Circa1865

“So bitter was Sherman’s feelings against newspapers that he is said to have refused an introduction to Horace Greeley, explaining that Greeley’s newspaper had caused him a heavy loss of men in his Carolina campaign of 1865.

By clever feints Sherman had concealed his plans until Confederate General William J. Hardee got hold of a copy of the New York Tribune which contained a most obliging editorial.

At last, the editor “had the satisfaction to inform his readers (General Hardee was one of the readers) that Sherman would next be heard from around Goldsboro because his supply vessels from Savannah were known to be rendezvousing at Morehead City.” The disclosure cost the northern commander a fight which he had hoped to avoid.”

(The Newspaper Problem and its Bearing Upon Military Secrecy During the Civil War. James G. Randall. American Historical Review, Vol. XXIII, No. 2. Jan. 1918. pg. 311)