How The New York Times And The Richmond Daily Dispatch Reporting On The Civil War

The New York Times and the Richmond Daily Dispatch were two newspapers active during the American Civil War with the Times reporting from New York City in the Union and the Dispatch Reporting from Richmond, Virginia in the Confederacy. They frequently reported on similar issues but had different ways of presenting the information. On the date of October 14, 1863 several key areas show this difference. These areas would be the reporting on the war, the type of local news being reported, and the ads and classifieds present in the paper. On October 14, 1863 the Civil War was transitioning from a small period of relative peace back into the heat of war. Two events illustrate this change, namely the torpedoing of the federal frigate New Ironsides

In terms of local news both the New York Times and the Richmond Daily Dispatch reported on many of the same topics. One such topic was various criminal occurrences and the trials that resulted from them with an example being the “Trial of Galvin” article in the Times and the “Late Homicide” article in the Dispatch. In both of these articles the details of the case are discussed and the recent developments in them. More common than crime coverage was the coverage of both local and national politics. In both papers several articles were dedicated to this subject with some of the articles being some of the longest in the paper. This can be seen through the “The Legislature” article in the Daily Dispatch and the “City Government” and “Local Politics” articles. 6,12,13 A reason why these subjects appear to be a vast majority of the local news is due to both local and state politics and events have a larger impact on the lives of those in the community. In terms of foreign affairs the New York Times seemed to have a higher number of articles relating to the topic and a higher opinion of the countries mentioned within.5 In the Richmond Daily Dispatch articles relating to foreign affairs were few with few with a majority showing a negative opinion. This most likely occurred due to several events. One such event was Britain's refusal to acknowledge the

In the Richmond Daily Dispatch the ads and classified that are present primarily seem to revolve around slavery. An example of this would be the “wants” section of the paper which exclusively feature requests for black workers.16 Another example can be seen through the “Negroes for Sell and Hire” section which contains the largest percentage of ads in the paper further highlighting the focus on slavery.8 The New York Times when compared to the Dispatch appears to have a much higher quantity and more diverse selection of ads and classifieds with several pages in the paper being devoted exclusively to them. Most of the ads that are present also seem to advertising for various businesses while also features a large section focusing on the Sales at the Stock Exchange featuring a large amount of financial information.1,7 The differences between the two papers arise from several reasons with one such reason being the differences in location between the two cities. New York City's location on the coast allowed it to serve as a major port while Richmond being primarily a landlocked city was denied this opportunity.2 A second reason for this is due to the international relations that the North and South maintained. At the time these papers were published the North maintained active relationships with many foreign powers such as the British