December 21, 1859 Alexandria, Va. Gazette POST OFFICE In the modern age of email and internet we have little concept of how important safe, quick mail delivery was for the development of commerce.  The development of national brands of consumer items was not possible without quick reliable delivery.   A more subtle  impact the post office had on American infrastructure and commerce, was its ability to let contracts to carry the mail.  A mail delivery contract often made the difference in whether a railroad decided to extend a line to a particular area. Just as influential was the post office’s decision to let contracts to ships carrying mail to England, France, Mexico and other points.  Congress was reluctant to authorize money for the US Navy to buy or build steamships, (by the time the US Navy had three steamships, the British Navy had several hundred.)  When the Post office announced contracts to carry mail abroad, ship owners had to commissi...

  Militia Uniforms Looked Like They Belonged in a Comic Opera, Not on a Battlefield Thomasville, Ga.  Zouaves   above left to right: Lynchburg Virginia Light Artillery;  Louisiana Tiger Zouaves; 11th NY Inf. (note gray uniform)  (more photos of uniforms at bottom of this post)                          The founding fathers of the country saw no need for a large standing army.  The Second Amendment was supposed to be the way around that. The Second Amendment called for states to raise their own militias in whatever manner and structure they chose.  The framers of the constitution never dreamed of the enormous expansion of territory their creation would eventually encompass.  Nationwide, a rough standard emerged based on monthly drills county by county in a state. All able-bodied white men—and white men only in all militias—were required to furnish their own arms and, if they had ...

  Richard Hoe's Cylinder steam driven printing press 1860 Journalism Of all the puerile follies that have masqueraded before High Heaven in the guise of Reform, the most childish has been the idea that the editor could vindicate his independence only by sitting on the fence and throwing stones with impartial vigor alike at friend and foe . --Whitelaw Reid, Republican Editor of the New York Tribune 1879 October 30, 1847 “We hope to see the day when the press is regarded as an avenue to distinction as eligible as the other learned professions.  It affords opportunity which other professions do not for the exercise of the highest talent and largest attainments in a direction to sway the minds of people, to enlighten their ignorance, and uphold and elevate public morals.” The New Orleans Picayune Since this is a blog based on what newspapers told the public it is probably best to start with a brief examination of how newspapers were printed and distributed as well as t...