Graduate student Chandra Miller has been studying newspapers published during the Civil War in an attempt to support her theory regarding the true motivations of Union and Confederate soldiers. She is pictured in Memorial Hall, built as a tribute to Union soldiers. Staff photo by Kris Snibbe |
Civil War soldiers fought with pen as well as swordResearch into soldiers' newspapers yields fresh insightsJanuary 24, 2001Traveling across the United States and looking into little-used archives, Harvard history graduate student Chandra Miller found about 100 regimental newspapers - periodicals written, edited, and printed by enlisted men and junior officers on both sides of the conflict in the American Civil War. These newspapers offer an important look at what common soldiers were thinking as the war raged about them. "We knew the regimental newspapers existed, but Chandra is the first person to make extensive use of them," said Miller's dissertation advisor, History Professor William Gienapp. "They're a unique source. There's nothing quite equivalent to them. They reflect the issues the men were talking about and debating in camp, and carry a very different perspective from the civilian newspapers." |
