Newspapers of the Civil War era provide a fascinating glimpse into how the public perceived what was happening as major events unfolded. Much more so than today, newspapers contained the bias of their editor, so keep this in mind while reading through the various accounts of battles. With the telegraph serving as the closest thing to today’s instant transportation of large amounts of news, some accounts are incorrect in some or all details. In the interest of historical accuracy and to prevent my own biases from creeping in, these newspaper accounts are presented as written, with spelling errors and grammatical structure intact.
To start, the NewsInHistory.com archives will be accessed for any articles mentioning Petersburg (and at later dates the locations along Lee’s retreat route) from mid-June 1864 to early April 1865. Articles will first be visually scanned to see how “on topic” each is. Articles suitable for publication will be saved and sent to transcribers for publication here.
So far Ken Perdue is the only volunteer transcriber at BTC, and he is doing an excellent job. If you would like to help transcribe newspaper articles at Beyond the Crater, please use the Contact form and let us know. We will give you the details to see if they conform to your expectations.
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