James Gordon Bennett Sr.

So then...

What's interesting is a couple of months later, there was James Gordon Bennett.

He wrote two pieces of, he wrote two newspaper articles.

Now, what's interesting is his personal diary.

And those wired reports go through the Telegraph back up to New York City.

And the newspaperman, the guy who's running the New York Herald, his name's James Gordon Bennett, ends up running an extra on it on the 13th.

And the same day, the reporter that he's got working for him in Charleston wires another follow-up story, and that's that Fort Sumter had surrendered.

And so Bennett's able to run a story on, um, the battle of Fort Sumter on the 13th while it's still happening.

Obviously, there was intense political partisanship prior to the Civil War, but the Civil War made mistakes existential.

And so political partisanship only increased throughout the conflict.

And whether you have a newspaperman supporting Abraham Lincoln, the Northern president, the Union president, or Jefferson Davis, the Confederate president, They recognized that military events mattered enormously and the outcomes of battles, whether they're victories or defeats, they became political commodities.

And those commodities can be used to influence morale.

And those wired reports go through the telegraph back up to New York City.

And the newspaperman, the guy who's running the New York Herald, his name's James Gordon Bennett.

ends up running an extra on it on the 13th.

And the same day, the reporter that he's got working for him in Charleston wires another follow-up story, and that's that Fort Sumter had surrendered.

He was an inveterate newspaper reader, and he also was very cautious in giving public interviews with correspondents because he recognized he was more likely to shoot himself in the foot and say something more damaging for his ultimate goals than promoting for his ultimate goals.

But unlike his Southern counterpart, Confederate President Jefferson Davis, Lincoln was not above placating the press.

There's an interesting story of a New York Herald correspondent, again, this is James Gordon Bennett's publication, who complained to Lincoln's administration that he had been refused a pass to go down the Potomac River.

And the last thing Lincoln wanted was an upset New York Herald correspondent going back to James Gordon Bennett that one of his own had been denied access to go down this river and ultimately report on what's happening in the conflict in Virginia.

uh the battle itself anyway there's eventually one northern reporter who's working for the new york herald which was the most read northern paper in the south and so there's already a little southern sympathy for it and he ends up getting off some wired reports um the day that the battle began on april 12 1861 and those wired reports go through the telegraph back up to New York City.

And the newspaperman, the guy who's running the New York Herald, his name's James Gordon Bennett, ends up running an extra on it on the 13th.

And the same day, the reporter that he's got working for him in Charleston wires another follow-up story, and that's that Fort Sumter had surrendered.

And so Bennett's able to run a story on, um, the battle of Fort Sumter on the 13th while it's still happening.

Obviously, there was intense political partisanship prior to the Civil War, but the Civil War made the stakes existential.

And so political partisanship only increased throughout the conflict.

And whether you have a newspaperman supporting Abraham Lincoln, the Northern president, the Union president, or Jefferson Davis, the Confederate president, they recognized that military events mattered enormously.

And the outcomes of battles, whether they're victories or defeats, they became political commodities.

And those wired reports go through the Telegraph back up to New York City.

And the newspaperman, the guy who's running the New York Herald, his name's James Gordon Bennett, ends up running an extra on it on the 13th.

And the same day, the reporter that he's got working for him in Charleston wires another follow-up story, and that's that Fort Sumter had surrendered.

And so Bennett's able to run a story on, um, the battle of Fort Sumter on the 13th while it's still happening.

Obviously, there was intense political partisanship prior to the Civil War, but the Civil War made the stakes existential.

And so political partisanship only increased throughout the conflict.

And whether you have a newspaperman supporting Abraham Lincoln, the Northern president, the Union president, or Jefferson Davis, the Confederate president, they recognized that military events mattered enormously.

And the outcomes of battles, whether they're victories or defeats, they became political commodities.

And those wired reports go through the telegraph back up to New York City.

And the newspaperman, the guy who's running the New York Herald, his name's James Gordon Bennett, ends up running a an extra on it on the 13th and um the same day uh the reporter that he's got working for him in charleston wires another follow-up story and that's that fort sumter had surrendered and so bennett's able to run a story on um the battle of fort sumter on the 13th while it's still happening and then on the 14th about its surrender just the day after the battle had ended And New Yorkers turned wild for coverage of the start of the Civil War.

There are police outside who had to barricade the streets and reroute traffic.

And for that April 14th, 1861 newspaper edition of the New York Herald that said, covered the surrender of Fort Sumter to Confederate forces, Bennett ended up printing something like 135,000 copies of that single newspaper edition.

Obviously, there was intense political partisanship prior to the Civil War, but the Civil War made the stakes existential.

And so political partisanship only increased throughout the conflict.

And whether you have a newspaperman supporting Abraham Lincoln, the Northern president, the Union president, or Jefferson Davis, the Confederate president, they recognized that military events mattered enormously.

And the outcomes of battles, whether they're victories or defeats, they became political commodities.