News of the battle at Gettysburg trickled out more slowly to southern newspapers. The initial news of the battle came from northern newspapers, which Southerners had good reason to be suspicious of for reasons of bias. The early articles in the South that appeared, therefore, often focused on the inaccuracy of the northern newspaper accounts. But by the end of the July, when the reporters embedded with the Confederate army started making it back, southern newspapers acknowledged the defeat at Gettysburg.
The following excerpts come from the Fayetteville, North Carolina, newspaper, the Fayetteville Observer. Without access to firsthand accounts, the paper reprinted on July 13 two articles about the battle, one from an eastern paper and a second from a southern newspaper. The first extract was originally printed in the Richmond Enquirer and as such offers a Confederate account. The second extract comes from an editorial that was published that same day in the Fayetteville Observer. It rebuffs the northern account of the battle from a July 6 article in the Baltimore American, which was reprinted by the Observer on the 13th.
“The War in Pennsylvania”
The Richmond Enquirer has the following items telegraphed to it by its correspondent: —
WINCHESTER, July 7. – There has been four days’ fighting near Gettysburg, commencing on Wednesday, July 1st, and ending on Saturday night, July 4th. It is reported here that A. P. Hill, Early and Rodes fought the enemy principally on Wednesday, beginning at one o’clock and lasting two hours. We drove the enemy through Gettysburg and two and a half miles beyond. At Gettysburg we captured their wounded — 3,500 in number.
The enemy are said to have fought well; their position was on a fortified mountain, up which our men repeatedly charged, but were driven back. . . .
The hills around Gettysburg are said to be covered with the dead and wounded of the yankee army of the Potomac.
The fighting of these four days is regarded as the severest of the war and the slaughter unprecedented; especially is this so of the enemy.
The New York and Pennsylvania papers are reported to have declared for peace.
Editorial
We have faith in Gen. Lee and in his army. He and they will do all they can be done by men. Should they succeed, they will shorten if not end the war. Should they fail, it will be prolonged indefinitely. As the South cannot afford to be conquered, it must necessarily continue the war as long as the Yankees prosecute it come what may, of victory or defeat; everything that we have or expect to have at the South — life, property and honor — all depends on final triumph, and we must admit no thought short of that.
The latest accounts from our army, though nothing official has yet been received, dispel much of the gloom and anxiety caused by the yankee accounts, and seem to give reason to believe that Gen. Lee neither has been nor will be whipped. . . .
LETTER FROM PENNSYLVANIA. – There is an intense desire for letters from Pennsylvania of date subsequent to the late sauguinary battles at Gettysburg. Those who had husbands and sons and brothers in that army cannot understand why no letters come. . . .
UNPARDONABLE LYING. — Our readers cannot be more disappointed and amazed than we are to find that the whole story of a great victory by Gen. Lee on Sunday the 5th, with the capture of 40,000 prisoners, is a sheer fabrication! . . . It seems that the telegraphic superintendent at Martinsburg is responsible for thus shamefully cheating the public by starting this great story.
Source: Fayetteville Observer, July 13, 1863.
Evaluating the Evidence