Publisher's Synopsis
Much of our understanding of the American Civil War is based upon newspaper dispatches written under horrific battlefield conditions, and journalists’ memoirs penned under more reflective moments after the war’s end. A Bohemian Brigade is the masterful account of the true nature of combat correspondence its probable accuracy and ultimate accountability during the Civil War years. In this even–handed survey, James M. Perry examines a civil war, a free press, and the inevitable impact each had on the other. Focusing on the self–proclaimed "bohemian brigade" whom General William Sherman vilified as "the buzzards of the press" Perry assesses the performance of a ragtag band whose professional descendants remain controversial to this day.
The tales Perry tells are entertaining, sometimes hard to believe, but always historically accurate. Competition led reporters to file stories prematurely as they raced to be the first to get their accounts on "the lightning" their name for the telegraph. The headline of the New York Herald on July 22, 1861, erroneously proclaimed the Union Army’s rout at the first battle of Bull Run a "BRILLIANT UNION VICTORY!"
Army commanders on both sides distrusted a free press they could not control. Thomas Knox’s critical accounts of Union campaigning at Vicksburg so provoked General Sherman that he ordered a court–martial to prosecute this civilian reporter as a spy!
Yet the press also made invaluable contributions to each side’s cause. For instance, neither army had any procedure for publishing casualty lists. After a battle, reporters would collect the names of the dead and wounded. At times, their efforts became heroic.
Bradley Osbon, an experienced seaman, covered the Union’s capture of New Orleans by signing aboard fleet officer David G. Farragut’s flagship, the Hartford, as a clerk. Upon learning of Osbon’s maritime exploits in the Far East from Osbon himself, Farragut promoted the reporter to the rank of fleet signal officer.
And in reporting General Ulysses S. Grant’s engagement against General Robert E. Lee at the battle of the Wilderness, reporter Henry Wing also delivered a personal message from Grant to his commander in chief, President Abraham Lincoln: "Whatever happens, there is to be no turning back." Lincoln kissed the reporter on the forehead for relaying these stirring words of hope.
With a dry wit and keen eye for detail honed by his four decades of journalistic experiences, Perry provides a fresh understanding of how the reporting of a war can affect the trajectory of war itself.
Advance Praise for A Bohemian Brigade
"In this masterfully crafted book, A Bohemian Brigade, Perry takes us behind the lines and behind the scenes to meet reporters from America’s most difficult war who risked imprisonment and often their lives to get the story straight and get it in the paper. With his usual skill, Perry makes you feel like you are there with them."—Ken Bode, Dean of the Medill School of Journalism, Northwestern University
"Civil War reporters were a colorful breed: rough, rowdy, courageous, competitive occasionally even accurate. Jim Perry, a great reporter himself, recognizes these bohemian adventurers and brings them vividly to life in this entertaining and eye–opening look at the men who crafted the rough draft of our history."—Tony Horwitz, author of Confederates in the Attic: Dispatches from the Unfinished Civil War
"They were rowdy, biased, took themselves too seriously, got it dead wrong a lot of the time, yet often showed real courage under fire. Sound familiar? No, not today’s reporters. The ones who covered the Civil War. This is their story and it’s a good one, told as only a working reporter could tell it."—Bob Schieffer, Chief Washington Correspondent, CBS News
"A Bohemian Brigade is a joyous account of a time when reporters did not take themselves seriously nor did anyone else written by one of the great reporters of his generation."—Sander Vanocur, The History Channel
"Jim Perry has written a fast–moving book about some of the most colorful and irrepressible and most neglected& –players in our great national conflict. His tales of how muleback, quill–pen reporters got the news and then got the news to their newspapers are full of bold ingenuity, chance–taking, defiance of authority, and not a little hell–raising. Perry is an old hand at the business, and he makes clear the historical importance of their work without bogging down a wonderfully readable narrative."—Ernest F. Furgurson, author ofChancellorsville 1863 and Ashes of Glory: Richmond at War
