Meade and the Media: Civil War Journalism and the New History of War Reporting

Using the under-explored relationship between the press and Major General George G. Meade as a case study, this article argues for a new method of analyzing war reporting. Past investigations of Civil War reporting tend to focus on censorship, the societal impact of media, or the adventure stories of war correspondents. Instead of seeing war correspondents as passive recorders of events, the new history of war reporting views journalists as powerful actors with the ability to influence military decisions. This included retaliating against military excesses and shaping how commanders were remembered in history.