Civil War military censors tried to control the news

Union fleet passing Fort Jackson and Fort St. Philip below New Orleans.

The Civil War marked the first time military leaders used electrical communication to fight a war.

Military officials in both the North and the South also realized that the news reports coming over the telegraph could give the enemy valuable information about the disposition of troops.

As might have been expected, military officials began trying to control telegraph transmissions.

The Mobile Advertiser and Register had trouble getting the news out to the rest of the South when a federal naval squadron under Capt. David G. Farragut battled its way up the Mississippi River past forts Jackson and St. Philip on the night of the April 24, 1862.

Telegraph operators in New Orleans quickly flashed the news to Mobile where the Register reported that the South’s largest city lay open to the federal fleet. Military censor at Mobile, over the Register’s protest, attempted to block transmission of the news elsewhere. Every report had to be shown to the general in command in Mobile before it was put into type. Such censorship remained a problem throughout the war.

What stories of the Press Register can you share?

One corner of The Mobile Press Register in the days before computers.
From left: Mignon Kilday, Gordon Tatum and Sylvia Hart

I wrote two columns for The Mobile Press Register as part of its 200th anniversary series titled “We Were There.”

In the first, I recalled the afternoon of June 30, 1981, when I encountered a hostage situation in the office of then-Mobile Mayor Robert Doyle, who was being held at gunpoint by a former policeman. I agreed to talk to the disgruntled man and became a hostage myself. You can read the story here.

The second column focuses on colorful newsroom personalities of the past century. Read it here.

Do you have a story you would like to share?

Press Register begins '200 Years in 20 Days'

The Mobile Press Register as it was when I was there 1979-94.

In case you haven’t seen it, The Mobile Press Register is marking the 200^th anniversary of the newspaper with a series of features called "200 Years in 20 Days."

The series includes the news, sports and entertainment events that have occurred since 1813. The first installments today include stories about the events that led up to Mobile being acquired by the United States from the Spanish and the massacre at Fort Mims during the Creek War of 1813-14.

The series also will include “We Were There” features in which current and former employees and other writers provide their first-person accounts of reporting on some of the top news stories of the last 50 years. I’m one of those the paper has asked to write a first-person account. It will appear sometime by the end of the month.

I am looking forward to reading the other accounts by former colleagues and by MPR staffers I never knew.

I, too, am looking to former staffers to include their stories here. If you have a suggestion for a post, then please contact me.