Charles P. Stone, Brigadier General, USV Inauguration Day Washington March 4, 1861 Protecting Lincoln           The Century magazine compiled a four volume history of the Civil War with an emphasis on having participants of a particular campaign or incident write about it.   The series was lavishly illustrated with new engravings as well as reprints of engravings the magazine had published before. The first of the four thick volumes starts with an account by Brig. Gen. Charles Pomeroy Stone, (September 30, 1824-Jan 24, 1887) the officer charged with protecting Lincoln and Buchanan on inauguration day as well as organizing the defense of the District of Columbia. Charles Pomeroy Stone was an 1844 graduate of West Point. He fought in several battles of the Mexican War and came out of the conflict promoted to captain.   Soon afterwards he resigned his commission because a captain’s pay would not support his wife and gro...

  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...