d a battle paint- | hed alse in the late both the storming of | okout mountain. i ! | i nted © and of 1 | Napicr. | odern battle description in English re- | ong impetus from the style of | » Peninsular War was not all | | Chepult H 1SW, and who lived tw k was probably the descriptions of the His wo Russel ragements 3 of the Crimea, tion was leaving England it was anied by a special correspondent teh of the great daily papers of Lon- | ilian who had never before seen of war smoke was able to distin guish en the confusion inseparable from a!l actual levying of war and the con- fusion that comes of distinctly bad adm Our journals did for the military nd what Goethe did for the systems of Europe— r upon the weak plac: was born in 182f, educated at} lege, Dublin, reported the Irish repeal meetings for the Times, and was upen its staff and married before he en-| tered ar in IS#). From this pursuit he probably was called by the Crimean war, when he was thirty-three. His stay | of two years-in the Black sea countries was use of the downfall of the Aber- deen ministry, which was driven from power hy the unpopularity he gave their war. He saw the next czar crowned, re- Visited the Crimea, and in 1857 went to re- port the indian revolt, and the next year | hed the Army and Navy Gazette, h he has been a proprietor and the y J correspondent charac- o ting preconceived has never since The battle of Run renamed him. He also was at the tian war briefly, failed to reach the Dan- ish war, and saw the Prusso-Austrian war from the ccessful side. After a full nee in the French war he again re- rut the Prince of Wales made him honorary private secretary when going out to In s in the Zulu and the parlia- n, but d with medais at mond, whose name is on Ss the correspondent of he Italian war, the New which was started September, i made up on the form exactly rs before the battle of Antietam. York The an war was in 1859, and June of that year Mr. Raymond obtained the ac. count of the battle of Solferino, which he wrote out in @ tavern in the viliage ci Castiglione by candlelight, assisted by the | accounts of Dr. W. E. Johnston or “Mala- kof «| another American. It took six ome to or till 4 a.m., when Mala- y miles in the carriage and which had taken them to the city of Brescia, with about the hattle, Whence the French emperor's express tralia left second day for Paris. Raymond had met the London Times’ corr, raed several times on the field, and desired to beat him, and Raymond's a count. placed on the imperial express by D: Johnsicn, was carried from Paris by Mrs. Raymond to the Liverpool steamer for New York, so that it arrived here ten days be- fore Russell's account, published the day after in the London Times. Both accounts went on the same express train. My daughter, whom J now present to you, was brought into ‘this world by Dr. Johnson, who little knew that his activity would ommemorated in this memorial thirty-seven years after the event. While Raymond was gone in Europe, W. H. Buriburt wrote in Raymond's Times hoate article popularly called “The of the Mincio,” a respectable in- stance of how stay-at-homes relate wars. In the spring of 1862 I slept with Mr. Raymon! at Michie’s house, near Rich- mond, Va., for some period, and heard of nigh irepartial hostility to Bennett, Greeley. Webb, etc, who conducted the other New York papers. In Iss the arrival of the first Japanese embassy and the visit of the Prince of ‘ales stimulated both sketching and spe- respondence. The Prince of Wales" the beginning of special corre- and four of the higher-priced ork dally papers sent each a man to Ith the prince through Canada and ited States. Three of those corre- sponcents are still living. Americun Artist Papers. ‘The rise of the filustrated press was much later than that of the descriptive press. In the newspaper {Mustration of the war | that Frank Leslie, once Carter, an English en- graver, led the way and commenced a for- tune. He had worked on Gleason's illus- trated papers in Boston, and felt the Amert- can movement toward current pictures. His paper was fairly established when the war broke out, and had followed Bennett's lead for sensational exposures. His enterprise was ahead of his capital, but he pushed many young men into the fleld and has- tened others to sketch before they were tu- tored. Frank Leslie's Illustrated Newspaper appeared December 15, 1855. Its first page bore a sketch of Dr. Kane's fur-clad ex plorers from one of M. B. Brady's ambro- The first article was a defense of sident Pierce. The first review was of Duyckinck’s great cyclopedia of American Literature. Mlustrations of Dr. Hare's spiritualist experiments and the trial of the murderers of Bill Poole were other fea- tures. The leading article there traced our pictorial journalism to Henry Wikoff, called the Chevalier, in the year 1844, with the Picture Gallery, a weekly adjunct of the Republic newspaper. Picture Gallery, made by Euro- pean artists and engravers, soqn ceased, and ten yetrs later Gleason's” Pictorial wus published in Boston (1834), and was fol d by the American Illystrated News of a Nassau street, New York, pub- lisher, Mr. Strong. This was succeeded by Barnum and Beech’s Ilustrated News, which lacked large wood blocks and a suffi- matters which Leslie promised Leslie's first volume had Walker's expedi- tion to Nicaragua, the attack on Charles Sumrer, Pierce’s cabinet and the Kansas troubies. In the second volume were pic- tures of the vigilance committee in Cali- fornia, of the Buchanan and Fremont prest- dential conventions and of Washington Irv- ing’s medals, presented to him as he then li The first number of Harper's Weekly bore date January 3, 1857. Its first article recited the vote of r 1,860,000 for Bueh- n and near 1,337,000 for Fremont and »,000 for Fillmore. Harper's Week. illustrations, and ary paper. the or. began without news ‘as mainly a meek liter- The laying and the failure of nal Atlantic cable were recorded year, and portraits were given of Walker and his filibuster leaders who were designed to Africanize Central America. The second volume contained a few pho- ographs of the Mormon war and the orig- 1 poem of “Beautiful Snow.” the third volume, 1859, was !mprov: tures of the John Brown raid by ‘ayon,” and other series of sketches of the italian war and the Ki ckles homicide. The paper claimed 120,000 circulation, at 5 cents, its price til the war. Other Men of the Craft. N. P. Willis, the master,” perhaps the first social newspaper correspond- ent, was the grandson pf Nathaniel Willis, who established @ Potomac | Guardian at Martinsburg, a few miles from this spot, in 1790, and twenty Gays after their occurrence, being the near- est to the western frontier, and before any paper on tide water, he published the mili- tary events on Lake Erie and the Maumee, where Wayne and Harrison figured. In that ‘same district grew up David Hunter Strother, or “Porte Crayon,” the carlisst of the war correspond=nts, and the son of a soldier under the writer, Gen. Wil- kinson, on the Canadian frontier. His fa- ther was forty-five years in the county clerk's office, and died of chagrin at seeing his country and his home In occupation of the insurgent army in 1 Three well-known photographers in the war were M. B. Brady, who died in 1896: his chief operator in the field, Russell, and Gardiner of Washington. Russell took a picture twenty minutes after the event of the horrible scene at the foot of Marye Heights, Fredericksburg, or in the interval efor Frederick Hudsor personally employed all or nearly all the war correspondents of the New York Herald, and in his stimulat- ing, fellow-craft contact they, who were by far the largest phalanx of writers and couriers in the army, felt unwearied confi- dence and friendship, and the sense of a just, honorable and regular government in the home oifice. Mr. Hudson not long before his death published the nistory of “Journalism in the United States.” Mr. Sidney Howard Gay equally inspired and soothed the Tribune’s less numerous but better individualized writers, whose readers were of a high class. George W. Smalicy, Sam Wilkison, Albert D. Richard- son, Junius H. Browne, Henry Villard, Nathaniel Paige took and held a rank after the war which showed the inspiration of belles lettres associations. The American scholar and poet, Edmund C. Stedman, and Jerome B. Stillson, Rich- ard T. Colburn and G. A. Townsend were amoug the correspondents of the New York orld. ADDRESS BY 8. CADWALLADER. tari Long the Only Correspondent at Grant’s Headquarters. In time of war the press by a law of its existence becomes a powerful assistant to the government. Should the press op- pose a war, the enemy would consider it an admission of weakness; should it favor war it would be thought an evidence of strength; should it be mismanaged govern- men: and people would suffer. It is the duty of the press to support the government in carrying on a Jyst war by puvilshing true and favorable accounts of all completed operations and by with- holdirg any news by which the enemy might profit. . By the lew of reciprocity a corresponding duty devolves upon those in authority, to Feep the press informed concerning every- thing which affects the public welfare. When a war occurs :n a republic It may be set down as a postulate that the people are entitled to and will obtain full accounts from. the field. The true interest of government and peo- ple will be best promoted by complete and truthful reports from jhe army. Unbridled license by correspondents and arbitrary suppression by military author- ity are the extremes to be avoided. It is an admitted fact that the efficiency of an army depends more upon its intelli- gence than its physical development. The press is a great educational factor. Our soldiers are newspaper readers. Their en- durance of hardships and their heroism in battle are largely due to patriotic reading. An army of free born American citizens would be damaged more by suppressing the circulation of newspapers than by be- ing placed on half rations in the face of the enemy. They would soon rebel against Te THE EVENING STAR, FRIDAY, OCTOBER 16, 1896—SIXTEEN ‘PAGES, authority which shut from. them all sotirces of information. The law of self-preservation will compel the government to a wide diffusion of news affecting its welfare. In prolonged wars the existence of any government depends upon the loyalty of its troops, but in none so much as ours, where the soldier never sinks his citizenship, and where the army is but the embodiment of national patriot- ism. Correspondent Qualifications. Having premised that wars will arise in the future; that the people of a republic are entitled to full information concerning the cfficial acts of public servants; that the pregs must always be an ally of both government ard people; that republican soldiers are still citizens, and republican armies but a part of the people, it remains to corsider what should be the character of Wat-correspondence and the best means of obtaining it. The first requisite is accuracy and abso- lute truthfulness, written without fear, favor or affection. It should be as minute and detailed as possitle. It should be penned under the excitement and inspiration of battle sur- roundings, when practicable, and in the fewest words that will convey a pen picture of the battlefield and its attendants, It should be in sturdy Anglo-Saxon ver- nacular, nervous, vigorous and concen- trated in description, and bring to the resder in all their realities the scenes in which the writer was an actor. The grand climactera of a great battle should elimi- nate puerilities and exaggerations. A great battle possesses an absorbing, terrible interest to the typical correspond- ent who witnesses it, exerts a fascination wholly indescribable and superior to any otker on earth. His whole soul will be thrown into his account of it, and he will find neither time nor inclination to gar- nish a pretty story. The zip and ping of minie balls, the rat- tling, relling, swelling and falling musket- ry fire, the trembling, thundering roar of heavy artillery, the shouting and yelling of cor.tending hosts, the groans of wounded men, the screaming of crippled horses, the blinding sulphurous smoke, the horrible scenes of destruction and death which cever a field of battle are all legitimate subjects for description and afford play for every natural and artificial faculty. His imagination can never exceed the reall- ties before him. The master of the art, however, never allcws these minor delineatious to become the chief features of his correspondence, and rever so exhausts himself on a skirm- ish that he cannot describe a battle. He A Corner in Gath’s House. weaves them into his account as bits of colcring, to set off stupendous facts. He remembers that the chief interest will al- ways center on the heroic deeds of those engaged, the responsibility of each for failure or success and the paramount ques- tion of whether the field was lost or won. Time the Mercury. The value of newspaper publications de- pends largely on the element of time; and wholly s0 in the matter of waf correspond- ence. 5 This question uf iime ts a relative one; the essential requirement in the individual baper’s standpoint being to publish news in | advance of all competitors, and never be- hind them. For a daily paper to publish an account of a battle twenty-four hours ahead of Its rivals is rightfully considered @ great newspaper “beat; and to get out such news a few hours in advance by means of an “extra” is a “scoop”, of no mean magnitude. War correspondents, above all other em- ployes of great papers, are thrown upon their mettle, first, in collecting news, and next in securing its quick delivery.at the office of publication. Unwearie1 industry, exhausting mental work, and the extreme limit of physical endurance are called into play for days before a battle, or the com- mencement of a campaign, followed by mid- night rides over a country without roa and swarming with foes. Correspondente’ adventures are rarely printed, but many of them would surpass belief. They are some- times ridiculous, often perilous, and always wearing to mind and body. Carrying tho News of Mission Ridge. As I am requested to speak from experl- ence, I must be pardoned for using the first person singular «s + frequent form of speech. An incident or two connected with correspondence trom Misslonary Ridge may deserve mention. Knowing on the morning of the last day’s fighting there that General Grant would stake everything on this engagement, and win or lose a great battle, I governed my- self accordingly. My thoroughbred mare was carefully groomed all day, in readiness for all night work. I had rightly conjectured that I was the only correspondent who would attempt to ride that night from Chattanooga to Ste- venson, then the terminus of the railroad. A train left the latter place for Nasiville every morning at 6 o'clock. If I could get to Stevenson by that time I would be twenty-four hours ahead of all rivals. I started from Chattanooga at 10 o'clock P.m., crossed the river there on a pontoon bridge, recrossed to the south side again at Brown's ferry, rode up the Wauhatchie val- ley, through mud averaging knee deep, for miles; passed around Raccoon mountain by Whiteside; rode past Union pickets asleep in the road without distrubing them at Shell Mound; was halted at Nickajack, but soon set outside their lines; reached the tete-de-pont opposite Bridgeport soon after 3 in the morning; had the officer of the guard walk across the bridge with me (a long one) to save time; explained to him the battle just fought; wrought him up to such a pitch of excitement that he suffered me to mount and ride away without knowing but I might be General Bragg; stopped a few minutes at the telegraph office, where by “proper persuasion” and much assertion of authority I sent a short dispatch to Louisville, and started, at 4 o'clock, for Stevenson, twelve miles distant, in total ig- norance of roads or face of country. I ac- cidentally met a belated mounted orderly and pressed him into service. He piloted me several miles for $5. The mud was from fetlock to knee deep, with a crust frozen too thin to bear us up. My mare tore off a foreshoe, broke her hoof to pieces badly, but galloped into Stevenson gaily, fifteen minutes before 6. I was thus far ahead of all competitors. At Anderson the train lost four hours by a wreck blockade. At War Trace it lost sixteen hours from the same cause. By the irony of fate our own engine broke down in sight of Nashville, and I was obliged to walk a few miles to the city. My dispatches were soon vised and de- posited in the telegraph office. The night train for Louisville was gone, and waiting till morning became imperative. A good supper at Donneganna’s was ordered and dispatched. Beating a Herald Rival. ‘While smoking in front of the establish- ment I saw a man coming up the street in great haste and evident distress. He was Mr. W. F. G. Shanks, chief Herald correspondent in the Department of the Cumberland. His story was this: He left Chattanooga the next morning after the battle and found at Bridge a dummy engine (which had brought Gen- eral Logan from Nashville) awaiting or- ders. Shanks convineed the engineer that his original order implied—t his immediate return to Nashville. His weightiest argument was one hundred dol- lars in “greenbacks,” in consideration of which the engine was to start immediately for Nashville, and carry no SS but Shanks. As it pulled away also and thought him an attache of Shanks. After a few ride tions were on from ee Se i that he was cash Mr. Wor ace nt of the cinnat! T! from Stevenson to Nash- ville. Mr. W: ard was impervious to persuasions, bi or threats, and stuck cicse to the “tigchine’ throughout. <As neither Shanks “nor the engineer’ was in_ position to ‘ject him they submitted sullenly. Shanks eluded him at the depot, beat him up to’ and implored me to in- tercept him and’delay his dispatches. _ ‘Woodward soon arrived, tired and hun- gry. Though Raving just eaten I treated to good supper for two and purposely ordered such qishes as consumed time in preparation. “At the conclusion of the meal he went t6'the telegraph office and there learned that his dispatches must be approved by Geféral R. M. Granger, post commandant. ‘He rushed back to me for advice. I went’with him to hea‘iquarters, which were dark and closed. The hotels were searched unsuccessfully. We found the general at the theater abont 11 o'clock p.m., but he refused to be troubled with such business at such hours. Woodward registered at the St. Cloud, had his name placed on the “call list” for the Louisville morning train, and went to bed. I shall always believe, unless Shanks denies it, that he paid the “call boy” a fair-sized “greenback” to erase Woodward's name. It was on the list when we retired. It was not on it when we rose. ‘Woodwurd was not called. The Louisville train pulled out without him, having Shanks and myself aboard, nervous, anxious and delighted. The operators at Nashville were late in sending my matter. At midnight I sent them an elegant hot supper, and informed the Louisville operator that I had deposit- ed $10 to his credit, only asking him to sit at his instrument till 4 o’clock, and take advantage of every opportunity to start my dispatches. He finally clicked back that the last word was sent. My paper was ahead. A Provost Marshal Donkey. On the afternoon of the first day of the Wilderness battle I obtained permission of Col. Johnson, commanding the provost guard, to go among the confederate pris- oners to learn, if possible, if Longstreet had arrived from the west to reinforce Lee. I had a roster of the rebel army, and by getting the regiment and state to which a prisoner belonged, I could gain this in- formation without asking the question di- rectly. Gen. Marcellus R. Patrick. was provost marshal general of the Army of the Poto- mac. I wish to record here in plain terms that he was then, and remained till the day of his death (in my opinion), the finest ex- isting fossil of the cenozoic age. His van- ity, stupidity and obstinacy were each monumental. From an eminence near at hand he saw me among the prisoners, and sent one of his staff to place me under arrest, a As I reached the august presence of the old martinet, as he strutted pompously back and forth, he glowered on me as black as a thunder cloud, and roared out: “Who are you, sir?" I modestly gave him my ‘What were you doing among the prisoners, sir?’ was his next question. “Trying to learn to what commands they belonged,” I softly replied. “Young man, I think you have not been. long in this * came next. “Thank God, I have was my unguarded reply. ‘‘Who gave you permission to go among these prison- ers, sir?” I answered that I had Col. John- son’s permission. Patrick seemed much in- clined to doubt my word, but sent for John- son. Upon his admission that he had al- lowed me to go among them, Patrick promptly put him under arrest. Turning to me with a fearful explosion of anger, he asked.-hy what authority I was with the army. I handed him Gen. Grant's passes. He deliberately Jammed them into his pocket and ordered a file of soldiers to march me to the “bull pen.” Fortunately for me Col. William L. Duff, Grant’s chief of artillery, came in sight, to whom I called in my extremity. Duff was @ tal, dark-haired, morose-looking officer when on duty. On hearing my statement, he rose in his stirrups till he seemed to be going to the tree tops, when, turning to Patrick, with a scowl, he said, Do you know me, Gen. Patrick?” ‘¥ou are Col. Duff of Gen. Grant's staff,” Patrick replied. “Release this man instantly, and return his papers,” were Duff's only words, as he rode away. Bratality to €orrespondents. Edward Crapsey, correspondent of the Phitestetphia er, stated th hig.account of the Wilder: battle ‘that Gen. Meade, NfeVored:retreating to the north bank of the Rapidhn, as he had done after the Mine Run engagement the year before. Meade,pronounced it an’absolute falsehood, and’was greatly incensed by its publication. When we lay in front ef Cold Harbor, he crdered Gen. Patrick to expel Crapsey from the army. Probably no work of his life was more congenial to this “‘Squeers” of the military profession than the duty thus assigned him. He mounted Crapsey on a sorry-looking mule, face backward, covered him with placards, marched him through the lines to the tune of the ‘Rogues’ March,” and started him homeward. I had a long conversation, at his own re- quest, with Gen. Meade on this subject the next spring, in which he frankly confessed that he made a great mistake in permitting such a degrading form of punishment. He said that when he wrote his official report of the battle of Gettysburg, with reports of all his subordinates before him, he nevertheless made many mistakes. Since then he had always felt the utmost charity for correspondents who were compelled to write hastily from the field, without the slightest opportunity for revision or verifi- cation. It was a noble confession (and tribute to correspondents) by an honest man and able commander. Story of the Press Censorship, The following facts concerning the gov- ernmental censorship of the press during the war seem necessary in any intelligent treatment of the subject: Early in the fitst session of the Thirty- seventh Congress (winter of 1861-2) te fol- lowing resolution was adopted by the House of epeceauiativer “Resolved, That the judiciary committee be requested to inquire if a telegraphic gensorship of the press has been established in this city, and if so, by whose authority; and by whom it is now controlled; to report if such censorship has not been used to restrain wholesome politi- cal criticism and,discussion; while its pro- fessed and laudable object has been to withhold from the enemy information in relatian to the moyements of the army. To enable the committee to prosecute its investigations effectively, the House, on January 8, 1862, ‘clothed it with power to send for persons-and papers and take tes- timony. On January 20; 1862, that committee re- Povernmont assumsed exclusive. control of overnment asst e fie telegraph lines’in April, 1861—that the censorship was first under the control of the Treasury Department—afterward it was transferred to the War Department, and then to the State Department, where it remained until February, 1802, when it was reassumed by the Secretary of War. ‘The committee also reported: “Soon after Gen. McClellan assumed com- mand of the Army of the Potomac a series of resolutions were adopted by the repre- sentatives of the press, including the Washington city correspondents of the daily papers of New York, Philadelphia, Beston and Cineinnat!, ‘to determine a rule for the guidance of these newspapers, and the Pieces of the country. in‘the publi- cation of matter which might be connected with the interest of the government.’ These resolutions were signed by Gen. McClellan and the representatives of twelve influential newspapers, and were lows: ‘Resolved, that we accede to 4 the fol- 8 lowing suggestions made by.Gen. George B. saw him | McClellan, and that we transmit them to the editors of all newspapers in the loyal states and the District of Columbia: “* First. That all such editors be request- ed to refrain from publishing, either as edi- torial, or as of any descrip- tion, or from any print, any matter that may furnish aid and comfort to the enemy. “Second. That they be also requested, and earnestly sclicited, to signify to their correspondents, their approval of the fore- — and to comply with it in spirit and tter. “Also, Resolved, That the government be requested to afford to the representatives of the press facilities for obtaining, and im- mediately transmitting, all information Proper for publication, particularly touch- ing engagements with the enemy.’ ” The foregoing agreement and resolutions were produced before the committee of the House by Mr. H. E. Thayer, then acting as censor. Suppressing the Censor. A majority of those who signed these res- olutions appeared before the committee and testified that they understood their agree- ment with Gen. McClellan authorized them to form a rule of action for the censor and the press. Many of them stated there were more grounds to complain of the manner in which the censorship had been exercised after the resolutions had been adopted than before. This will surprise no one, after reading one of the letters of instruction sent to the censor, and produced before the committee, as follows: “Department of State, October 22, 1862. “Mr. H. E. Thayer. “Dear Sir: For the present, it is deemed advisable to prohibit all telegraphic dis- patches from Washington intended for pub- lication which relate to the civil or. mili- tary operations of the government, with the exception of te dispatches of the regu- Jar agent of the Associated Press, or other dispatches which contain the same facts. Of course, items of news, personal move- ments, and so forth, are not prohibited. Very @ruly yours, (Signed) “F. W. SEWARD.” The judiciary committee went on to say: “The rule, if carried out, would develop a most inexorable censorship. It has already tended too far in that direction. “Mr. Wilkison testified that the censor would not allow him to send dispatches which, in the estimation of the Secretary of State, or the censor, were damaging to the character of the administration, or any member of the cabinet, or that would be injurious to the reputation of the officers of the army. Ben: Perley Poore and other correspondents, testified to the same facts. Witnesses testified that the censor would not allow them to send anything about Gen. Stone, Ball’s Bluff or Gen. Sherman.” The committee submitted many suppressed dispatches in its report to the House, and said: “Examples of suppressed dispatches of as harmless a nature as the foregoing might be given to aimost an indefinite ex- tent; but it is unnecessary to do so, as those cited are sufficient to show that the censor ™must either have had other instructions than those which appeared in the testi- mony or was most unfortunate in exer- cising the power given him by the Secre- tary of State, which, in the opinion of the committee, went far beyond the bounds of propriety, considering the boasted freedom of the press.” ~ The censor was accused of suppressing dispatches cut from newspapers published in Washington, which had been circulated in the stores, houses and hotels of the cap- ital for hours before being offered for tel- egraph, Bull Run Russell a Stock Gambler. The suppression of all news by telegraph of the Trent affair in 1861 was brought out. The censor testified that on Friday, De- cember 27, at 2 o'clock p.m., he received positive orders to suppress «ll matter con- cerning it; but that at forty-five minutes after 2 o'clock he allowed the following dis- patch to be sent by “Bull Run” Russell: “Samuel Ward, New York Hotel, New York: Act as though you heard some very good news for yourself and me as soon as you get this. (Signed) W. H. RUSSELL.” The committee further said: “Any man of ordinary discernment might have detected in this dispatch the contraband informa- tion. Stock speculations were active and remunerative, and the committee think Mr. Russell's friend made a good thing out of the good news.” Mr. H. G. Fant, a banker in Washington city, was examined by the committee in reference to his operations in stocks upon the Trent affair. Mr. Fant had seen in the Herald that Mason and Slidell were to be given up. He put to work Mr. Robert J. Corwin to ascertain whether this fact had -heen -communicated to Lord Lyon. Mr. Corwin learned in the Department. of the Interior that it had. Mr. Fant invested in Stocks accordingly. Mr. Corwin’s share in the profits of that single investment were thirteen hundred dollars, The committee said: “The censorship of the press was needlessly vexatious, partly from the instructions given to the censor and partly from his manner of carrying them out. The blame lies about equally between Secretary Seward dnd Mr. Thayer,” * The committee answered the points of in- quiry directed by the House as follows: 1. A telegraphic censorship of the. press has been established in this city. 2. The censorship existing at the time the investigation was directed by the House was originally established upon the basis of the agreement between Gen. McClellan and the representatives of the press, but was enlarged in its scope by the Secretary of State. 8, At the time the inquiry was directed by the House, and for some months prior to that time, and until the 25th of Feb- ruary last, the censorship was controlled by the Secretary of State. 4. The original design was to prevent the publication of military information which pie be of advantage to the rebel authori- es. 5. Dispatches, almost numberless, of a political, personal and general character, have been suppressed by the censor, and correspondents have been deterred from preparing others, because they knew they could not send them to their papers by tel- egraph. “The telegraph has become a most im- portant auxiliary to the press of the coun- try, and should be left as free from gov- ernment interference as may be consistent with the necessities of the government in time of war. These necessities cannot ex- tend beyond what may be legitimately con- nected with the military or naval affairs of the nation, and to these should the BOv- ernment interference with the transmission of intelligence be confined, for it is this character of information alone which can be of importance to the enemy, and which mey properly be withheld from the press and the public, in order that it may not reach the enemy. The committee, there- fore, recommend the adoption of the fol- lowing resolution: “Resolved, That the government should not interfere with the free transmission of intelligence by telegraph when the same will not aid the enemy in his military or naval operations, or give him information A Corner Effect. concerning such operations on the part of the government, except when it may be- come necessary for the government, under the authority of Congress, to assume ex- — control of the seeeraph —— oan te purposes, or to assert the OSproriey in the transmission of it. own dispatches.” Despotism of Satraps. In consequence of some improper publi- cations in the Washington Chronicle, the fcllowing order. was issued: WAR DEPARTMENT, ADJUTANT GENERAL'S OFFICE. - WASHINGTON, August 26, 1861. Pcl the bo Ape en pings of the act of ‘ongress en “An act for establishing the armies of the United Btatess" apeneven t o onetviog intelligenes to the enemy, either. or enemy, tly or indirectly, is made punishable tm tal. The public safety requires a strict en- forcement of this article. It is, therefore, ordercd that all correspondence and com- munications, verbally, or by writing, print- ing or telegraphing, respecting the opera- tions of the army, or military movements on land or water, or respecting the troops, camps, arsenals, intrenchments or mililary affairs, within ‘the several military dts- tricts, by which intelligence shall be direct- ly or indirectly given to the enemy without the sanction and authority of the general in command, be, and the same arr, abso- lutely prohibited, and from the date of this order persons violating the same will be proceeded against under the fifty-seventh article of war. By order. L. THOMAS, Adjutant General. Secretary Stanton’s censorship grew more and more severe and senseless to the end ot the year. In the campaign of 1864 cor- respondents were not allowed to telegrapa Union losses at one-half what they really were. Finley Anderson (afterward lieutenant colonel on Hancock's staff), one of the most accurate and painstaking mea in the field, was with the Second Corps in {ts first at= tack on Petersburg. His natural conserva- lism and his attachment to Hancock insured a moderate statement of losses. After his account was written he rode to me for con- sultation. We agreed that Stanton would not permit him to place the loss at any such figures. ‘They were cut down consid- erably. Stanton still further reduced them to 2,000, When Gen. Butler was removed from command by Grant, after the Fort Fisher fiasco, Mr. Stanton suppressed all tele- graphic announcement of the fact until che Herald containing my dispatch, sei New York by messengers, arrived by mail in Washington city. Petty Tyranny to Correspondents. The truth concerning prominent general officers may as well be stated here as else- where. Gens. Burnside, Hooker, Sherman, Thomas, Schenck, Milroy, Hurlburt, Blount and others exercised an arbitrary and se- vere censorship over all dispatches from their commands; and some of them pro- hibited the circulation of all newspapers containing ‘military criticisms. Burnside sentenced Wm. Swinton to be shot. He seized and closed the Chicago Times office. Hurlburt suppressed the same paper (and all telegrams to it) in the district of Mem- phis. Cols. True and Sullivan did the same at Trenton and Jackson, Tenn. At my request Gen, Grant countermanded these orders immediately, and sent a spe- cial dispatch boat from Lake Providence to Memphis for that purpose. Hooker made the @shea weariness and the grasshopper a burden to all corre- spondenis excepting his friend and favorite, George Wilkes. To him he gave valuable franchises. He treated Mr. Denyse of the Herald shamefully. Hooker afterward “builded wiser than he knew,” by requiring correspondents to affix their full names to all their dispatches. It held them to a proper responsibility, and gave to all who deserved it a national repu- tation. Gen. Thomas (by his staff censor, Major Morton MeMichael of Philadelphia) refused me permission to telegrapa my account of Lookout Mountain. Gen. Grant took the same dispatch from my hand within thirty minutes afterward, and, without reading it, indorsed on the back: “Send this,” U. 8. Grant, etc. Gen. Sherman ‘treated me superciliously until, performing staff duty, I carried to him his last written order from Gen. Grant in | Paisning regard to crossing the Tennessee river and bringing on the battle of Missicnary Ridge. After that he was always courteous and polite. He ran De Bienville Randolph Keim out of the Department of the Tennessee, over the head of Gen. McPherson, and would have punished him unmercifully had he been caugh Grant and the Correspondents. Gen. Grant stood on a higher plane con- cerning news from the outset. All correspondents within his commands could say what they pleased about accom- plished operations (provided they were truthful), but must not indulge in predic- tions affecting the future. He never de- scended to the details of censorship, nor atlowed his staff to do so. He took the sensible ground that news- papers must send men of judgment and discretion to represent them, or suffer the consequences of having them expelled from the army. He allowed all papers to circu- late among his troops which the govern- ment allowed to be published. His treat- ment of correspondents was impartial, with the single exception that I was the only one he ever permitted to remain at his headquarters. ms This privilege was accorded me unexpect- edly, without solicitation, when I was cor- respondent for a paper he detested. ‘When Mr. Stanten’s censorship became insufferable, 1 procured from Gen. Grant all necessary passes, and established a line of messengers between myself and the New York office. Packages of correspondence were sent from City Point at 10 o'clock every day and were delivered at the Herald office early in the evening of the next da; over the heads of Mr. Stanton and Post- master General Montgomery Blair. The lat- ter had a habit of withholding mails just when our news was most important. ‘This method of transmission was a great success. I inaugurated it with much appre- hension of excessive cost. Expensiveness of War News. Mr. Bennett, the elder, had given me a blank card on which to write expenses; had cautioned me against undue parsimony and advised larger expenditures than I had been making, and said he would notify me 7 thought them too great. “To our mutual surprise, the messengers cost less than the then telegraphic rates between Washington and New York for the same matter. nt to} I To shut off and forestall any and unjust suspicions in these aftr days state emphatically that if ail the personal Polices of Genera from the Lexinning of Were collected and put) yy would not maxe two columas of solid nonpareil in the New York Herald, Sun or Worid. Perso: The chicf requi respondent are inco: bie none never flasging indasiry im his vocetion. So far as I can judge of qualifica- z are of success I attained was Jue to a for condensation, and a strict adt at I believed to be facts. 1 was ccien mista taken about many det stated, bat in this day of retros; can truthfully affirm that I nev ingly wrote an untruth for pw I excelled in securing quick transm of dispatches to the office of P My employers preferred carly new writing. My faults were those of being a slow penman—of spending too much time in gathering material, and verifying ments—of coadensing much that deser elaboration—and the very common fa overlooking, or omitting, many small ¢ tails which seemed to me at the time too Insigniticant to mention. I was not a voluminous correspondent, and never sought to cover the broadside of a news- paper unless the magnitude of the af demanded it. As chief correspondent with the Army of the Potomac, my duti were also editorial read the disp: of all the ot Heraid correspundents—revised them by correcting contradictory or misstatements —withheld some of them, perhaps, till the writers could be seen—and was expected to give unity to what appeared each day the paper. The labor of doing this ¥ greater than may be supposed, and su tracted from time which would have be given to writing. A CAPTURED CORRESPONDENT. Some Interesting Remarks by Junius Henrl Browne. Even during my early boyhood I was much inclined—from constitutional an- tipathy, doubtless—to imagine myself in alll sorts of conditions, for the most part un- pleasant. One condition which I did not imagine, but which was afterward re- alized, was that I should be held as a pris: oner for nearly two years in my country by my own countrym ‘This was not, perhaps, so much the fault of my imagination as of the fertunes of eur civil war, which no American was willing to anticipate. It is only the im- possibie that happens. The two years that I was in the field as war . correspondent of the New York Tribune were passed entirely in the south- west, with. the armies and on the gun- at flotilla in that section. The corre- pondents there were under far less mili- tary supervision and were far less subject to orders than in the east. Indeed, they had in generat great individual freed in. They came and went whenever and wher- ever they chose. They Joined any expedi- tion or selected any position they liked, and were oftener in the front Une of bat- tle than in the rear. Although nominally non-combatants, they usually had arms in their hands, and did a good deal of what they called amateur fighting on their own account. They had a wide range, cam- from Columbus, Ky., to the Balize, and every opportunity for personal native | €nterprise and adventure, of which they were not slow to take advantage. Correspondent as a Sharpshooter. At Fort Donelson (February 13 and 14, 1862), which was the first marked Union success of the war, I won, I remember, a reputation as a marksman which I did not Geserve. Several of our regiments had clambered over the confederate breast- works. and got into the intrenchments on the afternoon of the second day. While there a field piece of the enemy was trained upon them, and fired at regalar intervals of a few seconds, with what seemed to us, on the outside, must be very disastrous effect. Very soon a company of Illinois _sharpshooters was posted on a height directly opposite the hostile gun, with orders to pick off the guuner. He could not be seen from che height, but whenever the piece was discharged a dozen or more rifles flashed in the direction of the smoke and the report. Still the gun boomed away as regularly as before, indi- cating that the gunner had not been struck. As balls and shells were whizzing and shrieking thickly through the alr in that particular neighborhood, the sharpshooters netarclly, as is the custom, protected themselves behind trees and logs. As I was in a more elevated place, watch- ing anxiously the firing on both sides, cne of the company, observing me, asked: “Are you a good shot?” “So, so,” T answered. “Wouldn't you like to try to pop that Johnny Reb that’s banging away like h—] at our boys?” 3 I nodded assent, for the roar of battle drowned anything less than a shout. “Then take my rifle,” he screamed down behind this fallen tree and try bring him down, d—n him!” I did as requested, accepting his rifle, and resting it on the log. I waited, aiming the Piece, for the puff from the vent. At the moment of its appearance I fired. The usual number of seconds passed; then twice and thrice the number. The ‘sharp- shooter looked at me in enthusiastic ad- miration, and exclaimed: “By G—d, you've fetched him I shouted: “I shoukin't wonder,” and waiked rapidly away, while my Jaurels were green, but not so rapidly as not to hear in a brief lull, as the soldier pointed me out, “He's a crack shot, boys; he is.” Correspondent Commands a Battery. Moving hurriedly on I saw a Missouri battery disengaged, whose colonel I knew. When the other New York papers learned | | felt sure he would render good service on the Herald pian an agent came to head- quarters to obtain, if possible, permission the spot I had left. I quickened my pace to start a similar line for the jomi use of | ito a run, having seen fifteen minutes be- the Tribune, Times, World and Philadel- phia Inquirer _ He was promised une same authority which had been given me. fore General Grant and several of his staff officers watching the engagement, about a mile beyond. I reached the spot almost I had an interview with General Rufus ! out of breath, and was delighted to see ‘ingalls, chief quartermaster. He issued a order requiring all civilians traveling or military lincs of steamtoats between | view of the whole field. the general still there. This was not at 1 strange, as the spot commanded a fini I immediately ‘City Point, Fortress Monroe, Washington | communicated to him my idea of the need and Baitimore to pay 15 cent transportation, $1 per day tor per mile for | of a battery at that special point, and state reom, | briefly explained the situation. Learning $1 each for meals, and forbidding their | by a few short questions that I understood being furnished meals or state rooms until | what I was talking about he told me to Il officers and privates on board had first been accommodated. This greatly in- order the Missouri battery, in his name, to g0 at once to the place I had mentioned. creased expenses, and caused these papers | I ran back to the music of shot and shell, to abandon their plan. The Herald paid | which generally passed above my head, the exorbitant charges several weeks with- id delivered his order, which was in- cut complaint. General Ingails then re, | stantly obeyed, and the battery rerdered voked the order. . valuable and most efficient service. I have fa my possession today some This was a good illustration of General of General Grant's passes for my personal | Grant’s practicability and common sense. use, which are probably not equaled by | He had at this time but two or three of any In existence. his staff with him, and thinking, no doubt, They order “All guards and ee that he might need them any moment, he — in all the armivs ef the tates to pass me at any hour of the day | soldier, an important order without the or night, with horses and vehicles,” and j least hesitation. ye if th Cnisea Brat to toe all the armies o! e United States to nish me subsistenct on demand for myself, | The correspondents’ were commonly servants and horses,” and order “Ail quar- | mounted, but the Jand forces at Fort termasters of transportatioa in all the ar- ‘umberlan leven fnles of the Uulled States.to fumish me as Py amg ere tin hy transportation “Gn dmand for fered a fast ‘steamer to New York, and | !¥,2 -the army and. the gen- Exeiusive tse Gay or might sort sai eraiggppresched Donelson’ without tcuin,