The Best of American Heritage: The Civil War by Edwin S. Grosvenor

Author:Edwin S. Grosvenor [Grosvenor, Edwin S.]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Tags: Civil War, History, Nonfiction, Retail, United States
ISBN: 9781612308562
Publisher: New Word City, Inc.
Published: 2015-03-31T04:00:00+00:00

Smalley did not spare his readers the cost of that panoply: “The field and its ghastly harvest which the reaper had gathered in those fatal hours remained finally with us . . . . The dead are strewn so thickly that as you ride over it you cannot guide your horse’s steps too carefully. Pale and bloody faces are everywhere upturned. They are sad and terrible, but there is nothing which makes one’s heart beat so quickly as the imploring look of sorely wounded men who beckon wearily for help which you cannot stay to give.”

The writer paused in Jersey City to switch from train to the dawn ferry to New York; by the time it docked, he had composed 7,000 words on Antietam. More than a chronology of events, this report offered astute insight into the failure of McClellan’s battle plan: “It is impossible not to suppose that the attacks on right and left were meant in a measure to correspond, for otherwise the enemy had only to repel Hooker on the one hand, then transfer his troops, and hurl them against Burnside. . . . Still more unfortunate in its results was the total failure of these separate attacks on the right and left to sustain, or in any manner co-operate with each other.”

Smalley rushed the scrawled pages to the Tribune. Gay had been notified in advance that an important dispatch was expected, so when Smalley stumbled into the office, it was crowded with waiting compositors and printers. At 6:00 a.m., the crew began typesetting the nearly illegible manuscript. Two hours later, the six-column story of Antietam hit the streets.

Smalley’s story came to be regarded as the best account of a Civil War battle.

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