Lee Robert E. Lee, near Fredericksburg

[Barrycdog]

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Robert E. Lee, near Fredericksburg, sent President Davis a message. His intentions were to stop anyone from attempting to cross the Rappahannock. (see comment) — with George Hofmeier and James Paul Gernhardt.

General Robert E. Lee at Fredericksburg. A painting by Henry A. Ogden.

Keeping track of the northern newspaper, Lee was certain that Burnside intended to advance from Fredericksburg to Richmond. He reassured the southern President that Burnside would first need to reconstruct landings on the Potomac and repair railroad, so Lee would like to take advantage of the situation and seize the moment. Permission granted General Lee made plans for an attack.

 

[gary]

It's amazing how the papers revealed military movements so freely. Little wonder why Sherman and Grant disliked them.

 

[Rebforever]

I think that is Lee Hill where he watched the battle from.

 

[theoldman]

It's amazing how the papers revealed military movements so freely. Little wonder why Sherman and Grant disliked them.

IIRC it was the Sears book on Chancellorsville that goes into some detail about how Hooker realized this as a problem too.

 

[AndyHall]

It's amazing how the papers revealed military movements so freely. Little wonder why Sherman and Grant disliked them.

Yep. I was reminded of this in re-reading Tom Chaffin's 2008 book,The H. L. Hunley: The Secret Hope of the Confederacy. Chaffin picks up this thread in mid-October 1863, after the submarine sank for the second time in training, on this occasion taking her entire crew (including her namesake, Horace L. Hunley) to the bottom of the Cooper River, in front of scores of onlookers both afloat and on shore:

This latest submarine boat disaster was hardly a secret in and around Charleston. But the city's two major newspapers, acting with the same self-censorship they had exercised after the boat's initial sinking, avoided any immediate mention of the Hunley. By now, local editors were well aware of the sort of published revelations that were likely to win them a reprimand from local military officials. Indeed, on October 18, three days after the Hunley's second sinking, the Augusta (Georgia) Daily Constitutionalist published a revealing and disparaging story, by a correspondent identified only as "W," on torpedo and submarine boats. The story implicitly referred to the Hunley's recent mishap. "These crafts," W concluded, "have been more injurious to our people than to the enemy, and thus far have proved to be a humbug."

The following day, Beauregard--exercising the sort of "boldness," so admired by General Grant, by which the Confederate military "silenced all opposition and all croaking" -- ordered his chief of staff, [Brigadier General Thomas] Jordan, to write a letter to the Constitutionalist's editor. Jordan's missive complained about the offending story's comments on the "Submarine Torpedo Boat," as well as its references to new changes in the armaments at Fort Sumter.

Such information, Jordan wrote, "is surely of benefit to the enemy, and it has been particularly the wish of the Commanding General that this matter be kept from their knowledge." Jordan then came to the intent of his letter-brute press intimidation. "In view of these facts, he [Beauregard] trusts that you will have no objection to furnish him with the name of your correspondent 'W' and at the same time, he must request that you will in [the] future abstain from publishing any thing [sic] the knowledge of which would possibly be of the least service to the enemy."
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You can kinda see Beauregard's point.

 

[gary]

Andy - good post. Media handlers (Public Information Officers) weren't around back then.