The Richmond Examiner is always a good read. As our entry on Civil War newspapers explains, it was the go-to organ of dissent in the Confederate capital, with editor John M. Daniel‘s criticism of Jefferson Davis becoming more intense and more personal as the war dragged on and defeat loomed. So above is the top [...]

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We’ve finally arrived at the sixth and final column of the May 17, 1864, edition of the Daily Richmond Examiner [pdf]. All right, actually we’re at the end of the fifth column, where the editors are passing along news of a “Yankee dog” calling himself Major Hogan who has claimed responsibility for firing the shot [...]

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By now we’re at the bottom of the fourth column out of six on our journey through the May 17, 1864, edition of the Daily Richmond Examiner [pdf]. The editors have just lamented that “the flower of our youth are falling by the scores under the iron hail of death,” and have noted the “soldiers [...]

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Speaking of hospitals, according to the May 17, 1864, edition of the Daily Richmond Examiner [pdf], they were getting all the business they could handle—what with Grant and Lee going at each other in Spotsylvania County even while fighting raged in the Shenandoah Valley and on the James River. But medical staff in Richmond was [...]

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We’ve been reading the May 17, 1864, edition of the Daily Richmond Examiner [pdf], and so far we’ve read accounts of battles along the Southside of the James River, up near Spotsylvania Court House, and at New Market in the Shenandoah Valley. Our skin crawled hearing about the “cowardly and diabolical murder” of Mr. J. [...]

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As we move from left to right across the May 17, 1864, edition of the Daily Richmond Examiner [pdf], having already heard the news of fierce fighting on the James River, we now learn of the “Arrival in Richmond of Prisoners from the Southside.” These include the aforementioned Union general Charles Adam Heckman of Pennsylvania. [...]

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Time to pick up where we left off with the May 17, 1864, edition of the Daily Richmond Examiner [pdf]. The major fighting having been dealt with in the paper’s left-most columns, the editors move on to the more sensational news. The headline—”The Yankees in Charles City County”—is innocuous, but the story as told must [...]

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Today being the anniversary of the Battle of New Market, I decided to see how the Richmond papers covered the event. That’s when I happened upon the May 17, 1864, edition of the Daily Richmond Examiner [pdf]—and I stopped caring about New Market. There’s just too much other good stuff in there to waste time [...]

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