Visions of War, Visions of Victory: An Interplay of Media and Public Perception in New York During the American Civil War

The American Civil War came at a time when Americans consumed all forms of print media culture. Newspaper printing had grown 265 percent from 1840 to the time Abraham Lincoln was elected. New York City and surrounding areas housed some of the most widely distributed newspapers in the country including the New York Times, New York Daily Tribune and New York Herald. It also hosted popular illustrated newspapers like Frank Leslie's Illustrated News and Harper's Weekly, which helped distribute replicated images from the new technology of photography seen as the "window to war." The Civil War often tested northerners’ will to continuously support the war efforts. From Fort Sumter to Appomattox Courthouse, the New York press provided the information that allowed northerners in the east to experience the Civil War from afar. Northerners consumed the information as it was presented, but through a filter of traditional measures that defined victory: decisive battles and capturing cities. Together, the press and traditional understanding of victory influenced perceptions that shaped public opinion. This study focuses on five events when public perception of victory was crucial to public opinion and the war including the Battle of Antietam (1862), Battle of Gettysburg (1863), Overland Campaign (May-July 1864), the fall of Atlanta (September 1864) and the Shenandoah Valley Campaign (August-October 1864).