One thing that looking at this press coverage as a whole will do is make certain trends in reporting more evident than is apparent. The first six months of 1861 were largely home-front stories of black men who volunteered to work or fight, stories of black men donating financially, the free black men of Louisiana forming their military unit, and a few stories of how slaves were put to work in various locations, though slavery was clearly not as newsworthy as the actions of the free black population. Once the actual skirmishing and shooting started, while the press is still printing stories from the earlier categories, the focus shifts primarily to battlefield reports. Most Southern papers report individual black men with the CS army participating in battles, usually slaves, while Northern papers report being shot at by black men or seeing them as pickets, or discussing the contrabands as some escape to Northern lines. In other words, the emphasis of the press changes from the home front to the battlefield, understandably so.
We're about to hit another shift in emphasis as the Union finally employs black soldiers on a permanent basis from this point onward. There were abortive attempts prior to Benjamin Butler's regiment, but they did not last for one reason or another. The press will continue to report Southern black combatants, and they will often point out to critics of black Union soldiers that "the South had them first." We've seen lots of stories where newspapers complained that the South had black troops while the North did not, now the common refrain will be "If you don't approve of black Union troops, remember that the Confederates had black troops first."
This is a fine example, and this story or variants will run in a number of newspapers. Benjamin Butler, in forming his unit of black soldiers, quotes the Confederate governor's orders from March 1862 authorizing the continued existence of the 1st Louisiana Native Guard. Butler, perhaps a bit condescending here, uses Moore's own language about loyalty and patriotism to recruit for the Union.
Rutland weekly herald. (Rutland, Vt.) 1859-1877, September 04, 1862
